Information I didn't know about the Minnesota Caucuses (UPDATED IN OP)

[MineralMan]

Last edited Sat Mar 5, 2016, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)

I just discovered that people can vote as an absentee in our DFL caucuses. That's something I didn't know, and have never seen an absentee vote at any caucus meeting I've attended. But, the party does have a way for absentee voters to participate.

The information is on the party website. All a person has to do is complete the form at the link below:

http://www.dfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Absentee-Participation-form.pdf

I first knew about this on caucus night, when I say a line for the number of absentee votes on the reporting form I had to fill out as caucus chair following the voting. I also noticed that people reporting from the Nebraska caucuses are reporting absentee votes.

If we continue with the caucuses in the next presidential election, I'm going to push to have this publicized more broadly. I simply was not aware of the possibility before now.

ETA: Apparently I missed something. You can't actually vote for your presidential preference via this ballot. Only if there are sub-caucuses does your preference count. Those rarely occur at precinct caucuses.

[Lucinda]

1. It certainly helps to make the process more inclusive

It's an option I would need if I lived in a caucus state.

[MineralMan]

3. The problem is that people don't know about it.

As I said, I've never seen one of these forms at a caucus meeting. Since this is the first time I've chaired a caucus, I wasn't aware that absentee voting was allowed until all the votes had been cast. As a precinct chair, I'll be publicizing this heavily if we continue to use the caucus system.

I wish more people had known about the possibility before the caucuses had occurred. I fault myself for not knowing about it, and fault the party for not publicizing absentee caucus voting.

[Downwinder]

2. Has the Chair of your local DFL Organizing Unit gone missing?

You said they did not show for the caucus and you filled the slate of delegates. They are perhaps Super Delegates?

[MineralMan]

4. I'm not sure what happened with the Senate District 67

organization for this caucus season. I will be inquiring into that at the district convention, though, I can assure you. I was certainly competent to convene and chair our caucus as precinct chair, but it was the first time a convener from District 67, was not there.

I'll probably run for a position on the District 67 board at the convention if I don't get a good answer about this. I'll not be the only one with questions about the shortage of conveners. There are questions for the state DFL party organization, too, like why this absentee voting was not part of the publicity for the caucuses.

However, I do know that the chair of our District 67 organization is not a superdelegate to the national convention. That much I do know. All superdelegates from MN who are not elected Congress people are our state members of the DNC, and those are elected at the state convention. Our district chair won't be one of them, quite frankly. That's a tough gig to get, and we're not important enough, frankly.

ETA: There is a pantload of precincts in District 67. Each precinct holds a caucus. The conveners have been volunteers from the district organization, in the past. I'm going to find out what happened next month at the convention and see what we can do to correct that. The best thing would be to train each precinct's chair to handle the job, as I did at this year's caucus. I learned the job by observation over the past few caucuses, and knew exactly what to do, but other precinct chairs are not as involved as I am.

[Downwinder]

5. Admittedly I have a jaundiced view of caucuses.

I consider them akin to an episode of Survivor. The Chair was supposed to have all of the absentee paperwork. Might be advisable to recheck your list of delegates to the State.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, I'm hoping we have primaries for the next

presidential election. I'll be working to promote that in the legislature.

We'll still have caucuses, but only for feeding the convention system, which will be back to endorsing candidates. It's time for a change, I think. Both 2008 and 2016 were overwhelmed by the turnout for the caucuses. In 2008, we also ran out of ballots, sign-up sheets, etc. It just doesn't work when there's a large turnout. Too confusing for everyone. Primaries would work better.

[Downwinder]

8. I had considered going to the county Convention

and possibly the State but I read here on DU that it is all over with. What is the point?

[MineralMan]

10. Well, there's still a lot to do, really.

In Minnesota, the county (or State Senate District) conventions endorse candidates for state legislative and local offices within that district. They also elect delegates to the congressional district convention, where an endorsement is made for our representative. At that convention, too, delegates to the state convention are elected. At the state convention, the actual delegates to the national convention are elected. If someone wants to be involved with those processes, they have to start by becoming a delegate to the first-level convention. That happens at the precinct caucus. So, it's all tied together.

At every level, too elections are held for the officers of that level in the party organization. If someone's interested in politics, it's all very interesting. If not, it's not.

[Downwinder]

15. The State Convention used o be a big deal.

National candidates would show up. Now with the primary making the decision it is not so much. I always knew that my one vote did not count for much. Telling me that does not encourage me a lot.

[aspirant]

7. How would you verify an abstenee votes?

[MineralMan]

9. The form requires plenty of information to check for validity.

Frankly, the registration sheets at the caucuses are no better, really. They have the same information about those who register. One doesn't have to be a registered voter, even, to participate in the caucuses. You only have to be of age and live in the precinct. There is no verification process. People who attended the previous caucus find their names on the registration sheets already, but everyone else just has to provide the required information.

The absentee forms are no more or less verifiable. There doesn't seem to have been any fraud in the process, though. Turnout is too low. Anyone who has the initiative to actually attend is almost certainly eligible to participate, frankly. The same would apply to the absentee voters, really.

While I suppose someone could game the system, I can't see what the point would be. Turnout just isn't large enough to support such organized fraud, really. Heck, I recognized most of the people at our caucus as my neighbors in the precinct, and I've talked to most of them while canvassing in the past. It's really a friendly neighborhood thing where I am.

[aspirant]

11. "As an Absentee participant, you won't be able to vote(for candidates, delegates and resolutions)"

How would you include absentee votes in your candidates counts?

[MineralMan]

12. You appear to be correct, there.

I see now that the preference vote only applies if there are subcaucuses, which very, very rarely occur at precinct caucuses.

Thanks for pointing that out. I stand corrected.

[MineralMan]

14. I've edited the OP. Thanks for pointing that out.

I read the form too quickly, it seems.