New study puts Iowa caucuses under fire -- again

by John McCormick

The often-under-fire Iowa caucuses are taking some heat again as a new report by The Century Foundation alleges the voting procedure is antiquated and violates fundamental rights such as equal opportunity to participate and fair access to the ballot.

“While it is absolutely good for democracy for citizens to engage in group deliberation about elections, this no longer makes sense as a mechanism for actually picking the two presidential candidates,” the report states.

The report suggests the main problem with the caucus system is the associated low participation rates, which are even lower than for primaries. In 2004, for example, the report says that turnout for the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire was 29.9 percent, compared to about 6 percent for the Iowa caucuses.

Participation in Democratic caucuses after Iowa, the report says, were even lower. For example: North Dakota (2.3 percent), Washington (2.5 percent), Michigan (2.3 percent).

Despite the low turnout, Iowa Democratic and Republican leaders often argue in response to such challenges that party activists in their state take their role of winnowing the candidate field very serious and that massive amounts of money are not needed to win the state.

Same-day registration is also allowed for the caucuses, meaning that just about anyone who is a resident of voting age and can spend a couple hours at a meeting on a cold night can participate.

The study can be found at this link.