Washington State Caucus Report

Today I attended my first caucus. It was pretty interesting to see the system at work. It was more chaotic and more participatory than I'd imagined.

We arrived at the school where the Caucus was held at 12:30. Though it wasn't scheduled to start until one, there were already at least a hundred people there. We looked at a map to figure out our district and then went to sit at the table with other people from our district. Right away we recognized several of our neighbors from our condominium complex.  :-)

We signed in on a sheet of paper and declared our allegiance to a candidate, which became our vote. More people started arriving, and before long, the gymnasium was completely packed. We ran out of chairs and cafeteria tables, so a lot of people were standing around.

Before we began the official caucus, people were invited to have 30 seconds on the microphone to speak for their candidate. Four people spoke: two for Hillary, two for Barack. By the sounds of the crowd, the vast majority of the crowd was Obama-supporters. Hillary speeches only got a smattering of applause.

All of the speakers mentioned the environment and energy as a primary issue, which I was pleased about. Washington voters, in general, seem to be sensitive to these matters.

I was shocked at how few "official" people were at the caucus. Out of the hundreds in the auditorium, there were only 5 people who had been through a caucus training, and the rest of us were relying on people who had been through the caucus process before. Our leader, a cute older woman in a light pink turtleneck, was not an officially trained person, but pretty much seemed to understand what was going on, so that was good.

Then the caucus began. There were 60 people from our district to coordinate between, and it was difficult to hear over the incredible noise in the auditorium. Somehow we managed to elect a leader, a secretary, and a 'tallier' to count and record the votes.

While we counted, our leader stated that last presidential caucus, only 8 people attended from our district. 750% increase in turn-out is pretty staggering, even with a small sample size.

Our tally ended up being 42 votes for Obama, 18 for Hillary, 0 for any other candidates. There were no uncommitted voters in our group, and nobody felt like changing their mind, so we just went with that. Using some super-complex math that does odd things with decimal points, they figured out that out of our 9 delegates, 6 would be for Obama, and 3 for Hillary.

In the group sitting at the table next to us, there were a few uncommitted voters, and I could hear a furious debate raging about health care and the environment as the different sides tried to convince them of their candidate's superiority.

Next we needed to elect delegates out of our group. I was surprised by that. I kind of figured that the delegates were pre-selected people. Nope. 18 people needed to be selected out of our group of 60 to go to the convention to vote: nine delegates, and nine alternates.

I did what any normal first-time caucuser would do: I volunteered to be a delegate! :)

At our table, few were eager to volunteer, so I didn't need to campaign for my delegate status at all. Again, at the neighboring table, I heard them making campaign speeches on why somebody would be the best delegate. I'm glad I didn't have to do that since I have no idea what I would have said. On our side, the group unanimously voted me through.

It's completely unclear to me what the next step is. They took my address and e-mail, so hopefully they'll tell me what to do next. What are my responsibilities as a delegate? Am I allowed to change my mind and vote for anyone, or do I need to stick to the voice of my constituency? Am I supposed to go and vote in both the upcoming legislative district caucus, or just the county caucus?

Hopefully some online research will reveal this, since the process itself didn't really provide any concrete insight.

In general, it was a very interesting process to witness. Much more crazy and disorganized than I expected, but fun to participate in. People were passionate about the issues, but really friendly at the same time.

It was also great to hear environmental issues getting so much top billing. I'm excited to see how it plays out on a county and state level.

Comments

[Carrie]

Out of the whole group of 25 or so in my precinct, only one had ever been to a caucus. Moreover, last caucus there were only five for the district and we had at least 200.

Your story sounds much like mine. I, too, am now a delegate and am wondering the same as you. I have been trying to do some research into what our responsibilities are online, and so far haven't come up with much. I did find you though. If you find out more on this, I would truly appreciate if you could pass it on to me.

[Carrie]

A friend sent this to me after I told her I was now a delegate. I thought you might be able to use the info:

At each level of jurisdiction (precinct, county, state) you are voting to be (or for) the representative to the next level - it's a representative process, voting up through the hierarchy. The 19 National delegates come from the voting process beginning at the precinct caucus. If you aren't voted to be the delegate to the next stage (say precinct to county) your role in voting for delegates ends. Only elected delegates to the next level get to vote at the new jurisdiction (county or state).

At county, those delegates vote for representatives to the State Convention. And at State those delegates vote for the National delegates.

It's like a series of run-off votes to reduce down to the 19 National delegates, from the hundreds or thousands who attend the precinct caucuses. Most likely you will not need to attend more than one convention after the precinct caucus, unless you work to get elected up to the next jurisdiction (county, state or national).

And delegates are not unalterably bound at each stage to back they presidential candidate they initially supported.

[bravenewleaf]

That's really helpful, Carrie. Thanks!

I also found this, which I thought was useful:
http://www.wa-democrats.org/pdf/uploaded/2008%20Precinct%20Caucuses%20-%20Basic%20Explanation%20-%20Short.pdf

[arduous]

Yup, it's kind of crazy but delegates are allowed to change their support!! Weird, no? Electors to the electoral college are technically allowed to change their support as well, though most states have made *that* illegal.