Keywords
presidential election; election law; election process law
Abstract
Following the 2016 election cycle, there will be a great opportunity to implement reform. A major change should be to move away from presidential caucuses. They persist with, in the words of John Oliver, “complex, opaque rules.” These complex rules, which include participating in person for over an hour, negatively impacts participation in the electoral process. For example, in 2012, “participation rates in the Republican Party’s caucuses averaged 3 percent.” 3 percent. Compellingly, PolitiFact has observed that “[c]aucuses and delegate math can be incredibly confusing, and the arcane party structures don’t reflect how most people assume presidential selection works.” Yet, we want voters to understand the process and to feel engaged. For these reasons, and the others discussed in this Article, it is time to end states’ use of the presidential caucuses to select party nominees.
Recommended Citation
Sean J. Wright,
Time to End Presidential Caucuses,
85 Fordham L. Rev. 1127
(2016).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol85/iss3/9
Included in
Election Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, President/Executive Department Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons