Did you caucus?
My story is forthcoming. Short version: Crazy crowded, not so organized, but overall an interesting process. I am no longer a caucus virgin!
Did anyone participate last night? How did it look at your location?
UPDATE: Here’s my experience, in Twitters.
06:44 PM: traffic on hwy 5 is redonk. all cars heading to Eden prairie h.s. for caucus. report of same on hwy 62 exiting at edina h.s.
07:10 PM: in small hot classroom. waiting to sign up since I’m not on list for having caucused before.
07:13 PM: choir peep is here. loaned me her pen.
07:24 PM: ballot cast for president! lots of people leaving now.
07:26 PM: may stay for senate. passing out surveys for feedback on tonight’s caucus. betting it gets bad marks.
07:27 PM: this convener is stingy with the info. and stingy with the volume. get volunteers with big voices.
07:29 PM: oh wait, no straw polling for senate. officials saying no. people heard yes on the news. except you have to go through DFL red tape to go on
07:30 PM: folks here would really like to vote for Al Franken tonight.
07:32 PM: EPHS is so full. can’t get a sense of Dem vs Repub turnout. easily 1000 people here.
07:35 PM: needed more precinct maps for people to see. easy to find where your party is. hard to know what to do when you get there.
07:37 PM: precinct 13 now moving out to the hallway. not sure why. i think it’s something to do with senate stuff.
07:41 PM: first step: reading of official statements. yes I’m 18. yes I’m a Dem.
07:50 PM: electing precinct chair and asociate chairs.
07:52 PM: want to stay but lack of organization is gonna drag this out. hope i remember where my car is parked.
08:02 PM: just counted ballots!
08:04 PM: chair is talking. note taker is taking notes. volunteer organizer is consulting with convener.
08:07 PM: presidential ballots still coming in.
08:23 PM: these purple pieces of paper are slippery. apparently there was a big line outside.
08:25 PM: still signing up delegates. not to resolutions yet.
08:34 PM: edina mayor Jim hovland giving us a little stump speech.
08:46 PM: resolutions: for insurance coverage for doulas; light rail expansion; universal “healthcare” not “health insurance”; affordable housing
08:55 PM: resolutions: end homelessness
08:56 PM: resolutions: gay civil marriage rights! and meeting adjourning.
09:20 PM: my precinct voted 2 to 1 for Obama over Clinton
Parking was ridiculous. There was a nearby church parking lot offering park and ride shuttles, but obviously the bus was caught up in the same traffic everyone else was. I rather accidentally ended up parking only a couple blocks from the entrance of Eden Prairie High School. Unfortunately, upon leaving, I exited the building on the other side and probably walked farther to get around the high school than to get off the grounds and to my car.
Once I got in the front door, a fresh faced EPHS student told me to follow the blue tape. That part when spectacularly well. And it all kind of fell apart from there. There were only two precinct maps on the wall. They weren’t overly large. And they were printed all in greyscale, so once you found your house on the map, it was really hard to see the precinct boundaries and find the appropriate number. 60 seconds with a highlighter could have helped out tremendously.
Once I found my precinct, another volunteer told me which room to go to, but upon arriving I (and apparently no one else) had any idea what to do next. Eventually figured out that I needed to sign the registry and then grab a ballot. Balloting, of course, consisted of writing my precinct number and my presidential pick on a piece of paper and dropping it in an envelope.
Of course then most people vacated. I decided to stay through the process until I decided I couldn’t stand it anymore. My precinct moved out into the hallway. It would have been nice to have been in an enclosed room so we could hear each other better, but whatever. Somehow between an experienced volunteer, an experienced caucuser who ended up being our precinct chair, and a Robert’s Rules stickler, we muddled our way through the whole process. I volunteered to be a teller. That was about as above and beyond I was willing to go.
Our group was pretty tame. We had more delegate openings then volunteers. There was no disagreement over resolutions. So we (slowly) worked through the process without much in the way of fireworks. It makes a big difference having now witnessed the process. I might even be inclined to write a resolution or two next time.
If I could offer one piece of feedback, it’s this: I realize this whole process relies heavily on volunteers, but at the very least each precinct needs to have a trained convener. We wasted a lot of time just because our last-minute organizing volunteer had to keep going back to the other room to ask the convener what to do.
Okay, if I could offer a second piece of feedback, it’s this: Once you get to the room where your neighbors are actually meeting, there needs to be a line. There’s a pretty clear step-by-step process. If they could have just had everybody line up and go through the steps sequentially, one by one, it would have eliminated a lot of confusion.
[my photos] [“minnesota + caucus”]
Related posts:
Yes I did — while there are things I like about that process, I think there are a lot of problems with it as well. [I was frustrated that we didn’t really have a chance to express any senate preferences without making a massive time commitment for a whole weekend day by becoming a delegate.]
I caucused in North East Minneapolis last night, and while it was crowded, the whole thing took me about half an hour. I didn’t stay for the whole thing though, like most people, I just put in vote for the democratic nomination and left.
I caucused in North East Minneapolis last night, and while it was crowded, the whole thing took me about half an hour. I didn’t stay for the whole thing though, like most people, I just put in my vote for the democratic nomination and left.
Here’s some photos from last night’s Democratic caucus in NordEast. http://flickr.com/photos/opie/tags/election08/
I caucused in Minneapolis - 62A. It was getting crowded already when I arrived at 6:15 and the lines were out the door by 6:30. My ward finished everything up by 9 o’clock (I’m a delegate - yeah!) But as I was leaving I spoke with a lady from another ward and they had gotten into a fight over delegates and still hadn’t started voting on resolutions yet.
I went out; White Bear Lake South Campus was packed I am happy to say. I didn’t bring my camera but I did snap a photo of the madness with my cellphone.
http://robosheep.tumblr.com/post/25620969
I caucused at the 3-7 precinct in Saint Paul, which is where Macalester College is - it includes the campus as well as a portion south and west - and the caucus itself was held on the Macalester campus.
900 people showed up to vote for their presidential preference (of which 750 or so voted for Obama), 450 stayed for a portion of the caucus, and 300ish stayed for the walking caucus.
I’m a freshman, this was my first caucus (and really my first experience with politics beyond school government), and it was amazing. I was chosen as an alternate delegate (46 delegates, handful of alternates), and the experience has inspired me to participate much more in politics.
I’m glad you had a good experience, Zach. That is so great to hear!
It was my first time caucusing, too (at the ripe old age of 29). I hope the enthusiasm demonstrated by first-time caucusers and the population in general carries through to November.
Pct 10-9
approximately 400 showed up
I will be one of 37 delegates at the 61B district caucus on March 29th. While I had no resolutions to present I did make a friendly amendment suggestion for an affordable housing resolution. I also gave some background for a resolution to combat vandalism.
What could have been chaotic was rather orderly thanks to Josh and that other guy who I have seen in years past at other caucuses. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of DFL caucus rules. Glad he was there to keep us "legal".
People arrived all the way from 6pm to 8pm. Some even came in late. It was the largest caucus our precinct has ever seen from what I was told. While I have been to previous caucuses, many new goes and young goers were energized and will probably be there again.
We went intending to at least stay for a bit but it was a madhouse and our caucus room at Sanford Middle School was overflowing (precinct 12-3). So we voted and left. This is my 2nd caucus, and my recollection of the first (4 years ago) is that the old warhorses dominated the discussion and not a lot got done considering the amount of time we spent (3+ hours).
Strib has an article about doing away with the caucus system in favor of primaries, which I am totally in favor of for a lot of reasons: (1) you can still caucus on another day, but let’s make presidential preference a simple vote; (2) primaries are open all day, whereas caucuses exclude anyone who can’t make evening meetings (evening workers, many parents, those in night school, some seniors, etc.); and (3) even with record participation, MN caucuses included just under 6% of registered voters, whereas any primary would draw out a minimum of 4X that many, and in a closely contested election like this, possibly as many as half of all registered voters. Even FL primaries, which on the Dem side were non-events because FL was stripped of delegates, had more than 5X the participation of MN caucuses.
I do see the value in a primary on account of it being more accessible to all.
I’m not opposed to the caucus process, though. I think it’s just striking because this year’s turnout about maxed out the capacity of a caucus system. The caucus locations would have to be waaaay more organized to effectively handle crowds like that again. Having now actually seen the whole caucus process, I think there’s a lot of value in the "neighborhood meeting" aspect of it. It does require significantly more engagement of the participants.