Samantha Power retweeting this
Official Bernie Sanders HQ: Not Me, Us!
- Thread starter Berniewood Hogan
- Start date
Please read this article when you get the chance. I've posted about the caucus process before. It's amazing that not much attention is paid to the process: Iowans Vote First, If They Can Vote at All
“It’s a joke, frankly,” Emmanuel Smith, a 29-year-old disability-rights advocate from Des Moines, told me. “So many populations are potentially disenfranchised, and I don’t find that folksy or charming.”
Unlike primaries, where voters can cast secret ballots at any point during the day and generally have the option to vote early or absentee, the caucus occurs at a set time and place—usually in the evening—and requires participants to be physically present for the vote. And the process can be confusing for voters, with foggy rules, technicalities, and coin tosses. Overall voter turnout in the 2016 Iowa caucus was about 16 percent, compared with 52 percent in the New Hampshire primary election.
Caucuses pose major concerns for voters with disabilities in particular. “The in-person caucuses are still not accessible,” says Jane Hudson, the executive director of Disability Rights Iowa. Often, there aren’t microphones around, so the evening’s proceedings can be difficult for voters to hear. And caucus sites—which can include churches, schools, and union halls—are often packed, with limited seating and not enough handicapped parking.
The satellite caucuses wouldn’t meet many voters’ needs. It seems logistically impossible for every individual who can’t attend in their precinct to set up their own satellite version. Plus, the caucus process is notoriously complicated, and even with months of training, volunteers still run into problems every cycle. A host of new satellite caucuses could compound those issues.
Here's the kicker:
But perhaps a larger reason behind the party’s hesitation is that, if they do implement an absentee-ballot process, the Iowa caucus would look a lot more like a primary, which could upend the state’s first-in-the-nation status. (New Hampshire, by state law, must hold the first primary election, just as Iowa law requires that it must have the first caucus.) “That’s the danger Iowa is facing,” says Steffen Schmidt, a political-science professor at Iowa State University. “If we do [that], do we then have the position of first caucus taken away from us?”
The state’s importance in the country’s political system is a point of pride for many Iowans, bringing copious amounts of money and attention to a small state. Still, critics of the caucus ask: Is the attention worth the disenfranchisement of so many Iowans? “People in the [Iowa Democratic Party] like having Joe Biden in their kitchen, they like the political influence it gives them,” Smith said. “So they’re willing to trade my ability to freely participate in the democratic system in order to preserve that.”
“It’s a joke, frankly,” Emmanuel Smith, a 29-year-old disability-rights advocate from Des Moines, told me. “So many populations are potentially disenfranchised, and I don’t find that folksy or charming.”
Unlike primaries, where voters can cast secret ballots at any point during the day and generally have the option to vote early or absentee, the caucus occurs at a set time and place—usually in the evening—and requires participants to be physically present for the vote. And the process can be confusing for voters, with foggy rules, technicalities, and coin tosses. Overall voter turnout in the 2016 Iowa caucus was about 16 percent, compared with 52 percent in the New Hampshire primary election.
Caucuses pose major concerns for voters with disabilities in particular. “The in-person caucuses are still not accessible,” says Jane Hudson, the executive director of Disability Rights Iowa. Often, there aren’t microphones around, so the evening’s proceedings can be difficult for voters to hear. And caucus sites—which can include churches, schools, and union halls—are often packed, with limited seating and not enough handicapped parking.
The satellite caucuses wouldn’t meet many voters’ needs. It seems logistically impossible for every individual who can’t attend in their precinct to set up their own satellite version. Plus, the caucus process is notoriously complicated, and even with months of training, volunteers still run into problems every cycle. A host of new satellite caucuses could compound those issues.
Here's the kicker:
But perhaps a larger reason behind the party’s hesitation is that, if they do implement an absentee-ballot process, the Iowa caucus would look a lot more like a primary, which could upend the state’s first-in-the-nation status. (New Hampshire, by state law, must hold the first primary election, just as Iowa law requires that it must have the first caucus.) “That’s the danger Iowa is facing,” says Steffen Schmidt, a political-science professor at Iowa State University. “If we do [that], do we then have the position of first caucus taken away from us?”
The state’s importance in the country’s political system is a point of pride for many Iowans, bringing copious amounts of money and attention to a small state. Still, critics of the caucus ask: Is the attention worth the disenfranchisement of so many Iowans? “People in the [Iowa Democratic Party] like having Joe Biden in their kitchen, they like the political influence it gives them,” Smith said. “So they’re willing to trade my ability to freely participate in the democratic system in order to preserve that.”
Here is the Iowa Caucus satellite website:
Satellite Caucus Locations
I don't understand the point of holding caucus meetings in Brooklyn and Manhattan
This shyt is so fukkn stupid
Satellite Caucus Locations
I don't understand the point of holding caucus meetings in Brooklyn and Manhattan
This shyt is so fukkn stupid
If you work a 3-11 you can't vote in the caucus. If you work a 7-7 backside or dayside you're fukked because they close all caucus event doors at 7.
If you have kids you're fukked. 7pm is dinner time and if you're single parent forget about it.
If you work a 9-5 you're fighting against rush hour traffic to make it to your caucus. Seating begins at 630. And like I said, ALL doors close promptly at 7.
There is no way you can convince me that this is a democratic process.
If you have kids you're fukked. 7pm is dinner time and if you're single parent forget about it.
If you work a 9-5 you're fighting against rush hour traffic to make it to your caucus. Seating begins at 630. And like I said, ALL doors close promptly at 7.
There is no way you can convince me that this is a democratic process.
Whatever with Yang but Tulsi needs to drop out. Her New Hampshire polling is troubling.
She's all but endorsed Bernie already, I'm sure she has some sort of game plan in this but difficult to see what she's holding on for.
Hope so.
afterlife2009
Superstar
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