Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Randall Family Goes to Caucus

I'm going to start by saying Washington has the strangest candidate nomination process in the nation. For the democrats all of the delegates are awarded via the caucus and state conventions, ignoring the primary on February 24th. However, the republicans are picking half the delegates from the caucus and half from the primary. The caucus started at 1 so we strapped Tatum into her Baby Bjorn and we walked up to the elementary school where our caucus was being held. We live in probably the most liberal district in Washington (Fremont). There were A LOT of Obama volunteers (all very young) and I noticed more of Obama signs than Hillary. We all broke out into small groups depending on our precinct. Then we signed in and declared who we wanted to vote for. At 1:30 we did the pledge of allegiance (it's been awhile) then they collected all the sheets and tallied up the numbers. The first go around was Obabma 55 and Hillary 11. I was one of the 11 for Hillary, while Tim went for Obama. Which meant 6 delegates for Obama and 1 for Hillary. The delegates will go on to the legislative district caucus on April 5th and then I think there is another county caucus and then state caucus. So not sure how they determine the delegates on TV this early, but I don't quite understand our nomination process. Someone stood up and gave an Obama plug and another for Hillary. No one changed their vote. Tim volunteered to be an Obama delegate so he is going to the legislative caucus! He's excited. It was fun to go and talk to the neighbors and be involved, but I'm not quite sure why we don't just have a primary. There were a lot of people at the caucus but I'm sure it wasn't everyone that is registered to vote in our district. It was a fun experience and I'm glad we did it. Here is a picture of us in the room:


4 comments:

Bob said...

Good for you guys! It is a wonderful feeling to be part of the process. And my hats off to Tim for volunteering to be a delegate! You make us proud!

Unknown said...

What a cool experience!

Jim Wilson said...

Good for you guys. It almost seems the caucus system actually gets people more involved in the process. Attending a caucus is more of an investment of time and energy than pushing a button. I'll be curious to hear about Tim's experience at the legislative caucus.

JillR said...

Tim says he's taking Barak all the way to Denver. :-)