The Iowa Democratic Party is preparing to implement the most Sweeping and Radical Changes to its First-in-the-Nation Caucuses in 50 years, including potentially adopting Online Elements that could increase Participation by upward of 100,000 Voters, according to Party Leaders.
“We have spent many, many months and thousands of hours of conversations with a whole lot of different folks about what is the best solution. And we’re in the process right now, literally this month, of crafting that into a draft of a delegate selection plan,” Iowa Democratic Party Executive Director Kevin Geiken said.
“We’re down to about three choices,” he said. “We’re down to an absentee ballot system. We’re down to a proxy system. We’re down to a tele-caucus system. I would venture to say that we are even down to two potential solutions, because the absentee ballot process is so complicated logistically that I just don’t think that is a viable solution for us.”
Geiken said the Party is hoping this month to Complete its Report assessing these Options and then move toward working out the considerable Details to Implement their Plan at Caucuses to be held in Iowa’s 1,679 Precincts. The DNC must Approve each State’s Procedures.
Iowa’s 2020 Caucuses were already going to be Historic and pose Logistical Challenges for Party Officials, given a field of a Dozen or more Candidates. But implementing the new DNC 2020 Delegate Selection Rules, which articulate broad Goals such as Same-Day Registration and Remote Participation without Specifying how to Accomplish those Requirements, adds layers of Election Administration Complexity for the Iowa party. The Party is Not a State or Federal Government Agency routinely Running Elections.
In 2016, there were 171,500 Participants in Iowa’s Democratic Caucuses out of 629,000 Registered Democrats in the State.
Voting by Mail raises Red Flags, Geiken explained. To start, the State Party must Pass what he called “a New Hampshire test,” which means the Caucus cannot be turned into a Primary Election, as New Hampshire is as strongly committed to being the First Primary State as Iowa is committed to being the First Caucus State. That means the Iowa Party cannot urge every Registered Democrat to Request an Absentee Ballot to Caucus by Mail.
Going a bit deeper, even if the Iowa Party wanted to offer that Option, and Geiken said that County Election Officials have been telling him this is Not easy to Administer, there is the Question of Ballot Design. What does that Ballot look like so that it gives Participants a way to Revise their Choice in sync with the Successive Rounds of Caucus Voting? Also, Tabulating Mail Ballots with the In-Person Numbers generated across Iowa is quite a Logistical Challenge.
If these used Ranked-Choice Voting, that would Solve this Caucus Issue.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
