Future Democratic Presidential Primaries - No Caucuses in Minnesota

[MineralMan]

Both houses of the Minnesota state legislature have passed a bill to switch the state from caucuses to a primary for the presidential race, beginning in 2020. Governor Mark Dayton has said he will sign the bill. That makes this year's presidential caucuses the last ones that will be held in our state.

For the record, Bernie Sanders won a majority of pledged delegates in our 2016 caucuses. At the caucus in my precinct, the vote was 37 for Bernie and 21 for Hillary. Only 58 votes in a precinct with about 2300 registered voters. Although I enjoy participating in caucuses, and chaired the caucus in my precinct, I welcome the primary system which will allow more people to vote in 2020 for their choice of presidential nominees.

Other states may do something similar, but Minnesota leads the way among caucus states by switching to a fairer system that will have far more voters involved.

[riversedge]

1. Wise choice by MN. Saw an article in paper saying Gov Dayton signed the bill.

[MineralMan]

2. Cool. I hadn't heard that yet here.

He planned to, I know.

I'll miss the presidential primary caucuses, I have to say, but primaries will better reflect the opinions of the voters. I don't know what the results would have been this year, had there been primaries, but I'd have had more confidence in a primary result than in a caucus result, given the tiny turnout.

[frazzled]

3. Wow: 58 caucus attendees among 2,300 registered voters: that's 0.025% turnout

If we want to identify the most "undemocratic" aspect of these primary elections, that about says it all. And it's not just about the impossibility for many to set aside the time to physically attend one of these caucus events; it's also about the often chaotic, and sometimes bullying effect of the personal interactions. I used to attend caucuses when I lived in Minnesota, and also attended local Democratic caucuses for gubernatorial races in Massachusetts. The audience was always the very young and the relatively old (those who don't need babysitters or who don't have demanding work schedules). In both cases, it was the loudest voices and/or the most connected who drove the rooms' eventual outcomes.

Caucuses can be very interesting, and sometimes even illuminating, but their time has elapsed. Bravo to Minnesota for moving along.