My First Caucus!

I participated in a caucus for the first time today. After confirming where I was supposed to go on the Obama website--Lowell Elementary School on Capitol Hill, two blocks away from my apartment!--and pocketing my driver's license in case they ask for ID (they didn't), I walked over at 12:30 to make sure I had plenty of time to sign in and figuring out what this whole caucus thing was about.

I'm not sure what I expected, but the whole thing was super low-tech, and ridiculously (but endearingly) inefficient. Taped to the entrance was a white piece of paper with precinct numbers and corresponding locations throughout the school. I panicked for a few moments because I didn't know what precinct my apartment was located in, but thankfully a helpful volunteer helped me navigate the nigh unreadable map and pointed me in the direction of the gymnasium, where Precinct 2016 was slated to caucus.

I walked through the moss-green lockers and pathetically cute displays of hand-crafted rainforest flora and fauna for 3rd grade science class to reach the gym, where beaten-up metal chairs had been laid out at either end of the space to accomodate voters from two precincts. 12:45. A few people milling around, a frazzled-looking volunteer looking over the rules, likely terrified he's going to fuck something up in this, his crowning moment of Democratic leadership. I settled down to read my new edition of the Economist.

At 1PM, said volunteer ("Kevin") called the voter group to order and we started filling out the sign-in sheets, which asked for basic demographic info, as well as the all-important presidential candidate vote. I printed "OBAMA" in all caps and handed the sheet to my neighbors, and it turned out the entire sheet was signed by Obama supporters. Sweet.

After an agonizingly long wait as they counted the ballots and poor Kevin explained the rules five times over because he somehow could not get his voice to carry to reach the 93 voters in our precinct at once, we learned the results of the first round--hooray! Of the 6 delegates alloted to our precinct, Obama had garnered enough votes for 4, and Hillary had 2. I felt warm and fuzzy about the good judgement of 66% of the folks who lived on my block.

What followed was an open forum in which any voter could speak for the duration of one minute to advocate on behalf of their candidate. This was the best part of the whole thing. Voter after voter stood up and spoke passionately for and against the two candidates, outlining key pieces of legislation, character strengths and flaws, pollster data about their viability in a general election, and of course, their visceral, emotional, and completely unrational reasons for supporting Barack or Hillary. There was some back-and-forth--two recent transplants from New York had very different impressions of Hillary's track record while serving as Senator--and every speech was followed by supportive applause from fellow voters. It was all very respectful; democracy at its finest. One could almost envision all of us wearing togas and engaging in spirited debate in ancient Greece.

The last woman to speak made a strong impression on me. She had an angular bob haircut, with matching square-rimmed glasses, and despite it being a Saturday, she was dressed in a dark suit and white collared shirt and looked every inch the business professional. (It takes one to know one.) She said:

"First of all, I want to say that we should all feel very lucky to have two stellar candidates to nominate this year. They are both amazing individuals, and there are very few material policy differences
between them."

Much cheers and applause and nodding all around. Then she said:

"I actually created a spreadsheet that assesses how Obama and Hillary voted in the past, and I found that I agreed with Hillary 87% of the time, and with Obama 93% of the time. I'm voting for Obama."

Ah, a fellow data junkie. You go, girl! (If conducting quantitative analysis to assess how one should cast a caucus vote seems overboard to you, you have a) never been a McK BA or b) have a life. Either way, it is doubtful our friendship will endure for long...)

Following a brief break to allow those who had reconsidered to recast their votes, Kevin and the impromptly drafted secretary and vote-counter of our precinct did the math and ended up giving Obama his original 4 votes, and Hillary her 2. (And yes, you are correct--there was no material change in votes as a result of our lengthy open forum. But hey, it's cool, who doesn't want to spend countless hours of their Saturday in the musty gymnasium of an under-funded public school?)

The most reasonable part of the caucus followed when the 8 volunteer delegates asked the voters if we wanted them to just "figure out who was going to be the main and alternate delegates by talking amongst ourselves." This was greeted by much cheering and a raising of hands and voicing of 'yay's to affirm this very practical approach to solving the delegate assignation, and the party adjourned.

All in all, not such a horrible way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Sure, I'm grateful I only have to do it every four years, but the caucus reaffirmed my belief that American democracy is alive and well--in all its ridiculously bureaucratic, stupidly time-consuming, yet curiously inspiring and uplifting, glory.