LETTER: Caucus system holds no purpose in large metropolitan area such as Las Vegas

In 2008, I took part in what was to be Nevada’s first caucus to determine the delegates for the upcoming Democratic nomination. It was a fiasco. The “polling station” I attended was a minutiae of people who were ignorant of the procedures necessary to convene the groups in the needed fashion. After hours of frustration, the groups came away with a semblance of how the caucus should have been run, the efficacy of which I was unsure.

Now we are experiencing Round 2, and it hasn’t improved. I stood in line for more than three hours, was given a paper ballot that was nebulous at best and my preference was not even among the candidates listed.

The reason to hold a caucus rather than a primary, I assume, is for small communities to gather and discuss the qualifications among themselves before choosing delegates to represent them. This is understandable for small communities, but holds no purpose in a large metropolitan area such as ours.

It is time to return to a system of choosing candidates via a primary. If the people running the caucuses don’t know what they are doing, they cannot convey the procedures to the voters in a comprehensive way.