After long lines at some Democratic caucus sites Sunday, there is a sudden push to abandon Maine’s presidential caucuses in favor of a primary. There are many benefits to a primary — better turnout, for example. There also are drawbacks, namely cost.
There isn’t, however, an emergency that necessitates lawmakers acting quickly to rework Maine’s system. There won’t be another presidential nominating contest for four years. Lawmakers can take their time to consider changing the system.
Some Democrats stood in line for more than three hours to get into the Portland caucus location at Deering High School on Sunday. Many reportedly chose to leave instead of wait to get into the school and caucus.
These long waits had less to do with the mechanics of party caucuses and more to do with the significant turnout among Democratic voters, especially 1,700 new voters who needed to register in Portland. Indeed, Democrats set a record for caucus turnout Sunday.
Now, Senate Minority Leader Justin Alfond, a Portland Democrat, plans to introduce legislation to make Maine a primary state. He already has support from top Republicans, including Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, and House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, who said he was willing to cosponsor the legislation to “have a conversation about how to get more people involved in the process of nominating our presidential candidates.”
It’s promising to see political leaders from both sides of the aisle support the idea of expanding voter participation in the presidential nominating process. But the prospects for changing the system aren’t necessarily good. Interest in changing the nominating process, after all, is highest during caucus season, then it quickly withers.
In 2012, after problems with Republican caucuses, there was emergency legislation to drop caucuses in favor of primaries. It resulted in a resolve that directed lawmakers to consider the issue again in the next legislative session, and the issue quietly died in 2013.
Primary elections have the advantage of consuming less of voters’ time. They use secret ballots; traditional caucuses require participants to physically group together to support their candidate — though Republicans this year held caucuses with secret ballots. Primaries are held at the traditional polling places in each community. Political party leaders decide where caucuses are held, and they happen in far fewer locations than elections.
As a result, primary elections generally have much higher turnout than caucuses. Despite the long lines at Sunday’s Democratic caucuses, only about 15 percent of registered Democrats participated. For Republicans this year, turnout was only 7 percent.
While they have many benefits, presidential primaries have two major problems: timing and cost, which are intertwined. Because the state and municipalities pay for and run primary elections, they would likely be held in June, along with primaries for legislative and congressional seats. But because presidential nominating contests are usually decided by June, Maine would get little attention from the presidential candidates and the national media. The state could hold held an earlier presidential primary — the 1996 and 2000 presidential primaries were held in March — but that would erase the savings from holding all primaries on the same day.
In exchange for more flexibility, Maine’s political parties could cover the cost of a primary, estimated at about $1 million. But the GOP and the Democratic Party say they don’t have the resources.
Maine also could opt for a hybrid system similar to what the GOP used Saturday. While caucusing took place, Republicans could sign in, get a paper ballot, cast their vote in secret and leave. Turnout this year was three times higher than in 2012. However, there were only 22 GOP caucus sites, so some participants complained of long drives to participate. Absentee balloting was limited to deployed military personnel and disabled veterans.
Lawmakers could consider changing both those factors — location and absentee voting — in order to increase turnout.
The push to drop caucuses has generated a lot of momentum in the past few days. But lawmakers should take their time in considering changes instead of rush to conclusions based on a few long lines.
