Lori Sturdevant: Overloaded and outdated

Record-smashing attendance at Tuesday's caucuses may have accomplished what decades of dismal turnout could not -- persuade Minnesotans to replace precinct caucuses with a real presidential primary.

That "duh!" idea hit me 'long about 7:55 p.m. Tuesday, when I sidled up to DFL state chair Brian Melendez and heard him urging via Minnesota Public Radio that people who were in line in their cars at 8 p.m. be allowed to vote.

Or maybe it was a minute later, when my 19-year-old son called to report he'd cast his first-ever presidential preference vote -- on a Post-It note. His precinct turned out 722 voters, and ballots had run out.

My night was loaded with moments that add up to an indictment of the system that for a half-century has offered Minnesotans an often inadequate opportunity to help select candidates for president. Consider:

• 6:25 p.m.: Running late (per usual). Driving west on Crosstown Hwy. 62, heading for Tracy Avenue and Valley View Middle School, when traffic slows, then stops, almost a mile from the exit. Can this be caucus traffic?

• 6:40 p.m.: Having taken the Gleason Road exit instead, I creep past the school behind a long line of cars, looking for a parking space. Fat chance.

• 6:45 p.m.: How far does this backup go? I set out to find the end of the southbound queue on Tracy Avenue. Past the Crosstown, past Benton Avenue, almost to Vernon Avenue -- more than 1 1/2 miles!

Son reports that a waiting line streams around the block at his Minneapolis caucus. "Some people don't have heavy coats. They're really cold."

Decision: Turnout's the story tonight -- not divining the presidential preferences of a swing district's voters. I head to Carpenters' Hall in St. Paul, the evening's DFL HQ.

• 7:10 p.m.: Annoyed son reports he stood for 30 minutes in the wrong line. He's back outside to wait all over again.

• 7:20 p.m.: Rumors swirl at Carpenters' Hall, to wit: Churches taking in lost caucus-goers. Police turning crowds away. I expect to hear next that the Red Cross is on its way with blankets.

• 7:50 p.m.: In tones befitting the questioning of FEMA officials, reporters ask Melendez about the adequacy of party preparations for massive caucus turnout. He acknowledges that "the system is really being stressed tonight," but defends caucuses.

"With a primary, we don't get to engage with our neighbors, the way we do at a caucus," the party chair says. I think about all the neighborhood engagement I witnessed on Tracy Avenue.

• 8:20 p.m.: Andy Calkins of the Minnesota Nurses Association reports that people at Roseville Area High School couldn't participate in the district and state delegate selection process if they'd wanted to. "There was no room in the rooms."

• 8:30 p.m.: U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar hones the telling of this story: At Sandburg Middle School in Golden Valley, the senator inquired about the well-being of a frail-looking elderly woman standing in a long line.

"She said, 'I've waited seven years through George W. Bush. I can wait an hour in this line.'"

• 8:45 p.m.: Party spokesguy John Stiles says that big crowds are causing problems mostly in the suburbs, because of parking.

Not so, counters Greg Iverson of Minneapolis. Most years, Ward 11, Precinct 9 turns out 30 people; 10 times that many appeared Tuesday night. People were asked to leave after casting their presidential ballots because of overcrowding, he says.

• 9 p.m.: Ann Ciresi, wife of U.S. Senate candidate Mike, says she was "totally exhilarated" by big turnouts she's seen in Bloomington, Burnsville and Eagan. But she acknowledges a downside to what she's seen, too: "We need the process to be simple, so people are not discouraged."

• 9:15 p.m.: State Rep. Rick Hansen, South St. Paul, says he's been called by seniors who wanted to vote, but couldn't come out at night. "This isn't good for them," he says of the caucus system.

• 9:20 p.m.: Former state DFL chair Rick Stafford, long an advocate of a presidential primary in Minnesota, looks upbeat -- despite the drubbing that his candidate, Hillary Clinton, is taking.

"Now am I going to get my primary?" he asks with a grin.

For years, caucus defenders told Stafford that there was nothing wrong with the caucus system that higher turnout wouldn't fix. On Tuesday, they got the turnout of their dreams -- and it proved them wrong.

Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist. She is at lsturdevant@startribune.com.