Caucusing

I grew up in Iowa and remember my parents driving to the big town of Harris to participate in the presidential caucus but this was the first year I was in the state when it was worth participating. It is quite different from voting on election day or in a primary as I have done in Minnesota.

The first difference is that everyone has to show up at the same time -- 7 PM. That led to the only traffic jam I’ve encountered in Spirit Lake in the entire time I've lived here. It seems there were a lot of other first time caucus goers since both parties broke participation records.

After parking my car and walking a couple of blocks, I stopped at the first table to find out which precinct I was in and made my way to the number 11 sign where I officially signed in. Every chair was filled along with the standing room so I stood off to the side near a precinct that had a whopping 12 participants.  The first order of business was a 2-minute speech given in support of each candidate in alphabetical order. Not all of the candidates had someone willing to speak for them. Some were better prepared than others. The moderator kept things moving and did cut one person off. The first candidate who didn’t have a spokesman (I think it was Kasich), opened the door for someone to give a 2-minute anyone-but-Trump speech. (This turned out to be ineffective since Trump won the county.) After that the moderator only allowed pro candidate speeches.  I doubt these speeches changed anyone’s mind since it is likely that those who showed up had someone they wanted to vote for.  Each speaker did encourage a large turnout on election day, no matter who the Republican candidate was.

After the speeches were out of the way it came down to precinct business. I was standing behind the people who were speaking so missed the details. It had something to do with choosing people to be part of the county Republican committee and county delegates. Finally a pad of 100 sheets of paper marked with the precinct number were handed to each precinct chair.  Somehow the chair managed to tear off a sheet and hand one to each person. The chairmen from the precinct with the most people immediately called out, “We need more!” I found a pen next door where there were fewer people, wrote the name of my choice, and placed it on the table where the chairwoman of precinct 11 was trying to maintain some semblance of order. I’m thankful I didn’t have to count the ballots and figured I could wait until morning for the results.  It was about 7:40 when I headed out the door.