Jim Hartman: Nevada GOP’s primary/caucus chaos

Republican voters throughout Nevada are now receiving their sample ballots for the official Feb. 6 Nevada Presidential Preference Primary (PPP).
Voters are stunned to find missing from the official GOP primary ballot the name of former President Donald J. Trump.
Also missing from the GOP primary ballot is the name of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — as well as former governor Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The GOP ballot does contain the name of former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley along with two candidates who have suspended their campaigns (Mike Pence and Tim Scott) and four political unknowns.
Republican voters have expressed outrage and confusion in social media posts and have flooded local election officials with questions about their ballots.
Most misdirect their anger.
The ballots are not mistakes. The confusion was predictable. It’s a result of the Nevada Republican Party’s decision to ban candidates whose names appear on the primary ballot from participating in the Nevada GOP’s party caucus on Feb. 8.
The Democrats didn’t cause this. Or the Secretary of State. Or county registrars. The sole responsibility for this primary election fiasco rests with the Nevada Republican Party.
By way of history:
In 2021, the Nevada legislature in a bipartisan super-majority vote of both houses approved a law shifting the state’s presidential nominating system from a caucus model, now used by only a few states, to a primary model run by state and local election officials instead of party officials.
Legislators found caucuses to be exclusionary; primaries increase participation.
In July 2023, the Nevada Republican Party filed a lawsuit to block the state from holding a primary. The party insisted on conducting a caucus instead. The lawsuit was dismissed and an appeal denied.
Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald and state party leadership are longtime supporters of Donald Trump. They know a tightly controlled caucus with limited participation advantages Trump.
A primary system with vastly more Republican voters involved would result in a less certain outcome.
The last three Nevada GOP presidential caucuses (2008, 2012, 2016) averaged 51,000 voters. The last GOP presidential primary back in 1996 had 146,000 votes cast.
At a September 2023 meeting in Winnemucca closed to the press, the Nevada GOP adopted a rule that any presidential candidate who put their name on the state-run primary ballot would be prohibited from participating in the party caucus election and ineligible to be awarded any of the state’s 26 national convention delegates.
Another rule required a $55,000 fee to be paid to the Nevada GOP by each presidential candidate registering for the caucus. Without money to conduct the caucus, the Nevada GOP wanted the candidates to finance it.
While a caucus is completely unnecessary, what the party could have done and should have done was let all the candidates participate in BOTH the primary and caucus. In an unambiguous effort to rig the caucus for Trump, it instead prohibited candidates from filing for the primary if they wanted to participate in the caucus.
For those Republicans confused by the absence of their candidate and wanting to “write in” the name of their preferred choice — that can’t be done. Nevada doesn’t allow write-ins.
Historically, Nevada GOP-run caucuses have proven failures.
In 2012, Nevada caucus results came two days late with the Nevada Republican Party taking the blame for a shambolic handling of the vote.
With a mere 33,000 caucus voters participating results could not be timely announced.
Nevada political pundit, Jon Ralston, said the caucus problems were caused by Nevada’s Republican Party being “completely incompetent.” Will the 2024 caucus be different?
The primary v. caucus confusion has caused GOP presidential campaigns to largely ignore Nevada in making appearances and placing advertising. It’s a huge missed opportunity to have created interest and boost registration.
The Nevada GOP created this chaos.
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.