Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton (Dem) has signed a bill that replaces the state’s caucus with primaries. May this be the first of all the caucus states to do the same! The March 1 caucus was a big win for Sanders who won the contest with over 61% of the vote in this open caucus.
Governor Dayton's office announced Sunday that he had signed the bill that would establish a primary in the state beginning in 2020.
Talking Points Memo had a quick write up on the death of the MN Caucus:
The Minnesota secretary of state, Steve Simon, told Minnesota station KMSP in March that the primary could allow more voters to participate in the primary.
"Keep in mind if it’s a real primary election, unlike a caucus, there would be an absentee period where people would vote before the election. Not so with caucuses, where you need to be there in person at a particular hour, 7 p.m., or else you can’t vote," he said.
My 20 year old niece wanted to vote in the Washington state caucus but couldn’t because her work wouldn’t give her the time off. She could have taken advantage of Washington state’s pretty liberal proxy ballot, but she didn’t know about it. If you want to get more voters in the nomination process, stop railing about whether a primary is open or closed and focus on getting rid of the anti-democratic, pain in the ass caucus! Primaries with early voting periods include far more people than closed primaries preclude.
One down and twelve more caucuses to go. Finally, some good caucus news everyone can get behind.
UPDATE: I couldn’t find a link that told me whether the new Minnesota Primary will be open or closed. I wonder if the state Democratic Party determines that. Another interesting thing about the 2016 Minnesota caucus (and their past caucuses) is that they have a fairly high turnout: roughly 200,000 voters (down just a little from 2008) as compared to Colorado, a state with nearly the same sized population and a record caucus turnout in 2016 of 122,000.
UPDATE II: If I am interpreting this right, the new primary will be open:
Whether individual voters picked a Republican ballot or a Democratic one would become public, under the new law. But voters would not be bound in any way to their partisan picks in future elections nor would they have to register with any party in advance of the presidential primary.