There are fourteen states which have the so-called “Caucus” system of primaries. Iowa is one, and my state of Colorado is another. I hate it. It means virtually NOTHING, as far as a candidate’s popularity is concerned, or his chances of being elected. Take my state and county in Colorado. I participated in the caucus in the last election, and realizing how stupid it was, and am not going to participate again. Here’s how it worked in my county, and how it works in all 14 states.
We all gathered together at an appointed place, and were divided up into various rooms of a high school, according to our addresses. In that room, we all voted on who we liked, and were dismissed to meet in the gym an hour or so later. There were about 300 in the gym, and this represented about ONE PERCENT of the county population. That ONE PERCENT decided who would be the Republican Presidential candidate from our county to be taken to the state convention. To go to the ’State Convention’ is costly, utterly inane, and even then means nothing, as one percent are still being counted.
If Colorado had a “Primary” type of selecting a candidate, 30,000 in my county would have been given a chance to vote for their choice. That’s why neither Iowa nor Colorado means anything in actuality, as far as a state’s real choice is. Texas has both caucus and primary, so people can vote twice.
The caucus states, are: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nevada, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, Wyoming, Utah, and Texas. Luckily, South Carolina, and Florida have logical, sensible primary voting, so the candidate’s votes will be representative.
The poor excuse given for caucuses is that in olden times, there was no instant communication by radio, TV, e-mail, etc, so people had to ’caucus’ with their neighbors to decide for whom to vote. That may have been true a hundred years ago, but it certainly isn’t now.
From the Gladstone Kibosh of October 14, 1899: “The fire department, having received instructions from the mayor to practice three days before each fire, turned out in fine style Thursday. After stopping three hours at the Angel of Mercy Saloon, the fire team tapped the plug on Haze Ave. and Biker St., and inside of fifteen minutes had drowned a dog. A subscription is hereby being circulated to buy the boys a badge for their noble work.”