By Trish Turner

In a state that has seen its share of electoral problems this decade, Florida's senior Sen. Bill Nelson made a rare appearance before the state Senate Thursday to unveil sweeping federal election reform legislation that would eliminate the Electoral College.

As the state now wrestles with the national Democratic Party to find a solution to seat its 210 delegates at this year's presidential nominating convention, Nelson noted that "the solution is very elusive," but that, "If nothing else, this election has provided further evidence that our system is broken."

The Democratic senator, who sued the Democratic National Committee and Chairman Howard Dean last year for stripping Florida of all its delegates, in his reform bill proposes eliminating the Electoral College and giving American citizens direct election of their presidents by popular vote.

Florida is perhaps ground zero for controversy over the Electoral College. The outcome of the 2000 presidential election meltdown left many Democrats stinging even to this day, since Al Gore won the popular vote but lost to George W. Bush because he was awarded the majority of the votes in the Electoral College, a decision reached by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Not only does Nelson's bill abolish the Electoral College through a constitutional amendment, but it also establishes "six rotating, interregional (presidential) primaries" beginning in March and ending in June of each election year. It pairs states, large and small, into six different regions; the regions would then take turns going first -- something that will surely not sit well with the nation's first primary and caucus states, New Hampshire and Iowa, respectively.

"As I have engaged in this quest, for me it's fairly simple, it's a case of fundamental rights versus party rules," Nelson told Florida lawmakers. He and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., whose own state is embroiled in the same delegate squabble with the DNC, introduced the rotating primary concept in 2007, but the bill went nowhere.

With regard to Nelson's delegate lawsuit, a federal judge in December ruled against him and his fellow Florida Democrat, Rep. Alcee Hastings, citing a decades-old ruling that political parties should be free of outside intervention to craft their own rules. Nelson disagreed, saying it went directly to the heart of "one person, one vote." Though he and Hastings had no time for an appeal, Nelson told Florida lawmakers Thursday that his new bill offers a solution.

The Nelson reform bill also eliminates machines that don't produce a paper trail, allows every voter a chance to cast an absentee ballot, allows voters to vote early (something Floridians can already do), and permits states on a trial basis to develop mail-in ballots and secure Internet voting. And voting touch screen machines that were once touted as the 21st Century answer to voting technology problems would be wiped out by the bill by 2012.

Florida Democrats considered allowing a re-do of its latest Democratic primary by mail-in ballot, but concerns about security scrapped the deal. A total of 3.6 million citizens cast ballots in the Jan. 29 primary.

A number of Senate aides, both Democrat and Republican, tell FOX News it's a near impossibility that Nelson's new bill would be considered in the midst of a heated presidential election, despite one senior Senate Democratic leadership aide who said, "Election reform and efforts to increase voter participation are important issues that need to be addressed."

"This country cannot afford to wait another 93 years before we fix the flaws we still see in our election system, because the blessings of liberty cannot wait. I believe the time for reform is now," Nelson said, referencing to the fight Susan B. Anthony waged for women's suffrage in the 19th Century.