Today all the candidates, the debates, the issues and the reality of this election became a reality for me…and it was amazing. Saturday, February 9th was caucus day in Washington State. Since I’ve never ‘caucused’ before, I had no idea what to expect. Let me tell you more…
As my wife and I drove up to the school where our caucus location was located, we noticed an unusually full parking lot. In fact, cars were turning around and heading out of the parking lot in search of somewhere to park. Quick decision — we parked on the street and walked towards the school following the stream of people.
Arriving around 1 pm, with the caucus beginning no later that 1:30 pm, we walked into the school cafeteria to be greeted by a room overflowing with people. Tables were evenly lined up through the cafeteria with balloons and posters indicating the appropriate precinct. On stage was the 5th District’s president, Hank, providing instructions and words of encouragement. “Isn’t this great, this amazing turn out because of one-guy…”
The amount of people was much more than anything I had expected. The excitement (and some tension) through the room was growing as the time was counting down. By the time I found my precinct table and 1:30 pm arrived, the fun really began. First off was signing in. It’s an interesting thing to be filling out a sign-in sheet and on the paper indicating who is preferred candidate with dozens of eyes around you looking at what you are indicating. The caucus is definitely not a private vote event…and good thing! When the initial tally was done the results were:
Obama: 42
Clinton: 13
Undecided: 1
This was fantastic. After some brief discussion, no changes. The undecided stayed ‘undecided’ and all other voters stayed the same. Therefore, Barack receives 3 delegates from our precinct and Clinton receives 1. And just as great, my wife’s precinct game 5 delegates to Barack and 1 to Clinton. Lucky me, I was able to become a delegate. April 5th I will return to the same location for the District vote. More details to come!
