A Raucous Caucus

I voted in the Texas primaries for the first time ever. It was exciting for Texas to be so important in the process for once. I remember learning about caucuses in college but it seemed like such a distant thing. Now I have been able to see it in action!

Our caucus got started late because we had to wait for all the voters to finish. We stood in line for an hour and a half in the cold. Once we got in they told us that after voting we could stay for the meeting or leave. When I voted, I had to give my name and address plus demographic info and then you could say if you wanted to be a delegate or an alternate. After voting I was so tired from the line that I almost left but at the last minute I decided to see it through. At our caucus 337 people came to vote and about 50 stayed for the meeting. The meeting was kind of disorderly with people shouting out "point of order" and "I motion to take a vote on that."

Finally we elected our permanent chair and secretary, an Obama supporter and a Clinton supporter, to balance it out. We also made the decision as a group that we wanted to divide up the delegates proportionally with the votes. Next they counted up all the votes and figured out the percentage of delegates for each candidate. In our voting area we get 41 delegates so Obama got 25 and Clinton got 16. After that everyone in the room started signing up for delegate spots. If I were going to be in town, I might have signed up. As delegates they will go to the county convention at the end of the month where they'll choose delegates for the state convention.

I am so glad that I got to experience a caucus and participate in something so historical.