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Democratic Caucus March 26

The Road to Resilience

The Democratic Caucus for Washington State is coming up on Saturday, March 26th.  The doors open at 9am and the Caucus begins at 10am at the O Space.  The goal is to finish by noon, and please plan on staying until the end to be sure that your vote counts.  

If, for medical, religious, or work reasons, you are unable to attend, you can get a surrogate affidavit (absentee participation) at tinyurl.com/wacaucusform.  This needs to be submitted by Mar 18, so, depending on when you read this, you may no longer have that option.  If you are undecided on presidential preference, even if you normally vote Republican, you may want to attend this caucus to keep your options open. This is a highly unusual year and there is no telling what might happen.

 As you may know, the Democratic nominee for President is selected at the National Democratic Convention by the delegates sent there from each state.  These delegates are committed to vote on the first ballot for candidates in proportion to the voter preference in each state.  If there is no winner in the first ballot, the delegates are allowed to change their vote.  The parties in each state apportion these delegates to reflect either the state primary results or the vote at the precinct caucuses.  In Washington State, the Democratic Party selects the delegates according to the results in the caucuses.  In other words, your Democratic caucus vote, not your primary vote, will determine how our delegates will be awarded to Clinton and Sanders.   This is important!  In Washington State, if you want to have a voice in determining whether Clinton or Sanders is the nominee of the Democratic Party, you will need to attend your precinct caucus on March 26!

A precinct is the smallest division of the map for political parties.  There are 19 Democratic precincts on Vashon.  All of our precincts meet at the O Space this year, so you don’t need to know beforehand what precinct you are in.  When you arrive at the O Space, there will be volunteers ready to help you.  But, if you want to make things really easy on yourself...just pre-register online here:  DemCaucus.Com/Register.  Print it out and bring it with you, and you’re ready to scoot in the door and get started.

Who can vote in the caucus?  Everyone who lives on Vashon or Maury Island, so long as you’ll be 18 before November 8th, 2016!   Not registered to vote? Moved recently? No worries - you can register on March 26th at the Caucus and you’re good to go!  We are an open caucus state, so anyone can participate.

 The main business of your precinct caucus is to elect delegates to represent you at the next level up:  the Legislative District Caucus.  The number of delegates that you will choose is determined by the formula:  one delegate and one alternate for each 75 votes cast for President Obama in 2012 in your precinct.  You and your fellow precinct participants, with the precinct captain presiding, will determine how many delegates and alternates are awarded to each candidate according to the preferences declared on the registrations.  Some time will be allowed for speeches in favor of either candidate to win over undecideds.   The number of delegates and alternates awarded to each candidate will reflect the preferences of those of you who show up at the caucus on March 26th.  

The delegates will be volunteers from your group.  If you are interested in becoming more involved with politics, this is your chance.  In my previous experience, delegate volunteers were not always forthcoming.  If you imagine that being a delegate means that you will have to fly across country to the National Convention in August, never fear.  You will only be committed to attend the Legislative District Caucus on April 17 at which you may or may not decide to run as a delegate to the County Convention on May1.  If you would like to continue on to the National Convention, prepare now!  Becoming a National Delegate takes effort but it is an exciting experience, so if you wish to do this, plan ahead.  You will need to be elected as a delegate at each caucus level.  Delegates to the State Convention will be elected from amongst the delegates at the Congressional District Caucus.  At the State Convention (in Tacoma this year, I believe), delegates will be elected to represent our state at the National Convention.  At each level, the delegates elected will be an even number of men and women, and will reflect the candidate preferences determined at the precinct level.  So, if you want to help your candidate to become the nominee, you need to attend the caucus!

It is okay to bring your kids, but understand that there will be no childcare available.  Also, there will not be any food or beverages, although you can bring your own.  The precinct vote can not occur before 10:30, so you need to be there by then.  Every attempt will be made to finish up by noon.   Remember, you will be with your friends and neighbors, so it should be a fun and rewarding experience!  See you there.
Questions about the caucus?   Vashoncaucus2016@gmail.com