Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have vowed to tear down barriers to voting, especially for the poor and minorities. The Democratic Platform Committee has already heard testimony calling for changes to make it easier to vote. But no one is calling for a change Democrats could make to remove barriers to voting in their own party: junking caucus elections that are elitist, inconvenient, intimidating, anti-Democratic and suppress the vote. If voter suppression is truly a Democratic concern, consider that fewer people participated in the 17 caucus races in the recently completed Democratic nominating contest than those who turned out for the Wisconsin primary alone. These 17 caucus races with minuscule turnout selected 528 earned delegates to the convention. Wisconsin, where roughly the same number of voters cast a ballot, chose just 86 delegates. If that seems undemocratic, it is.
Caucus elections gained popularity in the early 1800s as part of reform efforts to wrest control of elections from elected officials during times of low citizen knowledge and scant participation. Caucuses made sense when electing Ranse Stoddard of Shinbone to fight for statehood south of the picketwire. But then came radio, and at that point the need to gather, debate and vote in large public halls drew to a close.
Now caucuses are an anachronism. If they were merely a quaint tradition of citizen engagement, they could be tolerated. Instead they keep people who would otherwise vote from participating. They are time consuming, often lasting hours, which means single parents need to hire a babysitter to cast a ballot. That’s getting pretty close to a poll tax. If you work on the day of a caucus, forget it. Mail in or online voting? There’s no such thing. And as for a secret ballot, the hallmark of our democracy, in many caucuses voting is public and intimidating — exactly what Democrats say they are fighting against.
Full Article: Want to help end voter suppression? Junk the caucuses. – The Washington Post.