I just read this article on the Iowa caucuses. Unlike an election where has a 12+ hour window to vote and the possibility of absentee ballots a caucus requires one to show up in person and devote an entire evening. Can employers really (legally) refuse to allow their employees time off to particpate? Jurors must be given time off everywhere, don’t they? It just seems so wrong? Does Iowa have even primaries for other offices or are all candidates chosed by caucus?
From your link:
The answer, it seems to me, is that we simply shouldn’t let it heavily influence anything.
Bill Clinton didn’t win Iowa, & he went on to two moderately successful (if occasionally embarrassing) terms. But frontrunner Howard Dean was given up on when he failed to mobilize caucus-goers. Maybe Dean just had a lot of young & working-class people in his corner, including retail workers?
I’m from Missouri, & I hate the level of credibility given to our Iowa-caucusing neighbors. There’s more to this country than a sea of cereal-grain fields, let alone the bunch of white retirees with disproportionate free time that run that little dog-and-pony show.
This all depends on state law. Minnesota, for example, seems to provide some rights to workers to attend caucuses.
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/getpub.php?type=s&year=current&num=202A.19
The leave can be unpaid, which of course deters folks with low incomes from using it. On the other hand, requirements for leave of any type to be paid are extremely rare.