Its time to end the caucuses.

[JaneyVee]

What an absolute chaotic disaster. Long lines, voter suppression, time consuming process.

Im so glad we have primaries in NY. Judging by the times these caucuses take place, I would literally not be able to participate. As it is now, I have to vote on my lunch break.

Caucuses are awful. Imagine being elderly, disabled, or just someone who has things going on in their life that can't make room for these hours-long process.

Primaries > caucuses.

[NurseJackie]

1. I totally agree!

[JaneyVee]

2. What a mess caucuses are.

[noamnety]

3. I agree!

I already know how I'm voting. Along with all the reasons you gave, it's offensive that I am forced to listen to campaign commercials (from either side) before I'm allowed to vote.

If I was forced to take unpaid time off work to listen to commercials and just sit there while people who had a year to make up their minds tried to make a decision, I think I'd lose it. (Edit - no offense to people who are undecided - I respect you're weighing everything carefully. I just don't want to wait while you do it!)

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. On this we agree.

Caucuses are just plain sketchy.

[metroins]

5. Agreed and go further

We need a much longer early voting process in all states.

Caucuses were a good idea when towns were much smaller. All of today's caucusing is done online.

[MineralMan]

6. I agree. In Minnesota, there will be a bi-partisan bill

introduced this session to switch to primaries. We will still have our caucus system, but it will not include presidential primary votes any longer. It will be strictly a DFL Party organization thing, designed to feed delegates to our endorsing convention process. I favor this change. In 2008 and 2016, the presidential preference vote at our precinct caucuses was chaotic and unrepresentative of actual voter preferences. In 2008, a huge grassroots turnout for Obama skewed heavily for that candidate. In 2016, a similar thing happened for Bernie Sanders. In both cases, it was a good result for those two candidates, but may not have accurately measured the opinion of the voters. Sadly, there's no way to test that.

I look forward to a presidential primary in Minnesota in 2020. I hope this bill passes. Our Democratic Governor will sign it, and is on-board in support of it.

[PyaarRevolution]

8. Will the primary involve paper ballots?

If not, you've made the problem worse.

[MineralMan]

10. Yes. In Minnesota, we mark paper ballots that

are optically scanned. We have had statewide recounts, where those ballots were all reviewed. All Franken is our Senator because of that.

Minnesota runs fair elections.

[Hortensis]

7. I agree, although it's currently for each state party to decide.

Note that caucuses can provide home voting if they wish, and they should.

They were developed to facilitate local organization, though, not elect presidents, and they distort the vote. I much prefer the direct voting of a primary; even if it isn't as much fun, it is more representative of the population. Only about 10% on average in most states participate, which should be reason all by itself to switch to direct voting.

[PyaarRevolution]

9. Do the NY primaries use voting machines instead of paper?

If so, I distrust the results regardless of who wins.

[sufrommich]

11. Agreed. They're horribly elitist.nt

[kstewart33]

12. There's a bi-partisan bill coming up in the Colorado legislature.

The caucus was fun, but it was too long, too crowded and not very democratic.

No absentee balloting that I know of, and so what about single parents with kids and people who work on the night shift?

[Bluenorthwest]

13. No rushing on a break here, we do it all by mail and turnout benefits greatly....

Caucus process is exclusionary.

[Gwhittey]

14. Along with this

Problem is that now we make it harder for Grassroots people to compete even more. Instead of getting rid of them maybe looking into a system that improves on them. No one who is honest with them selves should want the way DNC is running this primary and way it operates. Super Delegates need to go too. 1 vote per person not 10,000 for some. A Lobbyist does not know or deserve to count more than 10K of use little people. It is sad that GOP has rules regarding SD that favor the will of the people than the DNC.

[Dem2]

15. I would not be able to participate in a caucus

Caucuses really limit participation IMO.

[pat_k]

16. In Washington, they have a form that can be used as "proxy"

Although you do need to find someone who's going to the caucus to use it, or drop off (and thus avoid "hours-long process&quot .

I've just moved to Washington, and find caucus's a little strange, but the more I thought about it, the more I like them. I think the numbers of people who can't attend due to other obligations probably spread pretty equally between candidates. And use of proxies helps ameliorate the problem. The community spirit a caucus generates is extremely valuable.