How the 2016 Minnesota Caucuses Worked

[MineralMan]

Never mind the confusion, the crowding and the lack of proper organization. We had all of those, in spades.

I was a precinct caucus chair and convener in 2016. The organizers underestimated the turnout, and put two precincts in the same classroom, which was not large enough even for one, but we crowded everyone in. I was the convener for my precinct, and was elected as caucus chair. The other precinct elected a caucus chair, who was also the convener. That's normal.

There's a lot of preliminary stuff that goes on before the actual vote. Since I had done all that before, I did it for both precincts together, since the other convener had never done it and because there was no training. So, I ran through all of the routine stuff for both precincts. Once that was out of the way, it was time for the voting. There was other caucus business, like choosing delegates for the district convention, but the voting came first.

Ballots? We were supposed to have printed ballots, but there were none in the convener's packet. I asked about that and the ward chairman said they hadn't been delivered to the caucus location. So, I pulled some blank typing paper out of the teacher's desk in the classroom very early and enlisted someone to fold and tear it all into four pieces of paper. Those would be our ballots. People had to write the name of the candidate on that piece of paper, fold it, and put it into a paper bag on the desk.

We divided the room into two groups, one for each precinct and I explained the voting process. Fortunately, there were enough pens floating around the room to allow everyone to write their choice on the paper. One precinct's caucusers had one bag and the other precinct had its own bag. Who knows which bag the ballots went in. We asked people to put the ballots in their precinct's bag. That's the best we could do. I was so busy that I forgot to even mark a ballot myself.

We had elected two pairs of ballot tellers and two checkers for the two precincts earlier in the business meeting of the caucus. So, the voting happened, the ballots went into the bags and the counting happened. One counter read the ballot, and the other tallied the votes on a sheet of paper. I had to show our counter how to tally, using the four line and slash method. The ballots were counted twice, after switching the teller and the tallier. Fortunately the counts balanced. The checkers observed, to make sure everything was done properly.

Then, I filled out the official results form with the numbers we had tallied and hand carried it in a sealed envelope, which also held all of the ballots, to the ward chair's desk. Then I returned to an almost empty caucus room and we had the delegate election. Almost everyone left immediately after marking their ballots, so everyone who wanted to be a delegate was a delegate. And that was that.

The ward chair delivered the results to the district chair and they were checked and recorded and called into to the state party headquarters. And the 2016 caucus was over. Results were available by midnight. All done on paper.

Amateur night? Yes, indeed. But it all worked out, was fairly counted, and the results were available. The same thing happened all across the state, and the results were out by midnight. No apps. No cell phones. No nothing. Just paper and people.

It worked in Minnesota, chaotic as it was. The same system could have worked in Iowa. But it didn't.

[Mister Ed]

1. Thank you for these details, and for your work as a precinct caucus chair.

Small detail: you probably meant for your headline to be "How the 2016 Minnesota caucus worked", rather than, "How the 2016 Minnesota primary worked"?

[MineralMan]

2. Oops. Thanks! I fixed it.

[LeftInTX]

3. I believe this is more or less how Iowa worked previously

[MineralMan]

4. Yes, except that Iowa has two gatherings of attendees,

eliminating the candidates who don't get enough caucus-goers to select a delegate. In the past, that second gathering is the only one officially counted for the record.

Minnesota held a single straw vote and that vote is recorded. Non-viable candidates are simply eliminated and state convention delegate selection is done proportionally, based on the ballot count numbers, later at the congressional district convention. I've been a delegate to that convention, as well, and have even been a state delegate once.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. BTW,we adopted the same

method in 2008 in Southern Utah which the Dems still use yet today. Here in Nevada we used a grouping of favorites and then a head count which was tallied and those numbers moved to the Camus Chairperson. Believe from what I have heard is,this time their will be paper ballots do to the glitches in the new phone app.

Nineteen days to fix the phone app.

[MineralMan]

6. I like paper ballots. They provide a trail that can be verified.

Now, I have no idea what happened to the folded paper improvised ballot my precinct caucus used after they were sent to the state party headquarters. For all i know, they're still in boxes marked 2016.

Caucus votes are clumsy, to be sure, but they were on paper. Probably some people voted in the wrong precinct, but that doesn't really matter all that much. That their votes were recorded on paper does matter.

the Minnesota caucuses that year did not represent the opinions of the voters, though, because too few people participated. That is the fundamental problem with the caucus system. It's not representative. Primaries are better, although turnouts are still too low in them.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. The Caucus system can be gamed.

It does get messy and Primaries are the best way to go. Interesting idea about Iowa last night. Somewhat fimiliar with the Internet and Cable systems available in Iowa. Much like out State Minnesota,you have Band Width issues. There are areas that have only Dail up systems and even Copper Wire transmission instead of Fiber.

Fortunately Most of Las Vegas is now 5G but not all. And if this Phone app is 4G or higher. We too will have issues. Example is Verizon and Sprint Networks from our experience ,has several blind spots around the valley.

[MineralMan]

8. The caucus system is almost always gamed.

It only takes a few folks to swing a precinct caucus.

[Wellstone ruled]

9. Oh yes,

saw a attempt in Utah in 2008. When you are the Minority Political Party in your County,and your voting share is 28% in the General,and your Caucus at the Precinct level only attacks about a dozen folks,yes,several in our Precinct came with that in mind. Fortunately,the screw ball candidate they supported was no way in hell viable on any level. Myself and another Person were able to kill that one off. Had they had one more person,well,that would have given them the Majority of Caucus.