There was a great side discussion in my last piece on caucus replacements. I argued that caucuses need to die, and if states insist on maintaining them, they should be stripped of two-thirds of their delegates. Some people noted that such a penalty might hurt states at the whim of Republican leadership, and others noted that cost is always an issue. JamesGG actually came up with a great alternative:
I'm not sure there is a way to fully replace caucuses, given that many state parties are holding caucuses because their state governments aren’t willing to fund a state-run presidential primary election.
However, there are ways the DNC and/or state parties could improve caucuses significantly, by essentially turning them into primaries run by the state parties instead of the state government—or what I like to call the PriCaucus™.
Instead of voters having to show up at a specific place and time to be intimidated or harangued for their choices—a feature at many Democratic caucuses—the Democratic PriCaucus™ could have a secret ballot: just check the box next to your preferred candidate’s name (or even rank them if a state wanted to get fancy with IRV) and then go about your business.
PO boxes could be set up by the state Democratic Party in each county for mail-in ballots, or early voting sites for people to drop off their ballots. PriCaucus™ sites could be open all day for people to drop off their ballots, rather than requiring everyone to be in a specific place at a specific time.
(Ironically, in many places, the Republican caucuses tend to be more democratic than the Democratic caucuses; in Iowa, for example, the Republican caucus involved writing your preferred candidate on a piece of paper, dropping that piece of paper in a box, and then going to Applebee’s for a post-caucus appletini while the Democrats spent hours haranguing one another in a high-school gymnasium.)
That would be much better. Even better than that, do an all-mail election, like Oregon. Best of all, an electronic election, with a mail-ballot alternative for people without internet access (these days, that’s mostly older Americans). Democrats Abroad voted online. Don’t know the details, but I would like to follow up and see what they did.
I can’t speak to the cost of an all-mail election, compared to a state party-funded caucus. That would be a great research project for someone with more time than me. But it certainly would beat the status quo.