Washington Democratic Caucus

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My first caucus.

We met down at the local American Legion post. Turnout was… larger than expected. Our precinct and another were moved upstairs into the bar. (No drinking allowed during the caucus.) I was sitting in a booth with Jim and Jim, and an older woman. Jim, Jim and I were for Obama and the woman was for Clinton. After the declarations on the sign-in sheets were tabulated most voters were for Obama, about ten less were for Clinton, and nine were undecided. So if that were the end of it Obama would have had eight delegates, Clinton would have had six, and one would count for nothing. We were given time to try to convince the other side to vote with us. In this case, ‘the other side’ was the older woman.

While Jim and Jim stepped away, the woman told me why she supported Clinton. She cited ‘experience’. I countered that there is so much Republican hatred of Clinton that if she were elected there would be gridlock, and that if she is the nominee then the ‘undecided’ voters (in the election, not the caucus) might be lost to McCain. When the Jims came back one of them basically said the same thing, although IMO more eloquently that I did. Darned if we almost convinced her.

People were given the opportunity to change their votes. She didn’t. Of the people who were undecided at the start, one remained undecided and the other voted for Edwards.

In the end our precinct alloted eight of our 15 delegates to Obama and seven to Clinton. Of the other precincts (downstairs – oh, and the second precinct returned downstairs earlier) Obama won more delegates by a wide margin (e.g., 8:3) except for one tie and one where he received one more delegate than Clinton.

There was a Party organiser there, and he received a call. His side of the conversation included ‘3:1 for Obama in Tacoma’. He also announced that Obama swept Clinton in Olympia, with some precincts assigning delegates to Obama six to one.

2

My precinct, and 7 other precincts, met at the same place. There were about 400-600 people (the smallest was in the mid 30s, the largest had 150+ people show up) total. This wasn’t my first caucus, but it was, by far, the biggest and I thought 2004’s was huge. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the people there had never caucused before. They asked for a show of hands for anyone who was considered 18 for caucus purposes, but if there were any, they weren’t raising their hands.

There was a bit of disorganization, because every time we do this, it seems that everyone forgets everything or the people who haven’t forgotten have moved or something strange. And given the poliical demographics of where I live, there’s no excuse for not having precinct committee officers who have been trained in how to run a caucus. But it all pulled together.

I left before the big, giant precinct had finished. But my precinct and some of the others who had finished more quickly were sending more Obama delegates to the county and legislative caucuses - but not a lot more - it seemed to be about a 50/50 split with the extra delegate going to Obama (in precincts with odd #s of delegates - or two more in precincts with even numbers. Of course, those extra delegates do add up.).

No one in my precinct had any resolutions.

3

Congratulations on making an excellent choice – news reports are saying Barack has swept all 3 primaries/caucuses today. Whoo hoo!

Er, I guess now, I mean yesterday.

4

W1-P566 REPRESENT!

We only had 24 in our precinct. First ballot was 14 Obama, 7 Clinton, 2 Uncommitted. Second ballot was 14-8-1 respectively (never really understood why you would remain uncommitted even after you were told you weren’t viable). Ended up 4 delegates for Obama, 2 for Clinton.

This was my first one too. Like amarinth it was kind of chaotic. Some precincts were extremely small and had no precinct chairs. They were just kind of thrown a packet and told good luck with absolutely no idea of what was going on.

5

I do like to read about democracy in action.

6

And here. The Democratic Party had rented the bottom floor of the American Legion post. I don’t know how many precincts were meeting there. Then people started coming in; first a trickle, then a flood. We could barely move. There was an announcement that the AL commander opened the bar upstairs to us, and it was pretty crowded up there too. Turns out another precinct came up with us, but they went back downstairs before the caucusing began. There were nearly 140 (134? 137?) of us in our precinct.

Nobody expected so many people to show up. I think that this shows how seriously people are taking the 2008 election. Now, in 2004 there were a lot of Kerry stickers and signs in Bellingham. Out in ‘The County’ there tended to be more Bush stickers and signs. The town of Lynden is about 10 miles east of here, and it has the reputation of having been founded by Dutch Reformists and being rather conservative. A friend told me (perhaps in jest) that the movie Footloose was inspired by it. My neighbourhood has a lot of retirees in it. (And a lot of the houses are only occupied in the Summer, largely by Canadians.) Semiahmoo has gated communities, and there are a couple of nice-looking golf courses. So my impression, based on an older demographic, seeing so many Bush supporters four years ago, and some rather posh homes, was that any meeting of ‘Democrats’ (in quotes because you can declare that you ‘consider’ yourself a Democrat even if you do not belong to the Party) would be fairly small. I was surprised by the turnout.

Anyway, it was a bit chaotic at the start. Lots of us were first-timers. People kept streaming in, and there were still two people in my precinct who couldn’t get signed in by the 1:30 deadline. (Their votes would count in the second ballot, which was the binding one.) The caucus was a long process. In L.A. I’d stand in line, go to the voting booth, poke holes in the punchcard, turn it in, and be on my way. Yesterday I got there about a quarter past eleven and stayed until our delegates and alternates were chosen. It was about 2:30 or 2:45 when I left. Most of the time was occupied by people chatting while they waited for things to start. Then sign-ins were closed and one of the Jims and the Clinton woman volunteered to observe the counting of the sign-in declarations. For fewer than 140 people it seemed to take a long time to count them. Once the results were announced we were given ‘five minutes’ (I don’t know how long it actually took) to do our convincing. Then people wanted to change their vote were allowed to change them, the votes were counted again, and we selected our delegates. So the actual ‘voting’ took very little time. Most of the day was a lot of waiting around.

On one hand I like to go in, do a job, and get out. On the other hand, participating in the caucus actually made me feel a part of the process. I didn’t expect I’d change anyone’s mind. On the other hand, it was a possibility that doesn’t exist when you simply step into a voting booth.

One thing I would have changed is this: There should be public debate. One person was chosen from each side to make a short speech in favour of his or her candidate. The woman who stood for Clinton (not the older woman at our table, but someone else) presented well-rehearsed, logical reasons why we should vote for Clinton. The guy who stood for Obama looked like he’s been a hippy back in the '60s and never outgrew it. My first impression was ‘Aha. Here’s a guy who’s been around and will present good reasons why we should vote for Obama.’ But he obviously hadn’t rehearsed, and his speech, which he was making up as he went along, was disjointed. Basically it came down to ‘I just like Obama.’ (One of the Jims whispered that what he said in front of the crowd was opposite of what he’d said in a conversation earlier. I believe I noted a contradiction in his actual speech.) I think it would have been better if people had been given the opportunity to step up and address the points made by either side. First, it would give people more to think about; and second, each side would probably have had eloquent speakers.

There’s one thing about the caucus process that I find slightly disturbing: What about people who are disenfranchised? In California voters must be given up to two hours paid time off, if needed, in order to vote. Up here (in this county) we have 100% mail-in ballots. But there are no absentee ballots for the caucus. You have to be there. If you’re working and you can’t get time off, you don’t get to vote.

7

Caucus location in my area was in a church meeting room. I had about a half hour window during the day (long to-do list, so not much flexibility), and I planned to drop in, check out the situation, sign the registration, and fill out a ballot. (This location had drop-by voting; you didn’t need to be there the whole time.)

I went past the place, and it was a zoo. Line out the door. Cars double parked for blocks around. Basically, there was no way I was going to get in there in my available time.

So I left, but I wasn’t really disappointed. Just the opposite: the incredible passion and engagement everybody seems to have for the current election cycle makes my heart swell with happiness. Regardless of the result, I’m encouraged by the newfound interest people are taking in the political process. It really does feel like a sea change. I hope it lasts.

8

That’s the thing that makes me a little nervous. It seemed (from the people I saw and talked to) the biggest predictor of who a person caucused for wasn’t race, or age, or gender, or sexual orientation (for those for whom I might hazard a guess), but whether or not this was that person’s first caucus.

And so while I was glad to see all of that energy in that room, I hope that people realize that the caucus isn’t the end of this until November; but instead between now and then there needs to be calling, and canvassing, and mailing, and talking to people and encouraging people to vote in November. Washington is not a given for a Democratic candidate, especially since we’re going to be having a repeat of the 2004 gubanatorial race - one that many people are still very pissed about. I’m hoping that the tons of people who showed up at all of the caucuses yesterday keep showing up all summer and all fall.

9

Posted in another thread. I’m not a citizen, but I went with my wife to watch:

"Just got back from the caucus - it was huge. Probably about 1,000 people there. Before they started, they asked everyone who’d caucused before to raise their hand. And no joke, only four people did.

I sat back and watched our precinct do its thang. 26 people there - 20 for Obama, 4 for Clinton, 1 Edwards, 1 Uncommitted. No one changed their mind. 4 delegates for Obama, 2 for Clinton.

The coolest part was the demographics of the Obama people: two younger couples, about 2 mid-thirties women by themselves, a 50-ish dad and his 18-ish daughter (she voted), 3 older women by themselves, 3 older men by themselves, and (the best part) an older couple in their mid-sixties with whom I talked before at the monthly neighbourhood association meeting. From talking with him before, I would have sworn he was conservative, but he was there with his wife, for Obama. Just goes to show. Only one black guy in the group, but then the whole area is pretty solidly white, so no surprises there. I’m missing a few from the total, but there was 20.

The Clinton people were a 70-ish couple, and two late forties women by themselves.

For every Hillary sticker I saw on someone, I probably saw about 5 Obama ones, if not more. Oddly, every table had a large “Hillary” campaign sign on it, probably placed there by a precinct supporter.

It was fun, although loud and tiring."

10

No duh. After having insanely huge turnouts everywhere they still weren’t prepared for lots of people?
otherwise, nice :smiley:

11

There was at our’s. We broke down into our precincts and anyone who wanted to was able to speak about what they liked about their candidate. I don’t think they anybody really changed their mind anyway.