Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumTime to do away with caucuses?
No attacks, please! I would love to have a genuine conversation about this. In tallying up the votes from New Hampshire and Nevada (I didn't bother with Iowa for obvious reasons) here are the numbers I came up with (roughly rounded up):
New Hampshire Primary
Total votes cast: 300,000
Population: 1.3 million
Nevada Caucus:
Total votes cast: 100,000
Population: 3 million
More voters engage in the primary process than caucuses. Why are we retaining a system that allows fewer people to have such a large impact on a presidential election? Isn't it time we reform our election system to make it more representative? Would the idea of regional voting be better -- Midwest, Northeast, Rockies, Southeast, etc.? It just seems to me that the current process is flawed and there is definitely room for improvement.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
berni_mccoy
(23,018 posts)we must reform the nominating process of the Democratic Nominee... a process which is largely a caucus that allows party elites to override the wills of voters.
If we don't then the party has no real ground saying that caucuses are unfair, uninspiring, out-dated, or whatever criticism you want to throw at them.
Ideally, all elections in this country, including the nominating process for a party, should be managed as instant runoff elections. This is a way to allow everyone to vote their conscience without losing to an undesirable result.
For example, if instant run-offs had been established before the 2000 election, Gore would have been the winner since most of Nader's supporters would have defaulted to Gore as their second choice (if you believe that Nader was the spoiler in that election).
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
polichick
(37,152 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
ripcord
(5,553 posts)And the states are the ones who get to make that decision.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
If more voters engage during primaries, and the goal is always to have more voters participate, then I honestly don't understand the stubbornness to retain a system that is both outdated and results in lower voter participation.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided