Time to get rid of caucuses: too much room for voter intimidation

The whole idea of gathering together in a room and voting for your preferred candidate by walking over to a group of like-minded people may have had its place in America's election history. But I think it's time for this process to go.

I feel for the culinary workers in Las Vegas. The shortcomings of the caucus system may be exposed at their expense. From the Las Vegas Sun:

Culinary Union organizers have been working in earnest for the last week to get the word out about the union’s endorsed candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, and to lock down member support in the run-up to Saturday’s caucus.

But two Culinary members supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton say they watched today as two of those field organizers were overzealous in their efforts as they collected pledge cards for Obama in the break room of a Strip casino. The Clinton campaign quickly tried to paint the incident as part of a broader pattern, though introduced no other evidence.

After the Sun worked the story for two hours, this much is clear: What exactly happened this afternoon at Paris Las Vegas depends on whom you talk to. To hear Clinton’s campaign and her supporters tell it, the union intimidated a member into caucusing for Obama, demanding that she sign a pledge card — or face exile from the caucus.

Now, it's unclear whether voter intimidation actually occurred, or whether this was just a misunderstanding. The reporter continued to follow the story, and in an update wrote:

The Culinary Union has investigated and says the source of the drama seemed to be about how one changes one’s party registration three days before the caucus.

Antuna was a registered independent, and the union reps were talking to her about how she had to be a Democrat to participate on Saturday, Weiss said.

Hardly scandalous and certainly not intimidation, she added.

Weiss said she suspects the whole incident was drummed up by the enthusiastic Clinton supporters, who got heated when the union reps started pitching Obama.

Well, I'm not surprised that when the Culinary Union investigated they -- surprise! -- placed all the blame on the Clinton staffers. But clearly there is room for confusion with this system, which may lead to voters who do not vote freely -- for a variety of reasons, including simple ignorance or misunderstanding of the rules. It's time for Nevada, Iowa, and all other states still using this antiquated election system to switch to a primary vote.

Today's civics lesson: The Nevada Caucuses (Also, why no one cares about Michigan)

First, okay, it's not true. Michigan: we care. It's just that the Michigan Democratic Party went ahead and moved the date of the primary up when the Democratic National Party told them not to. As punishment for the early primary, Michigan lost its delegates. With no delegates at stake, most front runners bailed, and the choices on the Michigan Dem ballot are Clinton, Kucinich, Gravel, and "uncommitted."

[Feel free to insert your own joke here.]

Moving on .... Although I generally think caucuses are a positive way to increase voter participation by forcing voters to debate and defend their choices -- thereby requiring them to actually know something about their candidate of choice, the Nevada caucuses have a unique constituency: casino workers. In an effort to address the main drawback of caucuses -- namely, that the window to participate is usually only a couple of hours in the evening, and not everyone can get off work to participate during those hours -- caucus sites will include several of the major venues along the Strip in Las Vegas.

From today's Washington Post:

Democratic officials, working with national party leaders, came up with the idea of caucusing in the casinos for the first time to increase participation in a town that doesn't know the meaning of a 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday workweek.

Under rules set by the Nevada Democratic Party, only casinos that have been organized by the most powerful labor group in Las Vegas, the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, were selected as caucus sites.

Although I think it's a good move to ensure that these workers have the opportunity to participate, this troubles me:

"We believe that everyone has the ability to choose on their own, but normally we all try to stick together," said Jennifer Grote, 44, who works in food service at the Paris hotel-casino and will serve as a caucus captain on Election Day.

"You cannot divide union workers," added Leain Vashon, a bell captain at the Paris.

Any members who want to oppose their leadership and support another candidate will have to do so in front of their co-workers, wearing their casino-issued work clothes identifying themselves as members of the union.

As you've probably read by now, Obama has the endorsements of both the Culinary Workers Union and the Service Employees International Union. Clinton has the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers. As a former union member (and local representative), I know that a union's endorsement of a candidate means a great deal to its members. But I also know that union members are each still entitled to their own vote. The union endorses, but does not vote for its members. I don't know, I guess Las Vegas, casinos, gambling, money -- it all makes me a little uneasy. So I guess I wish someone had thought of this a little bit earlier so that it didn't come off as just sour grapes from the Clinton camp:

The same day, another union -- the Nevada State Education Association -- contended that Obama and the culinary workers are altogether too friendly, and asked a federal court to shut down the casino caucus sites because, the association said, they give preferential treatment to culinary union members.

State Democratic officials, who had been expecting the suit, said they had worked with each presidential campaign since last spring to craft the process, including the casino precincts, to drum up the largest turnout possible.

"The time for comment or complaint has passed," the state party said in a statement after the suit was filed by the teachers' union and several individuals.