First, a couple more photos that have come in since our caucus updates ended last night. This one is from Katie McKeehan Hart, who photographed her daughter Mary Kate Hart as they caucused at West Seattle Elementary:
This one’s from Josh Sutton, showing how big the group from just one precinct got, caucusing at Chief Sealth High School:
ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT: SRO caucus scene at West Seattle High School, from Matt Taylor:
Now, the “what’s next” info. First – there is still a statewide presidential primary on February 19; if you vote by mail, you’ve received your ballot by now. The Democrats are not using the results to choose any delegates (they have always used the caucuses instead; here’s 34th District Democrats chair Ivan Weiss’s explanation); the Republicans will choose half their delegates from the primary results, half from their caucuses yesterday. If you’re a Democrat and you’re wondering whether to bother voting, one thing to keep in mind, if you care, is that since the race is still perceived as close, the national media will likely pay attention to the results anyway, regardless of whether delegate-awarding is involved, so if you want your candidate to look good, you might as well show up for this too. (Personally, we never miss a chance to vote for anything.) As fr the long process of converting yesterday’s caucus results to national-convention delegates: The Democrats’ legislative-district caucuses are on April 5; delegates who go on from there will attend county conventions on April 13; then caucuses by Congressional district (here in West Seattle, we’re part of the 7th District) are on May 17, the state convention is on June 14, and the Democratic National Convention is August 25-28 in Denver. Oh yeah, and the actual election … November 4. (By the way, the 34th District Democrats are promising precinct-by-precinct breakouts on their website within a few days; for some unofficial counts, check the comments below our running post from last night.) One more note – just as we were writing this, we received the following from Steve Heck, titled “Open Letter to Washington State Democratic Leadership,” with some points of concern regarding the process, and he thought it might be a point worth discussing here:
Dear Party Leadership,
Although yesterday’s democratic caucus will be widely considered a success based on the unprecedented attendance, I feel I must point out areas in our nomination process that are in dire need of change to ensure a strong healthy party in our state.
Process complexity and redundancy
Although one can argue the merits of the caucus vs the primary, surely no one can defend the need for both. The confusion witnessed in the weeks proceeding and leading up to the day of the caucus was widespread, inexcusable, wasteful and begs the following questions:What is the point of the purely symbolic primary?
How much money does the party waste holding multiple events to accomplish the same goal? (The postage for absentee ballots alone most reach into the tens of thousands)
How many people have been disenfranchised by the current process? (people who must work on Saturday, single parents without daycare, etc.)
Why should anyone financially support an organization with such a wasteful and inefficient processes?
Information dispersal
In a time when there are more cheap and fast communication channels available then ever before it was startling to witness the lack of accurate, concise information regarding the nomination process. If one did actually manage to determine the location of your precinct despite the poorly organized and underpowered website you were greeted by ill informed and often misinformed volunteers. Simple questions such as “Does my vote count if leave before the caucus ends?” garnered totally different answers depending on who was asked. Clearly no one was confident in the answer.All of this points to an unnecessarily complex process, lack of focus on and efficient methods of communicating with the party’s volunteers and supporters. Too many people whom for the first time in a decade were willing to participate in our political process were left out in the cold.
How will the process be changed to make the process accessible to all party members in the future?
The party leadership has responsibility to provide an efficient and accessible framework in which all of its supporters can make their voices heard. In one person’s opinion you have let us down and significant change to the nomination process.
Sincerely,
Steve Heck
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