But not necessarily illegal or anything.

If the stte party desires voting instead, they hold a primary.

This is the political system we have. If you dislike how the party conducts the choice for presidential nominee in your state, get involved and work to change it.

The time to do that for the 2016 race was 2012 and before.

If the state primary is early enough, it's much cheaper to stack it on a primary election promoted by the state. Otherwise, it's cheaper to pay for a caucus than to pay for an election.

So it comes down to whether or not to wait, have less of a voice, and let the state pay for it or hold it earlier and go on the cheap with a caucus.

Whether or not states hold primaries at all is also a state by state decision. Many that do hold them so late that the party MUST hold a caucus or pay for a special primary in order to seat delegates before the national convention. In the cases where a caucus determines the delegates, a primary held aftre is referred to as a "beauty contest".

this will be especially true in Nevada, of course.

That is a discussion my daughter and I had when we were caucusing.
Shut ins, those who have to work, those who have college classes, those who don't have transportation, those who have to watch children (we did have a baby or two), and even some high school activities were going on that night.

I REALLY dislike caucuses. You must be physically present to vote in them.

One really strange thing about Nevada's system is that it ALSO has a primary, which will be on June 14, 2016. http://elections.mytimetovote.com/dates/nevada.html

I wish they'd get rid of them.

It's an anachronistic piece of nonsense that might have had a place 100 or more years ago.

It's just silly and exclusionary, now.

their caucus system and this is only their second contested Democratic caucus. They switched from Primary style voting to expedite getting Nevada the earlier place in the process that it now has.

This is part of why Nevada is so very hard to poll currently.

... I would find caucusing nearly impossible.
Am very grateful my state has a primary instead.

Last edited Fri Feb 19, 2016, 09:20 PM - Edit history (1)

... but there's no way I'd last the day, especially in an open, noisy, crowded space, that may or may not have adequate heat and/or bathrooms.

... when I told them I was out of state military.

Strangely, it's how representatives were initially chosen. Most of the folks at the continental congress, or the constitutional convention were chosen roughly this way. Folks would gather in pubs and have lively discussion. At the end they would elect people to go to the state level and elect folks to go to the "continental" level. In many cases, these folks went for in essence "one event" and had very specific instructions on how to vote.

Not saying it is how it should work in the modern world. I do think that some "socialization" of voting has value.

or at the minimum from reading some of the comments, a process which excludes anyone who cannot physically be present, which excludes some people

I work second shift and weekends. I would not be able to attend a caucus.

Here's the definition of the word CAUCUS:

1. a meeting of the members of a legislative body who are members of a particular political party, to select candidates or decide policy.

synonyms: meeting, assembly, gathering, congress, conference, convention, rally, convocation
"caucuses will be held in eleven states"

•the members of a caucus.

2. a group of people with shared concerns within a political party or larger organization.

synonyms: members, party, faction, camp, bloc, group, set, band, ring, cabal, coterie, pressure group
"the conservative caucus"

... the question posed is whether caucuses are inherently discriminatory in their structure, and the answer to that is clearly YES.

in a caucus

I suffer from agoraphobia and panic attacks.

any reason, from work, caregiving, illness, infirmity, housebound, etc etc could keep someone from caucusing. they should at least have a mail in option.

learned something about the caucus structure