Caucus Report

I went to a caucus today and it was crazy. The caucus was across the street at a public school. I figured I would head over there at 1:00 because there might be a lot of people. It was insane. There were masses of people all converging on the school. I have to admit that it gave me goosebumps to see so many people took the time and effort to go.

There were multiple caucuses at the school and at 1:00 it was already packed. There were five caucuses in the Gym alone. We got in there and you could barely hear anybody it was so loud. I am sure we exceeded the maximum occupancy of the room by at least 2 if not 3. I found an empty spot on the floor to wait. It was steaming hot. I looked around and saw two undersized ventilation openings on the wall. There were windows high up on the walls and they were covered with condensation.

We started by having everyone say the pledge of allegiance together. Then they shouted the official rules and proceedures. Then each group did an initial tally of the sign-in votes. No one in my group was undecided. A person volunteered to speak for each of the candidates for 1 minute (the maximum allowed time). Then there was a chance for people to change their vote or try to convince others to change their vote. I don't think anybody was discussing the candidates but if they were I couldn't hear anyway. I don't think anybody changed their vote. Most of the time was spent waiting for someone to add up the votes by hand. Finally we did the second tally and had to elect people to represent us at the next tier. I left since our caucus seem to have a clear winner (my candidate).

I think it was actually dangerous to have so many people packed into one space. I hope they change the process before the next election. I respect people's right to vote for a different candidate than me and I do not believe in trying to change people's minds.