The Iowa caucuses are a symbol of everything wrong with America’s election systems. Regardless of who won, the delays, confusion, concerns over accessibility, apparent conflicts of interest and general lack of organization all exemplify how stuck in the past our democratic systems really are. 

A caucus works by registered party members meeting in a central location and standing in a delineated area to be counted as voting for a certain candidate. Remember in middle school English class, when the teacher would have the class stand in different corners depending on their opinions about a plot-point in a book? That is basically how it works. 

The Iowa caucus takes hours to conduct and voters have to remain in the building for the whole time in order for their participation to be counted. There are two rounds of voting. The first establishes baseline support, and any candidate with less than 15% of the vote is knocked out immediately. 

Unlike a primary, the Iowa caucuses allow, and are actually built around, the idea of electioneering, with a candidate’s supporters being encouraged to convince other people to support their candidate. After the first voting round, a 30-minute window opens for those who support the candidates polling over 15% to convince those who supported the now-removed candidates to move to their candidate. 

Obviously, an hours-long process that requires a lot of standing, arguing, head-counting and asking attendees to participate in spirited political engagement the whole time is not going to appeal to a large majority of people, not to mention the difficulties this poses for the disabled. This process makes it nearly impossible for those who do not have hours to spare during their evening to vote in the primaries and it discourages all but the most ardent voters from participating. 

The caucuses are confusing, disorganized, unrepresentative and inefficient. They are also poorly run. This year, the Iowa Democratic Party attempted to expand access to the caucuses by allowing for satellite caucuses to be held, hosted by volunteers. One satellite caucus was held in a voter’s apartment building, focused specifically on helping the physically disabled engage in the caucus process. However, the counting methods were poorly drafted and a delay ensured that results were held up, when they are usually reported by the next morning. 

Not only are the Iowa caucuses archaic, they also exert an undue amount of influence over each presidential election. Being the first test of any primary candidates, the media spends a significant amount of time covering the Iowa caucuses and any candidate walking out of Iowa with a poor performance is then saddled with an uphill battle for the upcoming primary elections. A tiny contingency of mostly white, mostly middle-class Iowans is basically deciding how the whole primary season will go, and they are doing it with a system that encourages a lack of representation for minorities. 

Photo from Pete for America via Flickr