Caucuses and Smells Like Reefer Madness
I took Rachel out for an hour of behind-the-wheel time tonight. We drove into Bloomington past my old high school where we noticed a steady stream of traffic headed to the schools for caucus night. She mentioned that she could get extra credit for one of her classes if she attended so we headed home, picked up Tammy and headed off to Lakeville North...Republican territory.
We were a few minutes late getting there and the parking lot was in overflow mode so we grabbed a spot along the yellow curb with a bunch of others. We got inside and found a crowd of people straining to see a small map taped to a wall with the different precinct numbers for the city. You needed to have your precinct number to know which room to go to. We finally shuffled our way close enough to make out that we're in precinct 4 and headed off to room 308.
When we got there it was standing-room-only. We opened the door and managed to barely squeeze our way inside. There was a guy in his mid twenties up front trying to explain the procedure but it seemed pretty clear that he was a bit unprepared for the amount of people who showed up. Somebody from the crowd yelled that all they wanted to do was cast a vote and leave. That was a bit rude but it did make sense. Most people weren't interested in sticking around for the election of delegates or offering resolutions.
They handed out two yellow post-it notes to each person and asked us to write our name and address on one note and our vote on the other. Voting integrity wasn't the concern tonight and honestly, I didn't really care. I'm a registered Republican who will be more or less abandoning his party this time around. Tammy and I intend to write in Huckabee's name. He won't be the party's nomination; we know that.
If tonight was any indication of voter interest in the coming election it looks as though we can expect high voter turnout. I'd say that both sides will be getting out the vote unlike any time we've seen in a generation.
I got a call this afternoon from a friend who works with Lockheed Martin, Flight Service. If there was ever a honeymoon since LM took over that entity of Air Traffic Control from the FAA it's now over. He told me how he was recently called in for two hours of overtime to sit and watch an anti union video in preparation for an upcoming vote to determine if they will form a union. It made for some good humor. Sort of reminds me of the movie Reefer Madness from all those years ago.
We were a few minutes late getting there and the parking lot was in overflow mode so we grabbed a spot along the yellow curb with a bunch of others. We got inside and found a crowd of people straining to see a small map taped to a wall with the different precinct numbers for the city. You needed to have your precinct number to know which room to go to. We finally shuffled our way close enough to make out that we're in precinct 4 and headed off to room 308.
When we got there it was standing-room-only. We opened the door and managed to barely squeeze our way inside. There was a guy in his mid twenties up front trying to explain the procedure but it seemed pretty clear that he was a bit unprepared for the amount of people who showed up. Somebody from the crowd yelled that all they wanted to do was cast a vote and leave. That was a bit rude but it did make sense. Most people weren't interested in sticking around for the election of delegates or offering resolutions.
They handed out two yellow post-it notes to each person and asked us to write our name and address on one note and our vote on the other. Voting integrity wasn't the concern tonight and honestly, I didn't really care. I'm a registered Republican who will be more or less abandoning his party this time around. Tammy and I intend to write in Huckabee's name. He won't be the party's nomination; we know that.
If tonight was any indication of voter interest in the coming election it looks as though we can expect high voter turnout. I'd say that both sides will be getting out the vote unlike any time we've seen in a generation.
I got a call this afternoon from a friend who works with Lockheed Martin, Flight Service. If there was ever a honeymoon since LM took over that entity of Air Traffic Control from the FAA it's now over. He told me how he was recently called in for two hours of overtime to sit and watch an anti union video in preparation for an upcoming vote to determine if they will form a union. It made for some good humor. Sort of reminds me of the movie Reefer Madness from all those years ago.
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