The entire family went down to caucus.
The entire neighborhood came, too.
The precinct captain said that four years ago he was the only person in our precinct that showed. That's because last time, we didn't get to vote until long after the winner had been picked. This year, Colorado got moved up into Super Tuesday and we got to make a difference. Everyone that could turned up to caucus.
I think I was the only woman there with twins, though.
It was dark and very cold and I was kicking myself for not having brought hats for the twins. I was once again very grateful for the snuggly winter wraps that Grammy gave them. Lacking hats, I draped my fuzzy gloves over their heads. Logan slept for quite awhile, while Emma stayed awake to charm the people around us. The line just to get into the building was fairly long, fortunately it was moving fast. I hadn't even thought about having to stand in line. Eric and Caitlin parked the car and then had to hike in.
There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people there. All ready to vote. After a few two minute speeches to represent the candidates with big cheers for Kucinich, Clinton, Obama (<-- Received loudest cheer. I'm just sayin'.) and Edwards, we split up into our requisite precincts, went to our separate rooms and then got down to business.
Out of the 71 eligible voters in the room (there were far more than 71 people in the room), 49 were for Obama and 22 for Clinton.
Eric stepped up to be a delegate and was chosen as an alternate. He was a little bummed since he wanted to be a main delegate, but still excited to go.
Turns out that his mom, his sister and Jim are also stepping up to be delegates in their respective towns. Go Family!
Caitlin and the twins were very well behaved and all and sundry ooh'd and aah'd over the twins. Emma and Logan were very excited to be there, but saddened when told they had to wait another 17 years and 8 months before they could get a chance to vote. Them's the breaks.
I've gotta tell ya, though: those were some excited people. Moving our primary up to give us a chance to vote and make a difference has all of us really jazzed. The next natural step, to me, is to create a national caucus day. That way, instead of spending weeks watching the candidates dribble away, everyone across the nation would get a chance to vote for their first choice.
And it needs to be moved to a weekend.
So! Did you get to caucus today?
2 comments:
i think there should be a national primary > go in > vote for your first choice > get out...
we went to the caucus in the rain and mud at the 4-H fairgrounds...waited in line outside for 20 or so minutes...went inside to the "registered to vote" line for "E-K" and waited for close to an hour? to find our names NOT on the list...additionally, the "E-K" line did not have any E-s - silly, the E-s were in the "A-E" line NOT the "E-K" line! so we were asked if we had registered to vote since january? my retort, "of THIS year???" uh no (still not sure hwy that mattered)...so we were directed to the MASSIVE line around the whole building of people waiting to REGISTER to vote so they could then register to caucus...add that to a bunch of snippy volunteers and we were done...stick a fork in us...
luckily 71% (ish?) of kansas dems felt as i did and caucused for obama...i didn't feel quite so bad about leaving when i heard the results come in :)
i'll try again on '12!
Hey Em! That is completely bizarre that they didn't have yo on the list, but good that they let you register right then. Not so in CO: if you weren't registered in early January, no voting for you!
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