gbaji wrote:
Eh. I think occasionally, that happens. but mostly it's the same group of retirees you see gathering at city council meetings, and town hall meetings, and PTA meetings (even though they don't have kids in the school and haven't for decades), and taking your ballot at the polling place on election day.
Since neither college students nor retirees make up the bulk of a party, a system that disproportionately favors them over other voters isn't a great one. Point being that the inability to hang out at a caucus location for three hours isn't a sign that you don't care about the party, it's just a sign that you have other commitments. You saw this in Vegas where people were in a snit that casino workers were getting time off to caucus -- well, it's either that or they don't vote through no fault of their own. Trying to feed your family or pay rent isn't a sign that you're not a Real Party Believer. On the other hand, a primary running from 6am-7pm allows most people to get in and cast a ballot. I'm sure you can find edge cases where someone was just unable to make it but it's a he
ll of a lot more accessible than a caucus.
Although Nevada shows another reason to get rid of the caucus system -- caucuses are often very poorly run as we saw in Iowa, in Maine, in Nevada and in Colorado. He
ll, just this cycle it seems likely that CO will ditch their caucus system due to complaints and Nevada will very possibly lose their early voting state status because their caucuses are so poorly run.
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At the end of the day, as long as each state's rules and methodology are clearly available for all sides, any method they use is "fair".
I didn't say it was unfair, I said that it was poor.
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And frankly, I kinda like that they vary from one state to the other. If for no other reason than it does give us some insight into why one candidate might do better under one method versus another.
Given that, come November, they all go onto a standard ballot... who cares? "Hey, did you know that Candidate Smith does better when you restrict most of his supporters to college students and the elderly? Isn't that just
fascinating?"