Adventures in Caucusing
Precinct 932 was a motley bunch. There were about 25 folks from our little neck of the woods ready to vote. I met two of our neighbors in our condo complex (the mom worked at a non-profit Jewish arts museum and the daughter is wanting to go to college for opera, how Dem is that? lol.) There were 14 precincts from Denver County and 3 from Arapahoe County in the high school cafeteria. I giggled when I read the sign that showed the maximum occupancy of about 360. The principal of the high school was gracious enough to give us extra rooms so bigger precincts could exit the cafeteria. That allowed some of the 742 caucus-goers to give us smaller ones some more room. 742 people came to a caucus where 350 were expected.
The reason I go into so much detail is because this is my first caucus, and it was very different than anything I've experienced. What made it mean so much to me is that I was voted "precinct chair," and got to run my precinct's caucus! (OK, I was the first person who expressed interest, so they all said, "Sure.") I barely had any clue what I was doing, but I had a packet and used my think-on-my-feet prowess to go through the process. I also had help from two really nice older folks that have been precinct captains for years. They guided me through the process and were really nice about the few times I almost messed up.
We nominated Mark Udall for the U.S. Senate race, mostly because nobody knew who the other guy was. Udall has a lot of respect amongst Coloradans, and the stuff I read made him seem very competitive, so I went with him, too. Then we moved onto presidential preference polling. I think it ended up 14 for Obama, and 9 for Clinton. Our precinct is alloted five delegates for the County Assembly and Convention, so Clinton received two delegates and Obama received three. (For those curious, I ended up going with Obama. I thought a lot about my decision in the past week, and just today finally decided.)
After that, we elected delegates. Only two people wanted to be Clinton's delegates, so that was easy. Four folks, however, wanted to be delegates for Obama. So we played the "secretary picks a number between 1 and 100, then the three that are closest wins" game. I will proudly represent my district on March 8th at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver and cast one of our three delegates for Barack Obama. How exciting is that?!
We passed a few resolutions for the party platform, elected two people to be our Precinct Committee Persons (Yes, PCP, such an unfortunate abbreviation. I decided to avoid that abbreviation after reading it once.), and finally adjourned. The process took about 90 minutes, and everyone was glad when it was over. One guy was kind of a dick about it taking so long, but that was when I reminded him that it was projected to be a two-hour process, and they told us that going into it.
Out of our 14 Denver County precincts, 742 people came. Clinton received about 260 votes, Obama got about 480, and two people were "uncommitted." (In a caucus, you can vote "uncommitted," believe it or not. 742 people in the Thomas Jefferson High School cafeteria that has a "maximum capacity" of 360. It was an electric night, and one that I will surely never forget.
The reason I go into so much detail is because this is my first caucus, and it was very different than anything I've experienced. What made it mean so much to me is that I was voted "precinct chair," and got to run my precinct's caucus! (OK, I was the first person who expressed interest, so they all said, "Sure.") I barely had any clue what I was doing, but I had a packet and used my think-on-my-feet prowess to go through the process. I also had help from two really nice older folks that have been precinct captains for years. They guided me through the process and were really nice about the few times I almost messed up.
We nominated Mark Udall for the U.S. Senate race, mostly because nobody knew who the other guy was. Udall has a lot of respect amongst Coloradans, and the stuff I read made him seem very competitive, so I went with him, too. Then we moved onto presidential preference polling. I think it ended up 14 for Obama, and 9 for Clinton. Our precinct is alloted five delegates for the County Assembly and Convention, so Clinton received two delegates and Obama received three. (For those curious, I ended up going with Obama. I thought a lot about my decision in the past week, and just today finally decided.)
After that, we elected delegates. Only two people wanted to be Clinton's delegates, so that was easy. Four folks, however, wanted to be delegates for Obama. So we played the "secretary picks a number between 1 and 100, then the three that are closest wins" game. I will proudly represent my district on March 8th at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver and cast one of our three delegates for Barack Obama. How exciting is that?!
We passed a few resolutions for the party platform, elected two people to be our Precinct Committee Persons (Yes, PCP, such an unfortunate abbreviation. I decided to avoid that abbreviation after reading it once.), and finally adjourned. The process took about 90 minutes, and everyone was glad when it was over. One guy was kind of a dick about it taking so long, but that was when I reminded him that it was projected to be a two-hour process, and they told us that going into it.
Out of our 14 Denver County precincts, 742 people came. Clinton received about 260 votes, Obama got about 480, and two people were "uncommitted." (In a caucus, you can vote "uncommitted," believe it or not. 742 people in the Thomas Jefferson High School cafeteria that has a "maximum capacity" of 360. It was an electric night, and one that I will surely never forget.