2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: We Should Only Let Democrats Choose Our Nominee [View all]Berlin Vet
(95 posts)I attended my first caucus this year and based on my experience I think they should not be used to select a candidate and using a primary is a fairer way to select a candidate. The first caucus was small, about 40 people from about 8 precincts. The first caucus took roughly one hour from start to finish. A few weeks later I went to the county caucus which started at 1 pm. Now if you want to turn people off to politics have them attend a large caucus and sit for hours waiting for the counts to be completed. I left at 6:30 and the caucus still hadnt been completed and well over half of the people had left. I heard that other caucuses in the state ran far later than the one I attended. Bottom line to me is that you should use the caucus to select delegates to go to the next level and use a primary to pick your states preference for the partys choice for President. Also in a primary you can mail in ballots or vote in person but you dont spend hours waiting and it is more inclusive.