CAMPAIGN ’88 : Direct Election Favored

Most Americans favor major changes in the selection of presidential nominees, with 6 in 10 saying they would eliminate political conventions and let voters choose the candidates directly, a Media General-Associated Press poll has found.

As the primary season winds down, the survey found broad dissatisfaction with the selection system. A majority of respondents said they did not follow the campaigns regularly and only half believed the races provide a good discussion of the issues.

Sizable minorities said the best candidates generally lose their bid for the nomination, particularly on the Democratic side.

Fifty-two percent of the 1,204 adults in the national poll favored major changes in the way the parties pick nominees, while only 38% said the system works well enough now. Ten percent didn’t know.

The dissatisfaction evenly spanned ideologies and political affiliations. The most striking split was in age: The youngest adults, ages 18-29, thought by a narrow margin that the system works well enough, while the oldest, over 64, broadly favored major changes, 56% to 28%.

The age split was mirrored in levels of attentiveness to the races. Just 27% of the youngest group said they had been following the primary campaigns regularly, compared to 54% of the oldest group.

There was majority agreement on another way to select candidates. Fifty-nine percent said they would prefer to have voters select the nominees, without any delegates to party conventions.

Only 31% favored the party convention system. Just 3% liked the idea of letting party leaders select the nominee on their own.

The poll consisted of telephone interviews April 29-May 8 with a randomly selected sample of respondents. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.