Welcome to the 2nd part of “Democratic Party 101”, where we help you get up-to-speed with things you need to know about the Democratic Party in order to participate within it. This article will focus on three things: Caucuses, Primaries, and what I call the “Independent Question”. Ready? Let’s get started!

Caucuses and Primaries Defined

On their most basic level, Caucuses and Primaries serve largely the same purpose, but they do have fundamental differences and fundamental pros-and-cons.

Caucuses are scheduled meetings of the general voting membership of the Party by precinct. You and your neighbors who are members of the Democratic Party (or affiliate with them in areas that don’t conduct party registration) gather at a location and proceed through a laundry list of party business: you elect your Precinct Officers, you elect Delegates from your precinct to attend the County Convention and represent the candidate(s) chosen, and you vote for who will represent the party in the office or offices in question. The pros of this method is that it gets you and your fellow Democrats face-to-face, it forces you to participate in the Party as membership was meant to be. It also allows people to stump for their chosen candidate and try to win others over, as well as voting for representatives for your precinct at the county level. The con of this of course is that it’s time consuming and sometimes impossible for certain people to participate in.

Primaries on the other hand are your standard passive ballot system. You get a ballot by mail or go to your polling station, you cast your ballot, and you’re done. Sometimes this is an all day thing, sometimes there is a range of days you can vote, but either way the entire process will take a matter of minutes and provides people a flexible schedule. The pro of this method is exactly that: it allows more people to participate. The con of this though is that it does not allow for interaction and participation, nor does it allow for ready voting of delegates or Precinct leadership. In short, you lose a lot of control by gaining convenience.

Personally, I’m in favor of a mixed system, where ballots are mailed out to all registered party members. Party members may vote and turn them in by mail OR may take them to their precinct on Caucus Night. People who want to join the party may do so on Caucus Night but have to participate in the Caucus. Having lived in states that do both primaries and caucuses, I personally have a preference for caucuses over primaries by themselves, and others disagree.

Types of Primaries

Within primaries there are subsets of primaries. Non-partisan primaries can happen for non-partisan positions to whittle down the number of candidates.

Blanket primaries

Blanket primaries are *quasi-partisan* in that the parties are represented but everyone votes the same ballot regardless of party affiliation. The top-two winners, regardless of party affiliation, go on to the General Election. Blanket primaries have the potential to completely shut out other parties out of an election.

Open primaries

Open primaries exist in some states where you get a single-party ballot but you get the ballot based off of what party you wish to participate in, not the party you belong to. So, a Democratic Party member can request a ballot for the Republicans, and vice versa, and their selections will influence who represents that party in the general election. The pro of this is that independents get an opportunity to have a voice, but the con is that it does allow for ‘brigading’, by promoting a bad candidate for the opposition party through participation by non-affiliated or opposition voters.

Closed primaries

Closed primaries require an individual to not only be a registered voter, but a registered party member, and they must only receive the ballot for their registered party. Many people will argue that closed primaries are bad for democracy as they shut out independents and prevent ‘party jumping’ to follow a specific candidate.

Before I continue, let me take a moment to remind people what a political party is:

A political party is a federation of *like minded voters* seeing to promote their ideological platform through elected officials and activism.

The “Independent Question”

Americans have in recent years lauded “party independence”, or purposefully withdrawing from party participation. Many see this as a way to be ‘free of influence’, and not having to tow the ‘party line’. However, what this ultimately does is create a gulf between voters and political parties: political parties represent their active and engaged membership, but voters expect their candidates to represent everyone. As a result we consistently are seeing elected officials that do not represent the views of the majority of their constituents.

If no political party represents the majority of your viewpoints, it would make sense to be an independent voter. However, for the vast majority of independent voters, a party does represent the majority of their viewpoints, whether it be Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, etc.. It is also worth noting that party membership does *not* prevent anyone from voting their conscience in the general election.

The “Independent Question” is then about how to handle independent or unaffiliated voters in the primary/caucus process. If we go back to our definition of a political party, being a federation of like minded voters, and the purpose of the primary/caucus is to choose the candidates that will represent the party, we should conclude that closed primaries would be the only way to go: only party members participate in choosing party candidates, anyone else need not apply.

For the most part, I would agree with this and do think that closed primary/caucus systems are the way to go. As a Democratic Party member, I absolutely would not want the future of my party decided by Republicans or fly-by-night participants. However, there should be processes in place to allow people to participate. Same-day party registration for unaffiliated voters would be one such answer, with a 9-month lock-in (or gestation period), meaning you cannot change your party affiliation for 9-months. The purpose of this lock-in would to still allow for same-day registration of independents but prevent someone from party-hopping or brigading. Party changes should still be able to happen, but with a bit more strict control such as 60 day blackouts prior to a primary or caucus.

For some reading this, these suggestions sound awful (and possibly undemocratic or authoritarian). However, we need to come back for a second and realize we do not have any right to affect the future of an organization we’re not part of. You or I cannot go and vote in a shareholder meeting of a company just because we buy their products, we have to become a shareholder. Likewise, I can’t vote in Minneapolis just because I’m progressive, I have to vote where I live: in the largely conservative suburban Scott County. Parties are like that: the only people participating in party business (including what candidates make the cut) should be members of the party.

Overall there is no benefit to being an unaffiliated voter. Being an unaffiliated voter removes your voice in the political party that closely aligns to your ideals and does not allow you to help shape its destiny. We don’t need to agree 100% with our political parties, but where we don’t agree we can shape that change through participation.

Despite my personal views on primaries and caucuses, I hope this article has educated you in the difference of these systems and why political party membership matters. I hope it has encouraged you to register or affiliate with a party that most closely matches your worldview and encouraged you to participate in shaping it’s future.