The caucus is an embarrassment to Minnesota

It’s a process designed to exclude and is incapable of managing even a modest voter turnout

The headline on Bring Me The News said, “Minnesotans flock to caucuses.” Their story told of unprecedented traffic back-ups at caucus locations and shortages of ballots. The StarTribune summarized,

Heavy turnout marked both the DFL and GOP caucuses in Minnesota, on a Super Tuesday night that saw the presidential contest spread to wider swaths of the country. Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans participated, and some caucusgoers met long lines, traffic backups and delays in obtaining ballots at voting sites.

Sounds like a total win for democracy! An energized electorate! Huzzah!

But. As of this writing, the number of votes counted by both major parties in their respective caucuses is 290,000. That’s 5% of the state’s population. In the 2008 presidential election, almost exactly ten times as many Minnesotans voted.

I know that primary voters don’t turn out in the same numbers as general election voters, but this primary has seen historic participation on both sides (the Democratic vote is lower than 2008 but still higher than historic averages). So how does Minnesota compare to other Super Tuesday states?

I picked three non-caucus states who also voted on Tuesday at random: Texas, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Texas counted just over 4 million votes which amounts to about 15% of their population. Virginia tallied just over a million seven; 21% of Virginians. Massachusetts also had about a million seven voters which amounted to 26% of their population.

If Minnesota had 20% caucus participation, it would have meant over a million people trying to cast their ballots all between the hours of 7:00 and 8:00 PM in a limited number of locations. In other words, it’d be impossible. I know at my location, there were cars backed up and wrapped around the block in all directions at 7:30. How many people simply threw up their hands and left?

How is a process that is physically unable to handle even a modest voter turnout in any way democratic? Caucuses are arcane and intimidating to the average voter and cater to only the most invested of political players. They’re inefficient and inconvenient and designed to keep the vote down.

Minnesota is rightfully proud of its historically heavy and nation-leading voter participation rate in general elections. We should be embarrassed by the caucus process. It needs to go.