Seen in the New York Times:
The lawsuit argues that the Nevada Democratic Party’s decision, decided late last year, to create at-large precincts inside nine Las Vegas resorts on caucus day violates the state’s election laws and creates a system in which voters at the at-large precincts can elect more delegates than voters at other precincts. The lawsuit employs a complex mathematical formula to show that voters at the other 1,754 precincts would have less influence with their votes.
The at-large precincts are being established because thousands of hotel workers cannot leave work to participate in the midday caucuses in their home precincts. The Nevada State Education Association has said it would not endorse any Democrat, but some of its top officials have endorsed Mrs. Clinton. The association’s deputy executive director, Debbie Cahill, for instance, was a founding member of Senator Clinton’s Nevada Women’s Leadership Council.
Naturally, there seems to be a bit of speculation taking place that this is an elevation of the Hillary v. Obama contest, since Obama has been disinclined to bow to the alleged inevitability of Hillary’s nomination and return of the Clinton dynasty.
A few thoughts of my own:
- If primaries and caucuses are the domains of political parties, then it would seem clear to me that the parties get to make the rules. If primaries and caucuses are just extensions of our larger system (and the parties are defacto government institutions), then I think a case could be made that the at-large precincts ought to be replaced with absentee balloting. This is yet another reason why I think partisan primaries shouldn’t be straddling the line between “private” and “public” functions.
- The decision was made months ago, and the caucuses are next weekend. Isn’t it a bit late to be bringing the suit? (Surely, it’s just coincidental that the folks suing have noticed that the candidate they support isn’t doing as well in the polls as had been expected.
- I could buy an argument of “it’s not fair that casino workers get special consideration, but teachers don’t” if the caucus were being held on a weekday, during the day. However, the caucus is being held mid-day on a Saturday, not exactly a time when you’d expect many teachers to be on the job. In fact, I can’t think of any other group of workers (at least not in Nevada) that you’d expect to be on duty en masse with enough potential caucus goers working so as to require similar accommodation.