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Caucus-Crazy!
Just finished the caucus. As PCO (that's Precinct Committee Officer for you yahoos ;) I was in charge of my precinct. I hadn't realized how big my precinct was...or rather, that my precinct was the biggest in my area. Nine delegates...compared to every other precinct in that area being 3, 4, or 5. I had 53 people show up...we had our own room!
I showed up about 11:30, and got right to work helping out. We had lot's of people showing up early, which is great because we very quickly became busy. There was no WiFi there, but we still had to help people find their precinct if they didn't bring their voter registration card. I was using my iPhone in the beginning, and then was able to use the Chair's satellite-connected laptop too. Still, I suddenly realized that I had some twenty people to help...
And I was the only one at the front desk all of the sudden! Yikes!
I pulled it off some how. In the end, I wasn't able to join my precinct until after the Chair began speaking. It was *crowded* in the Criminal Justice Center, where we met. Compare that to four years ago, where we had hardly anyone showing up at the precinct level. It was *awesome*!
Everyone had lot's of questions, and I was glad that the former PCO of my precinct was there to help me out (he's a good friend of mine). We did our tallys, then I asked if anyone wanted to change their votes, especially the undecideds. We had one woman who kept coming back to change her vote! Heh.
In the end everything worked out very well. Everyone was very much involved. We had lot's of people registering to vote. We had lot's of families showing up...parent/child, grandparent/grandchild combinations...which really impressed me. Lot's of different ethnicities. And everyone felt like we were all just Americans, being a part of the process.
The tally? Our caucus area is (trying to remember) 59 Obama, 32 Clinton, 1 undecided (and 1 Kucinich). I was able to see the tally from most of the other caucus areas in my legislative district as well (only two weren't done by the time I left), and though I don't remember the raw numbers off the top of my head, all of them were in the same vein...the largest delegates going to Obama. There's no question that Obama will carry the 33rd district.
ETA: Just got the final results in from the 33rd Legislative District. 144 precincts participated. Obama 393, Clinton 198, Undecided 11, Kucinich 1.
I showed up about 11:30, and got right to work helping out. We had lot's of people showing up early, which is great because we very quickly became busy. There was no WiFi there, but we still had to help people find their precinct if they didn't bring their voter registration card. I was using my iPhone in the beginning, and then was able to use the Chair's satellite-connected laptop too. Still, I suddenly realized that I had some twenty people to help...
And I was the only one at the front desk all of the sudden! Yikes!
I pulled it off some how. In the end, I wasn't able to join my precinct until after the Chair began speaking. It was *crowded* in the Criminal Justice Center, where we met. Compare that to four years ago, where we had hardly anyone showing up at the precinct level. It was *awesome*!
Everyone had lot's of questions, and I was glad that the former PCO of my precinct was there to help me out (he's a good friend of mine). We did our tallys, then I asked if anyone wanted to change their votes, especially the undecideds. We had one woman who kept coming back to change her vote! Heh.
In the end everything worked out very well. Everyone was very much involved. We had lot's of people registering to vote. We had lot's of families showing up...parent/child, grandparent/grandchild combinations...which really impressed me. Lot's of different ethnicities. And everyone felt like we were all just Americans, being a part of the process.
The tally? Our caucus area is (trying to remember) 59 Obama, 32 Clinton, 1 undecided (and 1 Kucinich). I was able to see the tally from most of the other caucus areas in my legislative district as well (only two weren't done by the time I left), and though I don't remember the raw numbers off the top of my head, all of them were in the same vein...the largest delegates going to Obama. There's no question that Obama will carry the 33rd district.
ETA: Just got the final results in from the 33rd Legislative District. 144 precincts participated. Obama 393, Clinton 198, Undecided 11, Kucinich 1.
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One of the things that surprised me a little was the lack of anyone checking party registration; I've heard reports of the same from other legislative districts too. Much more convenient, certainly, but it's a potential issue...
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Yeah, there's no real "checking at the door" as it were. On the other hand, it allows Republicans to decide to "be a Democrat for a day" and vote for Obama...and quite a few of them are.
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As I understand it, you have to be 18 by election day, and sign the Dem affadavit. Since both the D and R caucus rolls are public, and double-voting is a felony, you have a pretty strong incentive not to do so forcing you to choose, at least for this cycle, which process to participate in.
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Yes, you do. And the names are cross-checked with the voter registration files. We had voter registration cards on hand to register people to vote who weren't registered yet. Not only do you have to be registered to vote, but you have to be registered in the precinct you are in to vote in that precinct to participate in the caucus.
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Yes, they can. People who are 17 now but will be 18 by the time the general election occurs register to vote at the caucus itself (see Register to vote in Washington State (http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/register.aspx) for more info).
When you come to the caucus, you sign your name, address, candidate preference, etc, into the sign-up sheet. This will officially be checked with the voter rolls. You can participate in the caucus if you are not registered to vote, but you cannot vote in the caucus (in other words, you should not register). If you do, your vote will be stricken from the final record.
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That is incorrect. The point of the caucus is *not* to limit it to party members for selection purposes. The point of the caucus over the primary is for party recruitment. The more non-party members who come, the better...it is a way to expand information about the party to them.
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The 'highlight' of the day was someone in the precinct who when someone got up to talk about Obama told him to 'sit down and shut up' and then started ranting about that if Obama was elected the KKK would try to assassinate him... The rest of us (including the Clinton supporters) were looking at this guy like he was a bit out of his gourd.
We didn't have a PCO, so someone from the district filled that role. I ended up being the tally-keeper.
I ended up as a delegate because of the 26 who voted for Obama, only 15 or so stayed after casting the initial vote. Of those 3 raised their hands immediately when we asked who was interested/willing to be a delegate. After about 2 minutes and noone else raising their hands, I decided to in order to make sure we had our 4.
The turnout was *MUCH* larger than they had expected or initially set up for, which was good. I was frankly a bit surprised that more people weren't interested in the next level though.