Today I live tweeted my wife and my experience during our district’s Democratic caucus.
It was quite the experience. I’ll post them in order below.
When we got there there was already a substantial line coming out of the building. Inside the school was a gymnasium filled with people signing in to caucus. The gymnasium was the original place we were supposed to caucus in. That was not going to happen at all.
It was pretty special for Sarah and I to go here to caucus because this is where Micah goes to school. This gymnasium is used as a cafeteria, and this is where Micah comes to get his breakfast every morning.
It was absolutely jam packed.
Eventually we made it through the line and signed in. Afterwards we headed outside, where we overheard we were now going to be caucusing. This gym would never fit us all.
When we got outside all the Bernie supporters had flooded the playground while all the Hillary supporters were off to the grassy area to the left. It was pretty evident that Bernie had a lot more supporters there than Hillary.
It was hard to capture just how many people came out for this caucus. It was pretty great to see. Our district really showed up. Very cool to be a part of it.
As we were standing around waiting for everyone to come out of the school, we spotted one of our neighbors standing in the Hillary section. Sarah bravely headed into “enemy” territory to ask him why he was there and to see if she could convince him to join the Bernie side. (He stayed… :sad face:)
As we continued to wait, more and more people poured out from the school and into the Bernie group.
And then there was this guy:
A closer look at our Bernie group:
As time ticked on, we had no way of knowing how long we were going to have to wait. But eventually someone stood on a chair and let us know that they had run out of our caucus preference cards – the pieces of paper in which we write down whom we plan to vote for in the primary. Overall, it was settled pretty quickly I think. They just ran and made copies. More people showing up than expected I think is a great thing. Go ‘Merica!
The Sanders campaign contacted me three times the night before – two texts and a phone call. Then another text this morning. Two other people contacted me on Facebook. They really were prepared to tell people to get out to vote. All of them told me to get out early. Doors were to close at 10:00 am and that we needed to get there as early as 8:00 am.
Well, Sarah got home from work today at 8:30, and my mom and brother came over to watch the boys while Sarah and I headed over to caucus.
They closed the doors officially I think around 10:10 because of how many people there were in line. But due to them closing the door when they did, they actually had to turn away voters and people wanting to register. I heard someone say that it was potentially “hundreds” of people that didn’t get to caucus. I don’t believe that number, but it was a significant amount of people.
And then it started!
They initially told us to hold up our preference cards – but we quickly realized that counting in that way would be absolutely ridiculous. WAY too many people for that to be done accurately.
Someone came up with the idea to form a single file line.
After we realized that wasn’t going to work all that better, we started forming multiple single file lines in order to be counted accurately and efficiently.
And somehow there were still people that were undecided about who they wanted to go with. Really?
Earlier my friend suggested that we try to play a game of red rover. And after we had formed our lines, it really looked like that may happen to try and convince other people to join each other’s side.
Before the undecideds split up into whom they wanted to be counted with an the preliminary count was taken.
Eventually a Bernie representative and a Hillary representative went to try and convince the undecided voters.
Eventually, after a bit more of a wait we were given the final numbers.
Before I left, and before everyone had handed in their preference cards, I jumped up into the playground and grabbed this shot. Supposedly it was shown tonight on CBS Evening News.
What a neat experience. So glad I was able to go.
And as of 8:20, Bernie won the state of Nebraska 55% to Hillary’s 45%.
So way to go Nebraska!
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