Death to the Caucus

Baylynne Brunetti / Contributor / The USD Vista

A thought that went through many Americans’ minds this past week was, what is a caucus? Followed by, why is Iowa so important? These are both valid questions that even the most politically eloquent people have a difficult time explaining. But, there is a reason only a handful of states and U.S. territories are still holding a caucus instead of a primary: it disenfranchises voters and throws a wrench into our democracy. The caucus system is no longer beneficial and should be thrown out completely.

First and foremost, let us sort through what a caucus is. A caucus is a party-organized gathering of members to discuss their presidential preferences, elect local party leadership, and discuss issues that make up the party’s platform. Both parties conduct their caucuses differently, but since we are dealing with a democratic caucus, we will keep the view strictly on how the Democrats’ caucuses work. Democratic caucus-goers gather in groups to pick their preferred candidate. They are then counted up, and it’s determined whether a candidate group is viable or not viable. Depending on the number of county delegates to be elected, the viability threshold is typically 15% of attendees. If a group is not viable, they can choose to recruit people to their group or join another group. A final tally is counted, then delegates are distributed via those tallies. 

Fundamentally, there are a variety of issues with the concept of having a caucus over a primary. To begin, the caucuses only take place over the course of one evening, at specific times and go on for hours on end. Not everyone has the ability to attend those peculiar hours. People have children, people have jobs and some voters lack adequate access to transportation. The perplexities which could prevent a person from going to a caucus could go on and on. The caucus system is not something that works anymore and the argument that it is a democratic “institution” falls flat. The system prevents high voter turnouts, and peer pressures individuals to vote a specific way due to the viability aspect. Just because an event is a tradition does not mean that it should continue to exist if it is only undermining our democracy. How many people were not represented because they did not attend the caucus? If you look at the number of registered voters versus the caucuses’ turnout, in Iowa 1.8 million people were not represented in the caucuses. 

In December, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pete reported that voters in Iowa “made history,” with more than 2 million residents being registered to vote heading into the general election year. However, only around 172,669 final alignment votes were counted in the caucuses last week. That is an unacceptably large margin to have and a deafening silence of voices that did not get to be heard as the country moves forward with the primaries. Iowa is considered important during the primary season because it is the first insight into who the presidential nominee for each party could be. Iowa prides itself so much on being the first state to supply delegates that they have it written in their Constitution to be the first state to kick off the election season. With this in mind, it makes it even more important that Iowa has a primary in order to ensure that more voices are heard, and that a small number of people are not speaking for the entire state — and ultimately the country. 

Extremely low voter turnout is not the way to start an election process. These are just statistics from the state of Iowa. We will not see how the rest of the caucuses — Nevada, North Dakota, and Wyoming — turn out until after the primary season, but it is reasonable to assume they will end up with the same high levels of disenfranchisement across the country. A caucus taking place of a primary voting is not beneficial to anyone except the small group of people who are there to potentially skew the results of an entire state. Iowa was important to observe because for the first time, it cast a shadow of doubt on the caucus system. In order to ensure every voice is heard, it is time for Iowa and the fellow caucus-style states to follow suit and implement a primary system. It definitely makes sense for us to abolish this archaic system and make voting more accessible to everyday people.