Nevada – This year, the Nevada Democratic and Republican parties have decided to hold their primary caucuses on a Saturday, with citizens required to report by 11:30 and 9:00 AM respectively, right during morning religious services.
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When I called the political parties in Nevada to inquire as to whether or not there were measures being taken to help accommodate those observant Jews who wished to participate in the caucuses, I received mixed results. A young Jewish woman at the Nevada Democratic Party told me that they had tried to put caucus-sites near religious neighborhoods and synagogues so that people could walk; precinct captains would be educated about the need to write down information on behalf of observant Jews instead of asking them to sign-in and write themselves. A gentleman at the Nevada Republican Party told me that the party was not even aware of the problem, but promised to make an effort to educate precinct captains on the issue. Neither had an adequate answer as to why the caucuses had to take place on a Shabbat morning.
Nevada has one of the fastest growing Jewish populations in the country, and its 65,000-80,000 Jewish community members are expected to have a disproportionate impact on the results. I do not know how many of these Jews are observant enough to be effectively barred from participating in the caucus. I do not know how many of these Jews will be pushed into the uncomfortable position of choosing between attending synagogue and participating in a cherished American civic tradition. I DO know that it is highly unlikely that the state’s political parties would choose to hold these caucuses on a Sunday morning during church services. [jewishpublicaffairsblog]
If the caucus was held during Muslim prayers CAIR would have sent out press releases declaring that Muslim’s civil rights were being violated.
The date was chosen & publicized weeks ago, possibly months ago.
AND NOW THEY WAKE UP???
I would suspect most Nevada Jews are not especially frum.
That having been said, hopefully the parties will search out what frum Jews want to participate and try to accomodate them somehow.
Beyond that, the whole caucus system, as we saw in Iowa, is stupid and should be abolished in favor of primaries. It not only inconveniences the voter by forcing him to hang around for a couple of hours instead of just voting quickly, but more importantly, it goes against the American tradition of secret-ballot elections.
If someone has to publicly declare who he or she is for, they may be intimidated into not supporting the candidate of their choice, either by social pressures or even fear for their jobs (this is especially so among the Dems, where labor unions are a major party constituency and frequently endorse candidates; someone who publicly goes against his union’s choice may find himself in trouble on the job, find his tires slashed, etc.) Would blacks participating in a Democratic caucus be likely to publicly declare for any candate other than Sen. Obama?
How different is a caucus from a phony election in the old Soviet Union, Saddam’s Irag, Iran, etc., where you vote under the watchful eyes of government officers or local busybody informers who report back to their bosses whom you voted for?
There’s no absentee ballots in a caucus.
its not called Sin City for nothing!
There is a simple solution.
Use the absentee ballot!