Let’s have mail-in ballots, not caucuses

Bernard Mesco, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Regarding Jill Derby’s Sunday commentary headlined “Nevada’s importance is tied to caucus”:

I wish I could be as optimistic as Ms. Derby, chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party, about the caucus process. I was a temporary chairman at one of the precinct meetings during the caucus, and the experience that I went through (I’ll spare the details, though I’ll mention that one thing I was supposed to do was read a letter to the group from Jill Derby, and I never got the chance) leads me to predict that if the Democratic Party attempts to hold the same thing next time it will be a failure.

I understand the caucus cost the Nevada Democratic Party more than $2 million.

I’d like to propose a much simpler and less costly system a mail-in ballot. The mailing would have a ballot card with the names of the candidates and a return envelope. It should have a specific date to mail by and the ballots would be counted on that date.

The one highlight of the caucus was that I did get to reregister more than 30 Republicans to the Democratic Party.