2020 Nevada Democratic Caucuses

The Weeping Frenchman. MSNBC's Chris Matthews compared Sanders' victory to the Fall of France to the Nazis in 1940.^[1]

The 2020 Nevada Democratic caucuses were the third contest for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the 2020 general election. They were held in Nevada on Saturday, February 22, 2020. 36 of the state's 48 delegates to the Democratic National Convention were to be decided on the basis of the caucus results.

Vermont senator and avowed socialist Bernie Sanders was the winner of the caucus, gaining a clear majority of available delegates, followed by Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg.

Procedure[edit]

Like caucuses in other states, most notably the Iowa caucus, the Nevada caucus differs from conventional primary elections in that it does not include a single step of casting individual ballots. It is sometimes known as a walking subcaucus, in which groups of voters choose representative delegates who are pledged to a particular candidate. Individual caucuses are held in each of the state's precincts; those participating must be residents of the precinct and registered as Democrats (registration may occur on the day of the caucus).

Early voting opened on February 15th, closing on the 18th. Due to viability thresholds, those voting early must mark their preferred candidate and at least one other (up to five choices in order of preference are allowed). On the day of the vote, caucuses open at 12:00 p.m. PST. Registered Democrats present at the precincts then vote for delegates to county conventions, which in turn will select delegates for the state Democratic convention. The number of delegates chosen per precinct varies according to its population; some choose only one, while others choose four or more.

Each precinct has a first round of voting, in which members separate into groups based on their preferred candidate and select delegates. Based on how many delegates the precinct is choosing, candidates must meet a viability threshold in the vote percentage. If a one-delegate precinct, this is a minimum of 50% of those present, compared to 25% in two-delegate precincts, 16.67% in three-delegate precincts, and 15% in larger precincts. Groups not meeting this threshold may transfer their votes to another candidate during the second and final round of voting.

The caucus vote is not the end of the delegate selection process, as the higher rounds of voting have yet to take place. The county conventions (this year on Saturday, April 18) will pick delegates for the state Democratic convention (Saturday, May 30). These final two conventions will select the 36 delegates who (in addition to 12 unpledged delegates) will represent Nevada at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Pro-socialist Vermont Senator and current Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders

After the results of the individual precinct votes are released, a winner is determined based on the total number of pledged delegates and the projected number of delegates this will translate to among those 36 pledged for the national convention. Of the 36, 13 will reflect the overall state results; the other 23 will reflect results within each of the state's four congressional districts (five from the 1st district, six each from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th). Since the slate of candidates on the date of the caucus will almost certainly change between the date of the caucus and the date of the convention, the convention will see some reshuffling of the share of delegates, as is true of those chosen in other state primaries and caucuses.^[2]

Reporting Method

Initially, the state Democratic party intended to use the Shadow social media app for the reporting of results from the individual precincts, as was done in the Iowa caucus. Due to the extensive technical problems that resulted from the use of the app, though, it was decided to use the Google Forms app instead to send in results, via iPads distributed to the precinct chairs. As was the case in Iowa, concerns have been raised about whether the chairs were given adequate instruction in the use of the app, with some suggesting the results would be "disastrous."^[3]

Polling[edit]

Until early January, former Vice-President Joe Biden dominated the polling for the Nevada caucus, averaging 25-30% of the vote. Over the month of January, the situation shifted in favor of Bernie Sanders, who held a significant lead in the two weeks prior to the caucus. The latest polls have indicated a maintenance of these figures: an Emerson College poll covering the period February 19–20, 2020, gave him 30% of the vote as compared to 16% for Biden,^[4] while a Data for Progress poll ending February 21 gave the socialist senator a 19-point lead over Biden and Elizabeth Warren.^[5]

The most recent poll aggregators suggested a pronounced lead for Sanders, with 30-32%, with Biden and Buttigieg vying for a distant second.

Results[edit]

Although the caucus concluded on the afternoon of the 22nd, results were only slowly tabulated and released to the public; it was not until the 24th that all precincts were shown as reporting. Early on, however, the vote-counting clearly indicated a victory for Sanders, which the final numbers confirmed.

See also[edit]

• Russia 3.0

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Putin Wins Big in Nevada!, The Still Report, Feb 22, 2020. YouTube