Presidential Election 2016

[grant1simons2]

Well the good thing is Ken Martin and Gov. Dayton both support moving to a primary or at least a hybrid system.

[Nathan]

I do understand that it's pretty difficult to get in at a certain time, but I was able to find a absentee ballot online pretty easily, and you're allowed to have one of your neighbors bring it in.

[FISHMANPET]

There was no absentee voting for the preference ballot so... I don't know what you found.

[Nathan]

That's weird...

https://www.dfl.org/about-our-party/cau ... nventions/

http://www.dfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2 ... n-form.pdf

... they go through all that and then in the fine print it says, even though there's a spot for presidential preference, it's not an actual ballot.

[talindsay]

That's weird...

https://www.dfl.org/about-our-party/cau ... nventions/

http://www.dfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2 ... n-form.pdf

... they go through all that and then in the fine print it says, even though there's a spot for presidential preference, it's not an actual ballot.

Well, it's not exactly fine print but your point stands: to somebody who doesn't understand caucuses, it looks like a presidential preference ballot. The reason they're asking for your preference even though it doesn't constitute a ballot is that one can use this form to be considered as a delegate, and often delegate selection happens by subcaucusing around candidates or issues. So by indicating a preference, you can be considered by the right subcaucus as a potential delegate. If you don't state a preference and they decide to subcaucus around a candidate, you're pretty guaranteed to not be selected as a delegate.

Now the question of *why* it doesn't count as a presidential preference ballot is a bit baffling since these forms have more legal standing than the actual ballots used (what with having signatures on them and being verifiably traceable to an individual). The process certainly isn't airtight enough for this form to introduce any higher risk of fraud. Somebody who wanted to correct this could get herself / himself named to the rules committee at the state convention and try to change it.

[Anondson]

Thought: It seems the past few weeks of primaries and caucuses have solidified a few ideas I've long held.

1. Caucuses are rather exclusionary, ideal for party insiderism, not so much for increasing participation. I'm glad so many voices chimed in with proposals to ditch in favor of primaries.

2. I'm all for parties running themselves for the benefit of the party, keeping outside meddling and shenanigans low. Preventing mischief where people with intentions against the party are allowed to participate in the outcome of a party's nomination. I'm in favor of parties keeping their caucuses or primaries only for registered party members. Why? Seeing Trump do worst in states where primaries and caucuses are closed, instead of open, gives me the thought that parties just might be better off only allowing party members from casting votes for party nominations.

3. Overly wide window voting and cruelly short window voting are both not good. In caucus/primary season, absentee voting weeks ahead of time is just ... something feels absurd about it when dynamics change so much when the field can have so many choices even as choices drop out. Absentee voting in caucus/primary season should at least offer ranked voting. With this, I believe voting (primaries, but especially election voting) should be held over two entire days where all employers are required to give all employees one or the other day off as holiday to vote.

[amiller92]

On closed versus open, I think the benefit of welcoming new people into the process outweighs the harm of potential shenanigans. I think strategic cross overs are actually pretty rare, and I'm not willing to give up the option of someone participating for the first time because the GOP is a nuthouse. And really, do we think the new participants voting for Trump aren't "real" GOP voters? Why?

Agreed as to 3. Primary/caucus voting is too early in the process to be done by absentee way in advance.

[Nathan]

The Amalgamated Transit Union endorses Bernie Sanders

"Another Major Union Just Endorsed Bernie Sanders" - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2016/02/1 ... 62218.html

[Sacrelicio]

A quick bit of motivated reasoning:

I'm seeing some Bernie supporters lamenting that Hillary wins big in states that will not go for the Dems in November, presumably implying that there's some unfairness there somewhere.

Perhaps, but historically winning at least some of the south has been essential to electing a Dem (Obama reelection, VA & FL; Obama election; VA, NC, & FL; Clinton reelection, AR, LA, FL, TN & KY; Clinton election: AR, LA, TN, KY & GA; Carter swept the south in arguably a different era). Today, Dem success in the south depends on black voter turnout and for whatever reason, Bernie doesn't seem to be inspiring black voters. If he was the nominee and unable to keep, for example, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida in play, that would be a big disadvantage.

Maybe that's unfair and black voters in the south would be excited to turn out for Bernie as the nominee. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not sure I understand exactly why they are breaking so strongly for Hillary.

I see this come up a lot and what some people don't understand is that it's completely irrelevant whether a state like South Carolina or Mississippi goes for the Democrats in November. This is about choosing the candidate that will represent the party this fall. Whether you live in Minneapolis or Memphis, those votes matter.

[mister.shoes]

Cruz/Fiorina. I can't even.

[Silophant]

Because that strategy worked so well for McCain.

[MNdible]

You can trash Fiorina on a lot of things, but she's hardly in the same class as Palin.

[mister.shoes]

You're right. She's never been elected to govern anything before.

[Tiller]

I'm OK with this because Cruz will never ever win a general election. Literally the worst person running for president.

[mister.shoes]

Oh, I'm more than OK with it. It's absolutely hilarious to me and illustrates yet another reason why he's completely and utterly incompetent and unfit for the job.

[David Greene]

But he knows his basketball!

[seamonster]

But he knows his basketball!

Ringball, please.

[Mitt SchIsaac]

Did anyone hear about the new york politician who promised to take cyanide if Ted Cruz became president. Classic!

[grant1simons2]

So uh... Trump, huh?

[Tiller]

Ted Cruz may have lost this time, but he shall return every 4 years for millenia until he becomes human president! Ted Cruz 2116!
http://www.tedcruzforhumanpresident.com/