Maine’s caucus system is under attack. Long lines and frustrated voters have led to calls to scrap the presidential nomination process and replace it with a primary election, like the one held every four years in neighboring New Hampshire.

The change is the subject of an emergency bill, sponsored by Senate Democratic Leader Justin Alfond, with support from Republican leadership in the House and Senate, and it is said to also have the backing of Gov. LePage.

Voters wait in line to take part in the Democratic caucus at Deering High School in Portland on March 6. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

We hate being the ones to douse this rare spark of bipartisanship, but everyone should take a step back. The problems that appeared last week were frustrating to a lot of voters who wanted to participate but couldn’t, but the next election isn’t until 2020. This is not an emergency.

There will be two new Legislatures and a new governor elected before the next presidential contest comes around and that gives Maine plenty of time to make a thoughtful response.

The issue is whether it would be better to have a primary, which is an election run by state and municipal officials, or stay with caucuses, which are a series of meetings run by the party organizations.

The loudest cries for a primary system come from Alfond’s hometown, Portland, where voters had to stand outside in the cold for hours before they were able to get into Deering High School last Sunday. Once inside, most of them filled out absentee ballots and left, turning the whole exercise into a waste of time. The same thing happened eight years earlier, the last time there was an open race for the presidency. But that’s not necessarily proof that the caucuses don’t work. It could just mean that the Democratic Party in Portland didn’t do a good job running its caucus.

Other states manage to conduct caucuses every four years without running into the same problems. The most famous caucus state is Iowa, a rural state like Maine, where caucuses are held every four years and the parties report the results within a couple of hours after the meetings are called to order.

That’s even true in Des Moines, a city of 207,000, which does not run into the same kinds of problems Portland does, perhaps because the parties there don’t try to squeeze every single Des Moinian into one building.

Those who favor a primary system say it would let more people participate, providing a more democratic result. We don’t use caucuses to select candidates for governor, the State House or Congress, the argument goes, and we shouldn’t use them for presidential nominations.

But presidential politics are different, especially in a place like Maine. When a candidate is running for governor, for instance, he or she can meet with lots of voters, speaking to a variety of groups, large and small. Candidates for the Legislature can knock on every door in their districts. They don’t need to be the best-known or best-financed to win.

But Maine is not New Hampshire, a virtual second home for anyone interested in running for president. A candidate might sweep through Maine once or twice in an election year, if at all. In a caucus system, where there is a premium on enthusiastic volunteers to spread the message, that may be enough. But primary voters would be making their decision based on what they read and see on television, especially campaign ads, making it harder for an outsider candidate to break through.

It’s true that fewer people participate in a caucus than a primary, but you can make the argument that a caucus requires more thoughtful participation. It’s like the difference between voting for a town councilor or attending a town meeting and going through the budget line by line.

There are real concerns about the limits of a caucus system that should be addressed before 2020. As it currently stands, the process makes it harder to hear the voices of older people, people with disabilities, people with children or people who have to work on the day the caucus is called.

But that can be fixed with better planning and the use of technology, allowing for more small precinct meetings that operate efficiently.

There is more than enough time before the 2020 election to look at the best practices from other states and determine the right way for Mainers to weigh in on the presidential nomination process. That may end up being a primary, but there is no emergency that requires a hasty change to the system right now.

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