An early Democratic presidential primary in Georgia depends on Republicans

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who's seen here on Oct. 25, is the ultimate decider of the state's presidential primary date. At right is Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer in Raffensperger's office. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

ATLANTA — When a panel inside the Democratic National Committee voted two weeks ago to revamp the party's presidential primary calendar, that was the easy part.

If the full DNC approves the plan, actually implementing the changes will be more challenging.