Precinct Level Caucus ASL Interpreters

[MineralMan]

The 2016 Democratic caucuses for the presidential election are coming up on March 1 in Minnesota. In one of the groups here, someone suggested that an ASL interpreter be present at all precinct caucuses to assist hearing-impaired voters. That sounded like a great idea to me, so I wondered how many precincts there are in my home state of MN.

4117 precincts. Each will hold a Democratic and Republican precinct caucus.

I looked for a registry of ASL interpreters for Minnesota, but could not find one. I did find some agencies that supply ASL interpreters on a fee per service basis. The largest had only 300 interpreters available.

It appears to me that there probably aren't enough ASL intepreters in Minnesota to be available at our more than 8000 precincts. So, it seems unlikely that there will be one at every precinct caucus. We have one at our state senate district conventions, but I've never seen one at a precinct caucus.

Perhaps there needs to be a registry of ASL interpreters who might be willing to attend precinct caucus meetings. I doubt that there is a budget available to provide paid professional interpreters, at these caucuses, even if enough were available, but maybe it would be possible to find enough volunteers.

If you can interpret ASL and are willing to help, please show up at the precinct caucus in your own precinct. In most places, multiple caucuses are held in one location on March 1, so if there is already an interpreter at your precinct, perhaps you could volunteer at another precinct at the same location.

How many hearing-impaired people attend these caucuses is something I do not know. I don't remember any at any caucus I have attended, though.

[ismnotwasm]

1. K&R for exposure

[MineralMan]

2. There are about 64,000 deaf people in Minnesota.

That's almost 2% of our total population. It seems to me that they are more or less disenfranchised during our caucus system, since caucus meetings are dependent on spoken instructions.

I had not considered this before. It seems to me that we should be trying to include our deaf Minnesotans in this important process, but I'm unsure how to help make this happen.

I believe I'll be introducing a resolution for consideration by the convention system here to try to help with this situation.

Here's a link to the deaf population in all 50 states. I'm not sure how up-to-date is is, though:

http://libguides.gallaudet.edu/content.php?pid=119476&sid=1029190

[NurseJackie]

3. I'd never thought of that. The caucus process really does have some downsides ...

... I often wonder why it's still used at all.

[MineralMan]

4. It's tradition, I think. The caucus system has a long

history. I had never really been exposed to it on a major level until I moved to Minnesota. The main drawback I see in it is the low, low participation by the public. As a DFL precinct chair, I'm amazed at how few people show up, even during presidential election years. The 2012 caucus in my precinct had less than six attendees. On the the other hand, we had over 200 people in 2008. Even so, the number of registered voters in my precinct is about 2500, so that's a lousy turnout, indeed.

That low turnout makes it possible for a few people to swing a precinct caucus vote very easily.

Personally, I'd like to see it replaced with regular primaries. We have those here, too, but they don't impact delegate selection for presidential elections.