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Edited on Tue Feb-05-08 11:49 PM by calmblueocean
It took me over an hour to drive the mile or so to my caucus and finally park. Cars were parked on both sides of several side streets, and with the snow, each two lane street turned into 1 1/2 lanes and no one could get through. It was crazy. I'm sure hundreds of people just said, "Forget this!" and drove off long before they even got close to the school.
They ran out of ballots there, too, and couldn't find my name on the list, even though I'd caucused in the same precinct in 2004. I was really disappointed in having to write my choice on a scrap of paper like a junior high kid passing a note. Most people stayed in the room, and in the end we had something like 167 votes for Obama, 64 votes for Clinton, 4 votes for Edwards, and 2 votes for Uncommitted.
The DFL precinct chair was very nice, and so was everyone helping him, but the overall mood was just chaos. The worst part was that they signed up delegates to determine our senate nomination very early in the evening, and then never repeated any information about it as the night went on and other voters came and went. I was so caught up in the bustle, I almost forgot to ask about it myself. I was halfway out the door before I came to my senses, walked back, and asked them what happened to the senate vote. They signed me up as a delegate then, but lots of people simply never got a real chance to express their vote for senate nominee preference, and that's a big deal to me.
I know we blew the doors off in terms of what they expected for turnout, and I know that when you have a volunteer grassroots democracy, you often get what you pay for. Like most people, I've been avoiding the drudgery of low-level volunteer work for the party, but I'm definitely rethinking that tonight.
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