Sunday, February 10, 2008

Whatcom County Democratic Caucus - A Big Deal!


Yesterday was the WA State Democratic Party Precinct Caucuses. I spent the afternoon (noon - 4PM) at our local (Ferndale) Caucus. I then spent the rest of the afternoon at the Whatcom Democrats office, helping with the tallying and paperwork needed to compile all the information from the precinct caucuses and report it to the State Party.

Those results were: Clinton 23.5%, Obama 74.58%.

I was hearing enthusiastic anecdotes about the large turn-out at every Democratic precinct caucus in the County. But I had no idea just what a big deal the turn-out was until this afternoon when the final attendance count was added up.

The total number of Democrats who went to caucus in Whatcom county on Feb. 9 was 9674. What makes that a big, big deal becomes apparent when you compare it to the number of voters who choose a Democratic ballot in the 2006 primary (all mail-in voting). It works out that 48.6% of those who mailed in a Democratic primary ballot in '06 made the effort to show up in person at a precinct caucus this year. Wow!

(UPDATE) The 2008 Democratic precinct caucus attendance in Whatcom county was nearly three times larger than for the 2004 Presidential precinct caucuses. Double Wow and Zowie!

1 comment:

DrunkenNoodleBreakfast said...

they actually ran out of new voter registration forms at my caucus. It was chaotic but worth it. I've never been to caucus being from a primary-based state. I like this way better because it seems like the people are truly represented. I was enraged to hear Hillary discounting the caucus states because she said they are activist states and neither she nor Bill have ever done well in them. It's like she brushed it off as "those crazy activist states".