this whole situation is confusing to many people and i include myself in this group. for me it starts knowing we do not declare party in this state. the primary came about as a result of an initiative. the Democratic party selection of their delegates to the nominating convention does not use the results of the primary. this decision is made by Democrats from all over the state, as it was this spring in Bellingham when they met. the parties choose how they select delegates. it is as grassroots as it gets. the caucus is a chance to meet with Democrats in my community and mix it up. as i was trying to get my 82 yr old mother to go to her republican caucus she was not to interested until i told her she could go as an undecided. she said, "you mean people would be trying to win me over" yep mom, eye ball to eye ball. and i pointed out if no one was convincing she could remain undecided. as the Democrats in Michigan are urging democrats to vote in their upcoming primary if their candidate is not on the ballot.
anyway i want the people, who care enough to suit up, saddle up the SUV and show up once every four years to pick the nomimee for my party. and i want everyone to vote in the general election.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
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I was just telling my Mom who is in Michigan about the system out here which I just learned about through your links to the dems site. She thought this was a great idea as it got people more involved and it was so hand-on. After decades of not really caring, she is gearing up and attending dems meeting in her area. Enough is enough already! I think more people are going to get out and make their voice heard this time.
People should participate in both the primary and the caucus. Both are opportunites to voice your preference for who you want to be President.
Washington State's Primary could be used to select delegates if the State Democratic Party wanted it to but they voted through representatives to the Democratic Central Committee not to. The vote was held last year and was a divided vote.
The Presidential Primary more accurately reflects the voting conditions in November as regards voter access to voting and voting by mail. All counties except King County now vote by mail and once you receive your ballot you have several weeks to send it back by mail.
The caucus unfortunately requires that you be available for 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon and physically attend to have your vote recorded. The Washington state Democrats have posted a "caucus surrogate affidavit for religious observance military service, or disability" which allows one to record a vote if you fall in these catagories and know that such an option exists. go to http://www.wa-democrats.org/pdf/uploaded/16_-_2008_Precinct_Caucuses_-_Surrogate_Affidavit_Form.pdf
Voters unfortunately will not be mailed these forms and many others will still not physically be able to attend.
Those who can't attend will include my daughter who will be back at college in New York State. Other students who are out of state or not registered to vote in their college precinct, but back home, will not be able to participate. People who have to work that day like policemen, firemen, health care workers, hospital workers as well as retail workers who can't leave their job at Tully's or Starbucks or QFC or any other places of business open Saturday afternoon, all lose their vote. Likewise if you are sick or in the hospital or are out of state for work or vacation you can't participate.
The caucus system is an exclusionary system, if it worked we would be using it for all elections, instead of having printed ballots sent to us in the mail or using a voting booth.
Irregardless of these problems, it is what is in place now this year and I urge voters to participate in it if they can to have their voice heard. And I urge people to also vote in the Presidential Primary.
While the Democrats will not use the Primary to allocate delegates, the Washington State Republican Party will use the Primary to select half of their delegates: the other half will be chosen by the caucus.
If people want to see the Democrats do it differently 4 years from now they need to tell the State Democratic Party to use the Presidential Primary to select delegates in the future.
it will probably come up again for the Democrats to decide if they will change the way they select delegates. as a Democrat myself i would certainly not be for using the primary unless we declared party and it would be the Democrats only who make my party's decision who we support. otherwise i see it as a corporate industrial media complex wet dream and not a reflection of my values as a Democrat. i am not for turning more power over to the corporate industrial media complex to tell us who our spectator democracy should support. we are already heavily under that influence. if someone couldn't participate in the caucus/primary system, and wanted to, i would be for trying always to figure how to make that possible.
How do we get rid of the caucus system? I didn't even know it existed until yesterday and I'm a law student. I can't imagine how any people think when they mail in that ballot there vote will count.
the caucus system in Washington state is what we, as a voluntary association Democratic Party, hang onto as grass roots democracy. there are powerful forces who would love nothing more than to use democracy as a club against us to end our voice. as a state that does not publically register our party affilliation, if we used the state primary system(funded by taxpayers)instead of our caucus system(funded by the donations of our members), we could not be sure Democrats were the ones picking our Democratic nominee for president. as a hard working Democrat, who works hours every month of the year to make sure my party and the candidates we recruit and support to get elected are truly advancing what is important to me, this thought is painful to me.
it's one of the most important "suits vs roots" issue we face. if we allow our party to lose the caucus we will never get it back. as an open primary state(no public registering of party) the Democratic party has alway used the caucus. the presidental nominating primary did not exist in our state until a bipartison group of party higher ups took an intiative to the legislature in 1988 after a scarey grassroots movement threatened their hold. the legislature passed it in 1989 without a vote to the people. (and even if it had been voted on by the people it would still be inappropriate for voters to decide how a voluntary association democratic party should choose their nominee.) so our party has never used the $9,700,000 tax payer billed primary to select our delegates to our party's national nominating convention. in fact, in 2004, because the republicans had their nominee and the Democratics were sticking with the caucus we saved the taxpayers $9,700,000.
While I can appreciate the ideals of a caucus,our current democratic system of excluding democratic voters who are unable to attend the caucus leaves me with grave concerns. As a registered nurse, I represent a number of professionals, who are politically involved, but unable to attend the caucus due to work obligations. I am also aware of a large number of senior citizens who are also extremely politically involved, but unable to attend the caucus due to physical limitations. To exclude these votes simply because they were unable to physically attend the caucus is simply beyond me!
I invite all democrats in WA state to conduct your own personal survey. I personally have been amazed at the number of democratic voters In Washington state who were under the illusion that casting a vote on the primary ballots for a presidential candidate was all they needed to do in the election process. Our Democratic caucus system has become extremely confusing for the average american, & is in dire need of reform to include the public at large.
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