Caucus

Last night Brenna and I participated in our voting precinct's caucus. Never done that before. I'm still not clear why some states use the caucus approach while others use the primary approach, but I did learn a few valuable things last night. First and foremost, I liked the caucus. Though it was definitely more time consuming than just showing up and voting in a primary, it engendered much more of a community feeling. We had about 40 people show up from our precinct, and it was well worth the time to be able to meet some of them and have an open dialog with them. We voted for two to represent our precinct at the county caucus later on this month. Five people wanted to represent us, but we could only have two. So each person took about half a minute to introduce themself and explain why they wanted to be the precinct representative. Then we voted. I got to be the precinct "mouthpiece" during the caucus, which was fun. So I did my best to explain the purpose of the caucus and the items that needed to be decided. A bit humorous as it was something of the blind leading the blind. But a good experience.

All in all, I highly recommend the caucus format. A bit confusing, certainly, but it made me feel more like I was part of America, because I was actually a part of the community. I don't create that opportunity for myself often enough, so I appreciate when it is presented to me.