Washington Caucus

This is a major election year, perhaps the most important in our voting lifetimes. We've always made an effort to participate in the election system, and this was our year to experience our first Washington Caucus.

I didn't know much about how a caucus works, so let me briefly explain. The WA caucus this year was scheduled for 1-3pm on February 9th. To participate in the caucus, voters must show up at the site designated for their party affiliation; in our case, our Democratic precinct caucus location was at a local county building. Once at the site, the voters divide into groups by district. Voters in each district then cast a paper ballot for their candidate of choice. The votes are then tallied and announced, and an opportunity is given for one person to speak on behalf of each candidate. Once the speakers have finished, all voters are given a chance to change their vote, the votes are recounted and the "winners" for that district are announced. Since the Democratic caucus awards delegates proportional to the votes (rather than "winner take all"), the voters for each candidate who received delegates then convene to choose delegate representatives (and alternates) to go to the next phase of the caucus, the county caucus where county-wide delegates are then awarded using a similar mechanism. The Washingon State Democrats Caucus Information site has a much more complete description of the process, including an instructional video.

In my view, the caucus process is something that was probably a good idea 100+ years ago when it was harder to coordinate and implement a statewide balloting system. But today the caucus is a bit confusing and intimidating, and ends up disenfranchising a number of groups. Our Trout Lake district had what is considered a good turnout: for a town with a population of 900 and a generally high level of community participation, our caucus participation was around 50 people. Granted not everyone in Trout Lake is a Democrat, but even using a conservative estimate of 50% that is only ~10% turnout; other districts were much lower. Additionally, we noticed no Hispanics at the caucus even though the population in this area is substantial. Even if you put aside all of that, why couldn't they choose a day and time that isn't smack in the middle of a Saturday?

To make things worse, the Democrats in WA actually have BOTH a primary and a caucus, but only the caucus is used to determine how the delegates are awarded. So while the primary is more accessible and understandable to the public at large, it doesn't have a direct bearing on the election! It's a weird situation which I hope will be resolved and simplified before the next presidential election.

I ended up getting selected to be an alternate delegate for our district, so it's possible I'll be going to one of the follow-on events.

- Mike (& Corinne)