McGovern-Fraser Commission

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The McGovern-Fraser Commission was a commission created at the 1968 Democratic National Convention due to riots outside the convention by minority groups and others who demanded better representation. The commission established open procedures and affirmative action guidelines for selecting delegates.

The McGovern-Fraser Commission made it so that all delegate selection procedures were required to be open; party leaders could no longer handpick the convention delegates in secret. An unforeseen result of these rules was that many states complied by holding primary elections to select convention delegates. The Republican Party’s nomination process was also transformed in this way, as state laws involving primaries usually apply to all parties’ selection of delegates.

[edit] Reference

• Edwards, George C., III; Robert L. Lineberry; and Martin P. Wattenberg. Government in America, 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 0-321-29236-7.