Saturday's Kansas City Star included an article about the antiquated caucus system, titled Caucus system takes many Kansans out of the race. The article makes a number of good points about how inconvenient it can be to caucus, and how turnout for caucuses is significantly lower than for primaries. One glaring error, however, is the Star's mistaken reporting that the Democratic caucus begins at 7 a.m. on Super Tuesday. Whether an error or something more nefarious, if you know any Kansas caucusers, please pass along the correct information.
The article laments the "disenfranchising" of Kansas voters, citing the inconvenience of the caucus as the reason for expected low turnout in Kansas on Super Tuesday.
Let's go to the numbers. Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh pushed a primary on lawmakers last year, only to be turned down because of its $1.2 million price tag. Thornburgh estimated that as many as 800,000 Kansans would have turned out for a presidential primary this week.
Instead, maybe 40,000 Democrats, Republicans and independents will take part in the quadrennial drill, he said.
While we certainly hope for much greater than 40,000 total turnout across both parties' caucuses, the article itself risks depressing turnout:
The Democrats will host their caucuses at 7 a.m. Tuesday; Republicans host theirs at 10 a.m. Saturday.
This is incorrect. The Dem caucus begins at 7 p.m.; voters must be in line at their caucus site before 7 p.m. (doors generally open at 6 p.m.). The article draws from an interview with at least one person who seems to believe it would be impossible to be in line to caucus at 7 a.m. (and, indeed, you would expect the caucus to be poorly-attended if this were the case).
The article also cites to another piece of misinformation, at least as it pertains to the Democratic caucus:
They're disfranchised because they don't have the time, interest or inclination to spend an hour or two (or in western Kansas, seven hours) taking part in a boring, prolonged, antiquated political process known as the caucus.
The Democractic caucus will not take 7 hours, regardless of where you are located in the state. Two hours is a fair estimate of the caucus process, which is explained in greater detail by the Kansas Democratic Party.
If you are a Kansas voter, please alert your friends and family to the correct start time for the caucus, 7 p.m., and dispel the notion that this will be a grueling 7-hour event. Kansas has not had many caucuses, and since we have not previously voted in primary season when it "mattered," many potential voters are likely to be confused on these issues. The Kansas City Star's misinformation does not help.