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What’s the deal with caucuses?
It’s an antiquated system on the way out
Anybody familiar with the caucus process is unsurprised by the chaos emerging from the Iowa caucuses last night. Iowa Democratic party officials are right now scurrying about trying to figure out who won.
The source of the problem is reportedly a mobile app that the local caucus leaders were to use to report their results. It appears that the app didn’t work. Given recent events in American politics, it’s easy to place the blame on this fiasco at the feet of the Russians or some other group intent on hacking our political process. Iowans deny this theory. Instead, they insist that they are just incompetent.
Interestingly, nobody is quite sure where the idea of caucuses came from. Even the etymology of the word is in some dispute. Suffice it to say, however, that it is an antiquated process that is on the way out. Iowans like to argue that it is a pure form of direct democracy. In reality, it is what was once called the “smoke-filled rooms” where party activists would debate who would be their nominee.
This year, only three states will hold Democratic caucuses: Iowa, Nevada, and Wyoming. In addition to those states, electoral powerhouses like Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Mariana Islands will also elect delegates to the…
