I had a pretty good time at the Maine Democratic Caucus. Let me share a little of my experience.
We arrived slightly early and quickly realized we were not early enough. Lines of cars circled the high school looking for parking spots. Luckily we have a Jeep and drove up on a big snow bank. Perfect. We made our way past the people campaigning outside, pushing their Hillary stickers on us, and into the door where we were shepearded into a LONG line to "sign in." There was another line to register or change party affiliation, if you were independent or unenrolled. Our line moved fairly quickly since we had registered the previous week, though we were flabbergasted when we turned the corner and the line was another long distance into the cafeteria where the sign in occured. in we went, after I stopped to chat with anyone who had a baby, (since by the nature of the neighborhood caucus, they were neighbors) and off to the M table. (I still feel like I should be at the B table most of the time.)
Our names weren't on the list. Another line. We waited while the man in front of us, also an obama supporter, swore at the lady at the table and called her an idiot. She looked up our names on the more recently printed list (couldn't they have waited to print out the final list?) and told us to go back to the M table and assure the lady there that we "were on the list." Real official. Then we were shephearded into the gym where Hillary signs and Obama leis adorned the bleachers. Accidentally we ended up on the "right" side with the Obama people and waited for that long line of registees to come in. State congress people gave short talks, but mostly there was visiting with neighbors and meeting new people. They ended up turning unregistered voters away, even though they are supposed to be able to register the day of. Very democratic, huh?
Each candidate had a spokesperson who gave a speech. Obama supporters were intense, booing and being fairly raucous. The speeches were really well-thought-out and extensive. They were impressive actually. Then we had to get to appropriate side of the gym for real, because we were to be counted. At this point, a simple ballot seems like it might have been more effective. Counting 550 people accurately is a joke, especially one at a time. It took several tries before they figured out a system that seemed accurate. Come on. As a foreigner, I would have laughed at our democratic exercise. In this age of technology we must be able to come up with something better!
They shared the results. And there was a SECOND counting. Thankfully, they just counted the people that moved. I think the people who joined the Obama camp felt like heroes after the applause they gathered.
In all, I felt that the caucus left people out, may have been at least a little inaccurate, and was a bit too long. It was fun to see neighbors, Makili loved the commotion, but it was damn hot with close to 600 people in that gym. Makili was stripped down to his diaper by the end of the night. That's democracy for you I guess? I have some pictures...maybe tomorrow.
