# Primary vs caucus

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-vs-caucus/748250>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [March 8, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-vs-caucus/748250 "2016-03-08T02:02:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-vs-caucus/748250/1 "2016-03-08T02:02:25Z")

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Which is the better way to have a preliminary election? I like the idea of caucuses because they get people more involved in the process, but they don’t scale up very well if there is an unexpectedly large turnout.

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-vs-caucus/748250/2 "2016-03-08T02:11:06Z")

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I’ve lived in states with both. I’m sure that there is a valid reason to do caucuses, but I think that the drawbacks are greater and they discourage people from participating. Even this year, where one party did primary-like caucuses (don’t have to stay for all the other nonsense), the lines were still prohibitively long.

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**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-vs-caucus/748250/3 "2016-03-08T11:48:41Z")

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I despise caucuses. People have busy lives, families, and children. There’s no one day or time to hold the caucus that will meet everyone’s schedule. Iowa has been gamed by religious fanatics most years and in 2012 the Ron Paul loons not only won but tried to take over the state party.

A primary, with voting open from 8 am-8 pm and allowing early voting and vote by mail is much better. Far easier for the person with the busiest schedule to vote.

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**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-vs-caucus/748250/4 "2016-03-08T18:41:55Z")

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I couldn’t caucus because I work Tuesday nights. With a primary I could have had a voice.