Notes from a caucus

We went to our district caucus this afternoon to participate in the democratic process and support our candidate. Also, we knew if we didn't go today then our vote wouldn't count; although there are still county/city resolutions to vote on in the primary and the Republican nominees are chosen in the primary, the Democrats choose presidential nominees at the caucus. I don't usually talk politics on my blog, but I suppose I've outed myself as a Democrat by talking about the caucus. Oh well!

The turnout at our caucus (at Hamilton Middle School) was HUGE. I caucused in 2004 and all of the precincts fit into the main auditorium; we then split up by precinct into classrooms. When we arrived today, there wasn't nearly enough room for everyone in the auditorium. Instead, we were sent to the west gym where our precinct and 2 others were meeting; other precincts were spread throughout the school. In 2004 there were maybe 30 people in my precinct at the caucus - today there were over 100. Between our precinct and the 2 others, the west gym was packed. It looked like all of the other rooms were full too; it seems like people are definitely excited about voting this year, which is pretty cool. Living on the west coast, it often seems like the news channels are calling the winner before we've even made it to the voting booth, so it's nice to feel like our votes count this time.

I'm not sure how the rest of our district turned out, but in the west gym there was a total of 19 delegates for Obama and 3 for Clinton. In our precinct there were 106 people present. At the second tally, 12 were for Clinton and 94 were for Obama; the delegates were split 1 for Clinton, 6 for Obama. The other 2 precincts were split Clinton 1, Obama 6 and Clinton 1, Obama 7. The Obama love definitely seemed to be flowing. Granted, our neighborhood is one of the most liberal in the state, so we'll have to wait until tonight to see how the rest of Washington thinks, or even the rest of Seattle for that matter. But it certainly looks like Obama could be the big winner today.

Click here for dispatches from other caucuses around the state (though mostly in the Seattle area).