Minnesota Caucus

Abolish the caucus

Filed under: Minnesota Caucus

Minnesotans, especially DFL'ers, have been busy patting themselves on the back for the huge turnout at last night's caucuses. According to the Secretary of State's office, more than 200,000 Democrats cast presidential ballots, while the Republicans drew in excess of 60,000 primary voters. Participation rates for both parties broke records. On the DFL side, turnout nearly tripled the previous high-water mark. Caucuses throughout the state reported long lines, traffic jams, and a shortage of ballots. Pretty impressive stuff--and profound evidence that beltway blowhards like David Broder are full of beans when they whine that the compressed primary schedule is harming Democracy.

But let's examine those caucus numbers more closely. As of 2006, there were 3,118,515 registered voters in the state of Minnesota. In other words, roughly 8 percent of folks who had gone through the bother of registering to vote actually participated in the presidential primary last night. The numbers are even more pathetic when you consider eligible voters. There were 3,727,000 such folks as of 2006. Now we're down below 7 percent of eligible Minnesota citizens registering their preference in the presidential primary.

That's not impressive. It's a travesty.

But this isn't a knock on Minnesotans and their proud history of political engagement. The evidence is overwhelming that when presented with a rational system for voting, they'll flock to the polls. Consider recent elections. In 2006, with no presidential contest on the ballot, 2.2 million Minnesotans voted--roughly 60 percent of the electorate. Two years earlier, with John Kerry facing off against President Bush, a whopping 78 percent of eligible Minnesotans made it to the polls. In fact the percentage of voters showing up for a general election hasn't dipped below sixty percent since 1994.

So why the abysmal turnout yesterday, despite the most intriguing, tightly contested presidential primary contest in decades? Clearly the answer is the caucus system, whereby voters are forced to show up at a specific time to indicate their preference for president. Many people can't show up because they're working. Others can't find babysitters. Some may have been waylaid by a demon case of the runs. There's plenty of valid reasons why folks couldn't make it out last night.

To make matters worse, Minnesotans don't actually caucus for the presidential primary. They're not required to gather in tribal circles and publicly declare their allegiance to Mike Gravel (or whomever) as is the case in Iowa. You simply fill out a ballot indicating your preference and call it a night.

So what is the justification for this confusing, un-democratic, inefficient caucus process that disenfranchises thousands of potential voters every four years? Beats the hell out of me.

Posted by Paul Demko at February 6, 2008 4:37 PM | Comments (4)

 

Record turnout for DFL

Filed under: Minnesota Caucus

No hard figures, but the DFL is projecting record caucus turnout. Party chairman Brian Melendez predicts that it will be well into six figures. "We're not just going to break the prior record," he told the audience here at the Carpenters Union hall. "We're going to smash the prior record."

(The DFL has the most ridiculously wretched sound system ever going on here. You can't understand 90 percent of what's being uttered from the stage. Way to go DFL!)

Posted by Paul Demko at February 5, 2008 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Minnesota goes to Obama

Filed under: Minnesota Caucus

BBC America, a mercifully Wolf Blitzer-free zone, has called Minnesota for Obama.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at February 5, 2008 9:30 PM | Comments (1)

 

Nordeast crowded too, albeit peaceful

Filed under: Minnesota Caucus

Yours truly caucused at an old folks' home on Central Avenue in Northeast. It was the DFL's ward 1, precinct 6 party spot. Very crowded, although I don't have a metric against which to measure it; it was my first caucus there. Waited on line for about 20 minutes to vote. The line was orderly; no fisticuffs. Oh, and everyone donning any sort of presidential advertisement on their person was doing so on behalf of the Barack Obama campaign. And some for Franken.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at February 5, 2008 8:25 PM | Comments (0)

 

What a ridiculous clusterfuck

Filed under: Minnesota Caucus

I just finished "caucusing" at Rondo Education Center in St. Paul. I put the word in parentheses because it's not necessary to actually caucus in order to vote in the DFL presidential primary. You simply fill out a ballot indicating your pick--just like any other election. Yet for some ridiculous reason we're all forced to show up at the same damn time to try and vote for president.

The good news: turnout is definitely heavy. The bad news: it's a chaotic scene. I had to stand in line for 20 minutes to cast my ballot in ward one, precinct four--and I arrived even before the six o'clock door opening.

By 6:30, there were hundreds of people waiting to file into the correct classrooms to cast their ballots. There weren't nearly enough election workers to help direct traffic. The parking lot and surrounding streets were a nightmare. Undoubtedly people left before voting, rather than deal with the mess. It definitely seemed to be an overwhelmingly pro-Obama crowd.

By contrast, I've never had to wait one second in line while voting in any other election. Why the hell does Minnesota persist in staging such a ridiculous process? It seems designed to make it as difficult as humanly possible for people to vote.

A couple of (not very good) photos after the jump should give some sense of the scene.

Posted by Paul Demko at February 5, 2008 7:45 PM | Comments (1)

 

Minnesota Caucus Report: Huge Turnout!

Filed under: Minnesota Caucus

I just returned from a Democratic caucus and the story of the day is turnout. I have not seen so many Minnesotans gathered in one place since the State Fair. And they were far from a uniform breed: young, old, black, white, disabled and able-bodied--it was among the more diverse assemblies I've seen as well. Having never before participated in a Minnesota caucus (we moved here from Ohio, land of the lost ballots, one year ago) I had no frame of reference. Luckily, the lady in back of me--a friendly gray hair--offered to be my institutional memory. She said it was 10x the turnout she had seen in 2004, which is undoubtedly an exaggeration but seemed possible considering the overwhelming mass of people that were filing in orderly lines (this is in a neighborhood in Nokomis, with a good deal of snow on streets lined bumper-to-bumper). With more than an hour before close of polls, they had already run out of the "official forms." I was surprised by the casualness of the caucus (compared to the touchpad Diebold machines that I was used to eating my vote)--I simply wrote down my choice on a scrap of paper and slipped it into a box.

I couldn't help but look at the votes a few fellow caucus-goers (all women of various ages) and I will say that four out of four of them wrote down Obama. This might be an anomaly because of the demographics of the neighborhood, but if it's at all emblematic, expect Obama to sweep Minnesota by a large margin.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at February 5, 2008 7:30 PM | Comments (1)