Today were the caucuses in Washington state (the February 19 primary is non-binding for Democrats). The procedure is very similar to that in Iowa, which may be familiar to some people. People gather at a set time and list their preference among the candidates, then the caucus chair determines how many delegates each candidate will get. There is a chance for everyone to change their minds (especially if their candidate did not have enough support to get a delegate) and a final count of delegates is done. These delegates will go to the next level up and the process continues until the state-level delegates are chosen.
About a dozen or so precincts caucused at a school in our area. I caucused for the first time in 2004 so I was familiar with the process and had something to compare it to. The caucuses were held in the school cafeteria.
The first thing we realized is that turnout was incredibly high. The caucus officially started at 1 pm, and the voting process at 1:30 pm. But at 1:30 pm, people were still lined up down the hall and outside of the building. In 2004, my precinct had only 4 voters show up - this year it was 16. Looking at the site as a whole, I think turnout was up that much for every precinct. It was just amazing to see so many people taking a couple hours out of their Saturday to take part in what can be a confusing process. African-American turnout was very high, and the crowd as a whole was incredibly diverse, all ages and races (this is one of the things I like about the area where I live, although we are not usually very politically engaged). When I told this to my (Republican) mom, she was actually silent a moment in shock, then said how great it was that democracy is so vibrant here.
My precinct was overwhelmingly for Obama. Of the 16 voters present, 12 voted for Obama and 4 for Clinton. We had five delegates, and four were for Obama and one for Clinton (which represents 80% Obama and 20% Clinton). Overall at the site, there were 66 delegates for Obama, 24 for Clinton, and 1 uncommitted (72.5% Obama, 26.4% Clinton). The Obama supporters in my precinct were black, white, and Native American, and young, middle-aged, and old. The Clinton supporters were three white women and a white man.
This was an incredible experience, to see so many people come out to take part. There was real energy in the room and real passion, especially for Obama. Everybody waited patiently throughout the process even though it took longer than expected because of the number of people.
Because I was the only one in my precinct who knew what to do, I ended up as the caucus chair. I never expected when I went today that I would end up leading 15 other people through the process of making sure their vote counts in this crazy system and also of selecting delegates. I am also a delegate for Obama to go to the next level, the legislative district caucus in April.
I am so proud of the people here!
Update: It turns out that my experiences were mirrored across the entire state. Obama won Washington by a 68-31 margin and he took all 39 counties in the state. Usually there is a lot of variation between the urban centers of Western Washington and sparsely populated Eastern Washington, but there was no such variation on Saturday. I have never seen anything like this before in state politics!
As an aside, looking at the pictures in the papers of the Republican caucuses, it appears that the average age of the voters there was about 70. I am not joking.
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