Editorials: GOP nomination process 101: Candidates’ remedial edition | Derek T. Muller/Reuters

Donald Trump has complained that the Republican primary process is a “rigged, disgusting, dirty system” that deprives people of the chance to vote for their preferred presidential candidate. He accuses the Republican Party of stealing delegates from him. If he thinks this system is complex, Trump should look to the GOP’s past primary elections. Now, those were complicated! As recently as 2012, for example, some states used a three-step voting process that often yielded two opposing outcomes. But the Republican National Committee worked with state parties to streamline and standardize the 2016 election to minimize confusing results. Some complexity remains because each of the 50 states can set its own rules. As the founding fathers devised, U.S. presidential elections are not national races. Rather, they occur state by state, which inevitably creates some complexity. But there are clear and now simpler rules. Candidates just need to read them.

Colorado: Democrats admit mistake that cost Bernie Sanders key delegate | The Denver Post

Bernie Sanders won one more delegate in Colorado than first projected after the Colorado Democratic Party admitted this week that it misreported the March 1 caucus results from 10 precinct locations. The party discovered the discrepancy a week after the caucus but did not correct the public record. Hillary Clinton’s campaign discussed the error with state party officials last week, but the Sanders campaign apparently didn’t realize the issue until being informed Monday evening by The Denver Post. The mistake is a minor shift with major implications. The new projection now shows the Vermont senator winning 39 delegates in Colorado, compared to 27 for Clinton.

Colorado: What the heck happened this weekend in Colorado? And why was it so bad for Donald Trump? | The Washington Post

The Colorado GOP convention was an odd one. Most states use primaries or caucuses to decide how their delegations to national party conventions will vote. But not Colorado. The state Republican Party decided last August to do away with the traditional statewide vote on March 1 (Democrats kept their caucuses; Bernie Sanders won with about 59 percent of the vote). Why? Because state GOP leaders were tired of their pledged delegates not having any influence at the Republican National Convention (the past two Colorado winners, Rick Santorum in 2012 and Mitt Romney in 2008, failed to go on to win the nomination).

Editorials: Caucusing With a Disability | Rabia Belt/Stanford Law School

Like many in Iowa, Jacki O’Donnell is an avid political enthusiast. She was prepared to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic caucus. Unfortunately, she had to leave before party business began. O’Donnell was in a back brace after fracturing her vertebrae, and sitting in a metal folding chair for hours while caucus-goers deliberated proved too much. Thus, she became one of thousands of U.S. citizens with disabilities unable to participate fully in the caucus process. Thirteen states use the caucus system to select 10 percent of Democratic and 15 percent of Republican delegates, who in turn vote for their party’s presidential nominee. Caucuses are the quintessential places of public accommodation. Everyone affiliated with a political party is expressly invited to attend and participate. But, whereas voters in a primary cast a secret ballot and then leave, caucus-goers cluster to listen to people speak about their chosen candidate. Attendees then vote for delegates who will carry their wishes to the national party convention.

Maine: Bill to switch Maine to presidential primaries moves forward | The Portland Press Herald

The campaign to hold presidential primaries in Maine took a tentative step forward Monday. A legislative committee voted unanimously in support of a bill that directs the Secretary of State’s Office to begin the groundwork for switching Maine from a caucus state to a primary state starting with the 2020 presidential election. The push toward holding primary elections gained traction last month after a record number of voters overwhelmed some caucus sites. Lawmakers added a clause to the bill, L.D. 1673, that would allow the Legislature to stick with caucuses if it is uncomfortable with the anticipated cost or other aspects of holding primaries. “We’re moving in a different direction but recognizing that we need to figure out a lot of these details,” said Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, the lead sponsor of the bill.

Arizona: Officials weigh caucus vs. primary | Associated Press

Fresh off a troubled presidential primary marked by long lines and frustrated voters, Arizona officials are debating changes in how the state weighs in on the race for the White House. Arizona’s top election official, Republican Secretary of State Michele Reagan, is supporting legislation that would stop state presidential primary funding and push Arizona to a party-funded caucus system. Meanwhile, nearby Utah is considering going the opposite direction — returning to a primary — after its caucuses Tuesday saw disappointing turnout and voter confusion. Another Arizona Republican, Gov. Doug Ducey, wants to include even more potential voters and is demanding election fixes to avoid a repeat of Tuesday’s hours-lines lines at polls in the state’s largest county. Ducey’s spokesman said Friday he doesn’t support ending presidential primaries, pointing to high voter interest. Instead he wants changes to a law that keeps independents from voting.

Maine: Bill Would Change Maine to a Closed Primary Gets Party Support And Push Back From Independents | MPR

The grass-roots appeal of Maine’s town-meeting style presidential caucus system has long been touted by Maine political leaders. But the heightened interest in this year’s presidential contests resulted in long lines at many of the local caucus sites, prompting some voters to turn around and go home. NOW A bill that would reinstate the presidential primary process first used by Mainers 20 years ago is gathering bipartisan support. During Washington County’s Republican caucus, the room quickly filled up and the parking lot was soon crammed to capacity. Rep. William Tuell, an East Machias Republican, says organizers had underestimated the level of interest in the presidential primaries. The aftermath, Tuell said, was not pretty. “Some traveled long distances to find out they could only vote in a short window of time, others got discouraged and left, Tuell said. “I know several people who saw the parking lot full and passed right on by.”

Wyoming: Democrats move to larger caucus venues, expect high turnout | Caspar Star-Tribune

Democrats in six Wyoming counties, including Natrona, will move their April 9 presidential nominating caucuses to large venues, as leaders of the state’s minority party are now projecting higher-than-anticipated turnout. The Natrona County Democratic Party caucus will now be held at the Casper Events Center, said Brett Governanti, party chairman. The event was previously scheduled to be at Casper College. Other counties with venue changes include Laramie, Sweetwater and Albany, said Aimee Van Cleave, executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party. “We changed because we are expecting huge turnout levels,” she said. “If you look at Utah and Idaho, you see the overwhelming number of Democrats running out to caucus in those states. In Wyoming, we’re expecting to have comparable to 2008 turnout, and we want to accommodate all of our voters. It’s really exciting.”

Hawaii: Amid delays, the Internet turned to a Google doc for caucus results | USA Today

Saturday marked the first time Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders swept a full round of caucuses, defeating front-runner Hillary Clinton in all three of the day’s presidential contests. But when the mainstream media was nearly silent on his victory, voters took the electoral process into their own hands. Overnight, a Google document built by a handful of strangers became the go-to source for the caucus results. Its creators were the first to project Sanders’ victory, as the mainstream media waited on stalling, overwhelmed caucus organizers. As organizers in Hawaii scrambled to gather results, Alec Salisbury compiled his own set of stats from his computer in his Ithaca College dorm. With a group of three to 10 strangers, the 20-year-old college student broke the story of Sanders’ landslide victory.

Utah: Gov. Herbert calls for return to presidential primary elections in Utah | Deseret News

Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday he would have preferred that Utah had held a presidential primary election instead of this week’s caucus voting, and he called for a return to the state-run primaries in the future. “It is kind of a good news, disappointing news scenario. The good news is we had great turnout to caucus night, which is good, and we need to have that continue,” he said during his monthly news conference on KUED Ch.7. But the governor said it was disappointing to find out that Tuesday’s turnout was down by “a significant amount” compared with the 2008 state-run presidential primary, nearly 200,000 voters. The drop from the most recent presidential primary with competitive races for both major parties came despite campaign stops this year by four of the five candidates and a record $1.6 million-plus in TV and radio commercials.

Utah: After a hectic caucus night, Democrats say state should run vote | The Herald

Utah Democrats called on state lawmakers to fund a presidential primary instead of leaving political parties to run the voting after 80,000 people swarmed the party’s caucuses, leading to hours-long lines and scarce ballots. Tuesday’s turnout was “beyond our wildest dreams,” state Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon said. Most of the party’s caucus sites ran out of ballots, sending staffers scrambling to print 15,000 more. “What was a historic night in Utah was marred by frustration from voters anxious to make their voices heard,” Corroon said Wednesday at a news conference. The party also couldn’t accept mail-in or absentee ballots, leaving many voters feeling disenfranchised, he said. About 132,000 Democrats voted in a state-run primary election in 2008, the last time there was a contested election on the Democratic side. Party officials estimated about half that number would caucus this year, but excitement over the lively 2016 contest fueled higher participation.

Minnesota: Presidential primary push gets underway at Capitol | Minnesota Public Radio

A Minnesota House committee began the debate Wednesday about switching Minnesota to a presidential primary. Lawmakers began calling for the move after many precinct caucus sites were overwhelmed by heavier-than-expected turnout on March 1. Primary supporters say now is the time to make the change. But there are still a lot of Interest in this year’s presidential contest is running high, and lots of Minnesotans showed up at precinct caucuses to vote for their preferred candidates. It was record turnout for state Republicans and nearly a record for Democrats. But unlike a typical election, everyone had to arrive at roughly the same time, and that caused problems.

Colorado: Secretary of State investigating online voter registration problems | Associated Press

Some Colorado voters who believed they’d registered for this month’s caucuses via smartphone may not have done so because of technical issues. The secretary of state’s office said Friday it was investigating why some Coloradans who used certain smartphones to update their voter information couldn’t complete the transactions. Affected users couldn’t scroll to a “submit” button to finish the job.

Maine: Support builds for switching back to presidential primaries | The Portland Press Herald

A bipartisan group of legislative leaders expressed support Monday for switching back to presidential primary elections in Maine after record voter turnout led to lengthy delays at some caucus locations over the weekend. Senate Minority Leader Justin Alfond, D-Portland, renewed the caucuses-versus-primaries debate one day after unprecedented turnout forced Portland’s Democratic leaders to accept thousands of absentee ballots rather than require participants to attend traditional caucus meetings. Many left without voting, either unable or unwilling to wait up to four hours in a line that stretched a half-mile outside Deering High School. While Alfond acknowledged that town meeting-style caucuses have advantages, he said a primary format is preferable during presidential-election years because voters cast ballots throughout the day rather than congregate for an hours-long meeting.

Editorials: Why Is Anyone Still Doing Caucuses? | Evan McMorris-Santoro/BuzzFeed

About a half hour from the Las Vegas Strip, in a large public high school on the day the state’s Democratic nominating contest, a man stepped up onto the gym bleachers and shouted: “Let’s make sure we never caucus again!” “And then,” said Sondra Cosgrove, president of the League of Women Voters of Las Vegas Valley, “the whole room erupted, chanting, ‘No more caucus! no more caucus!’” The man, and Cosgrove, were among the 80,000 or so who sucked it up and made their voice heard during a chaotic Saturday in Nevada last month. Their particular caucus site — El Dorado High School — had all the hallmarks of the process: confusing rules, long lines that seemed to go nowhere, volunteers unprepared to deal with the crush of people who showed up.

Nevada: Hijinks, Confusion and Allegations of Voter Fraud Dominate Republican Caucuses in Nevada | VICE News

Donald Trump has won the Nevada caucuses, but not without a lot of headaches for voters and overwhelmed caucus chairs. Massive crowds, volunteer captains who failed to show up, and alleged double-voting lent a circus-like atmosphere to some of the caucus locations Tuesday night and will potentially undermine Nevada’s results. Richard Schlueter, who balloted for Trump on Tuesday, said that when he arrived at Palo Verde High School in east Las Vegas to vote the crowd was still so dense he had trouble finding the table that had been set up to accept and count ballots. Once he finally located it, Schlueter discovered that the precinct captain who was supposed to be in charge hadn’t turned up and that “some lady” had assumed the seat instead and began checking the IDs of voters who crowded around the table. “This caucus is a chaotic thing,” said Schlueter, a retired nuclear submarine engineer. “We don’t know who’s who, who’s voting for what. Some precinct captains are very good and very serious about their precincts, but mine didn’t even bother to show.”

Nevada: Caucus problems: Cards not counted, computer issues | Reno Gazette-Journal

Democratic caucus-goers in Northern Nevada are reporting a wide range of problems from long lines and cards not being counted to being turned away and too few paper ballots. Michael and Diana Jones were turned away from participating this morning in the caucus in Gardnerville despite being registered Democratic voters in Douglas County. This is because they registered as “confidential voters,” meaning their names are not available as a public record to the Democratic Party, which runs the caucuses. Michael Jones said he talked to multiple volunteers and Democratic Party staff who were unfamiliar with the issue until he was finally turned away. “I was told I had to reregister (not confidential),” he said. “The whole point is not to put up with the 30, 40, 50 robocalls and three pounds of campaign literature in the mailbox.” He said his wife spoke with someone in line who was a confidential voter but planned to reregister so he could participate.

Idaho: Democrats object to state-funded primary election billboards | The Spokesman-Review

The Idaho Democratic Party is protesting a statewide, 22-billboard voter education campaign launched by the Idaho Secretary of State’s office for the upcoming March 8 presidential primary, because the billboards don’t indicate that the election is just for the Republican and Constitution parties. Bert Marley, Idaho Democratic Party chairman, called the billboards “misleading and inaccurate,” and demanded that Secretary of State Lawerence Denney alter them by Monday. Denney’s office says it’s not planning any change in the $20,000 billboard campaign. The billboards say “Official Information” at the top, with a large “Idaho Votes” logo in the center, with the web address www.idahovotes.gov. Across the bottom in large red letters, the billboards say, “Presidential Primary March 8.”

Iowa: Uproar could lead to revamping Democratic caucuses | Des Moines Register

After a whisper-thin count left doubts about which Democratic candidate actually won the Iowa caucuses, there are fresh calls for the party to mirror the simple, secret-ballot method that Iowa Republicans use. “It’s worth discussing again, but it’s not as simple as it sounds,” said Norm Sterzenbach, a former Iowa Democratic Party executive director who, after five election cycles, is an expert on the nuts and bolts of the caucuses. Why are Democratic insiders so reluctant to update a voting system panned this week by national political observers as archaic and nonsensical? They blame New Hampshire, the state Iowa party leaders have worked with for decades to make sure Iowa retains the first-in-the-nation caucuses and New Hampshire the first primary.

Nevada: Observant Jewish Democrats to Be Excluded From Nevada’s Sabbath Caucus | Haaretz

Sabbath-observing Jewish Democrats will be shut out of the party’s February 20 caucus in Nevada. The country’s third primary election is scheduled on a Saturday, at noon. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and senator, is considered the favorite in Nevada against her insurgent opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, party leaders said they selected the time because they thought it would be most convenient for the largest number of people. “Saturday at 11 A.M. is the best time to increase access as much as possible for Democrats across Nevada to participate in our First in the West caucuses,” Stewart Boss, spokesman for the Nevada State Democratic Party, told the Review-Journal. “Keeping this date is critical to preserving our early-state status in the presidential nominating calendar.”

Kansas: Caucuses show party differences in voting approaches | Associated Press

Kansas Republicans and Democrats are preparing for March 5 presidential caucuses amid questions about voter registration rules and with several thousand potential voters who have tried to register unable to cast a ballot in the 2016 elections because they haven’t provided proof of citizenship. Participation rules for the party caucuses differ significantly from each other, and from voting at the polls later this year, because the parties themselves set the rules. The Kansas secretary of state’s office has no say in how the state parties set up the process for choosing their presidential nominee.

Nevada: Democratic caucus overlooks Sabbath observers | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Observant Jews and Seventh-day Adventists who want to caucus with Nevada Democrats on Feb. 20 are out of luck. The party’s noon caucus falls squarely in the middle of a Saturday, a sacred day of rest and worship for both faiths. Jewish clergy said the timing of the caucus disenfranchises those who want to participate and pointed out that other high-profile early-state caucuses and primaries don’t fall on a Saturday. A party spokesman said the big event is set for that day and time to maximize participation. “Saturday at 11 a.m. is the best time to increase access as much as possible for Democrats across Nevada to participate in our First in the West caucuses,” said Stewart Boss, spokesman for the Nevada State Democratic Party. “Keeping this date is critical to preserving our early-state status in the presidential nominating calendar.”

Utah: State holding presidential caucus, not primary election | Deseret News

Utahns are going to get their turn next month to vote in the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination race, but not in a traditional primary election. This year, Utah is using the political party-run caucuses being held on March 22 to determine which candidates will get the state’s support at party nominating conventions this summer. Both Republicans and Democrats attending neighborhood caucus meetings that evening can cast their ballots in the presidential race. Republicans also have the option of voting online in the presidential race. The 2015 Legislature decided not to fund a $3 million presidential primary after the Utah GOP — amid the ongoing battle over changes lawmakers made to the overall candidate nomination process — announced it was holding a presidential caucus.

Iowa: Democratic party altered precinct's caucus results during chaotic night | The Guardian

In the Iowa Democratic party’s chaotic attempt to report caucus results on Monday night, the results in at least one precinct were unilaterally changed by the party as it attempted to deal with the culmination of a rushed and imperfect process overseeing the first-in-the-nation nominating contest. In Grinnell Ward 1, the precinct where elite liberal arts college Grinnell College is located, 19 delegates were awarded to Bernie Sanders and seven were awarded to Hillary Clinton on caucus night. However, the Iowa Democratic party decided to shift one delegate from Sanders to Clinton on the night and did not notify precinct secretary J Pablo Silva that they had done so. Silva only discovered that this happened the next day, when checking the precinct results in other parts of the county. The shift of one delegate at a county convention level would not have significantly affected the ultimate outcome of the caucus, but rather, it raises questions aboutthe Iowa Democratic party’s management of caucus night.

Iowa: Democratic Party Officials Say Recount Impossible in Clinton-Sanders Virtual Tie | Bloomberg Politics

Democratic Party officials in Iowa say they can’t do a recount of Monday’s razor-thin presidential caucus results between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, even if they thought it was appropriate. And both candidates, in their debate later Thursday night, said it was no big deal. Just two-tenths of 1 percent separated Sanders and Clinton in the first nomination contest of the 2016 presidential campaign. The statewide caucus meetings included reports of chaos in precincts and coin flips to decide county delegates, raising questions about the final count’s accuracy . “People physically aligned in groups,” Sam Lau, the communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party, said in a statement. “There are no paper ballots to recount. Monday’s caucuses were a unique event that involved more than 171,000 Iowans and their neighbors at a specific time and place, and thus they cannot be re-created or recounted.”
In other words, there are no hanging chads to recount.

Editorials: Something smells in the Democratic Party | Des Moines Register

Once again the world is laughing at Iowa. Late-night comedians and social media mavens are having a field day with jokes about missing caucusgoers and coin flips. That’s fine. We can take ribbing over our quirky process. But what we can’t stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error. What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy. The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt. First of all, the results were too close not to do a complete audit of results. Two-tenths of 1 percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins trigger automatic recounts in other states. Second, too many questions have been raised. Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems. Too many of us, including members of the Register editorial board who were observing caucuses, saw opportunities for error amid Monday night’s chaos.

Editorials: Donald Trump Becomes the GOP’s Newest Voter-Fraud Fraudster | Ari Berman/The Nation

I knew something like this was coming and quite frankly I’m surprised it took Trump so long to play the voter fraud card. It’s a logical extension of his demonization of Hispanics, Muslims, refugees and all the other people he believes are preventing America from being great again. It’s become an article of faith among Republicans that Democrats must cheat to win elections. The only difference here is that Trump is accusing another Republican of doing so. The GOP’s fraud crusade goes back to the George W. Bush administration. The 2000 election in Florida, which was marred by a disastrous voter purge of alleged ex-felons, empowered a new right-wing voter fraud movement, which hyped the threat of fraud in order to restrict access to the ballot for partisan gains. The Justice Department was taken over by ultra-conservatives like Attorney General John Ashcroft who made combating fraud a top priority. US Attorneys in states like New Mexico and Washington were fired for not undertaking new prosecutions, and new voting restrictions, like Georgia’s voter ID law, were approved by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division over objections from career lawyers. Rick Hasen dubbed these people the “fraudulent fraud squad.” (I write extensively about this in my book Give Us the Ballot Though little fraud was ever found, the fraud craze grew much louder when Barack Obama ran for president. John McCain alleged in 2008 that ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history.” After the election, one poll found that 52 percent of Republicans believed that ACORN had stolen the election for Obama.

Iowa: Sometimes, Iowa Democrats award caucus delegates with a coin flip | Des Moines Register

In a handful of Democratic caucus precincts Monday, a delegate was awarded with a coin toss. It happened in precinct 2-4 in Ames, where supporters of candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton disputed the results after 60 caucus participants apparently disappeared from the proceedings. As a result of the coin toss, Clinton was awarded an additional delegate, meaning she took five of the precinct’s eight, while Sanders received three. Similar situations played out at various precincts across the state, but had an extremely small effect on the overall outcome, in which Clinton won 49.9 percent of statewide delegate equivalents, while Sanders won 49.5 percent. The delegates that were decided by coin flips were delegates to the party’s county conventions, of which there are thousands selected across the state from 1,681 separate precincts. They were not the statewide delegate equivalents that are reported in the final results.

Iowa: Microsoft’s vote tallying app worked, web sites didn’t | USA Today

Despite rumors on Twitter to the contrary, by almost all accounts the Microsoft app used to tally unverified caucus votes in Iowa worked exactly as it was supposed to. What broke were the web sites where Republicans and Democrats posted close to real-time information about those votes, which at times crashed under the crush of people eager for news of their candidates. That didn’t surprise Douglas W. Jones, the recording secretary for the Democratic caucus, precinct 4 in Iowa City, Iowa. “In the modern, media-driven world, we’re desperate for results,” he said. His son Nathaniel Douglas, 32, send their caucus results in to the county Democratic party using the app built by Microsoft for the purpose, which he said “worked as advertised.” In precincts where workers didn’t have smart phones, the older updating system of calling in and pressing buttons on a touch-tone phone after inputting a PIN for security was used. “Both systems worked fine,” Douglas said. … At their heart, they are a way for Iowa voters to chose delegates to county, district and state political conventions who will then go on to chose their candidate. That process is heavily scrutinized and has very reliable and very old security baked into it — “it all happens on paper, which we’ve been using for elections going back to Roman times,” said Jones, who is also a professor of computer science at the University of Iowa and an expert on online voting systems.