Did you Caucus??

Last night was Super Tuesday--an opportunity for people in 22 states to attend their local caucus or primary.

It was an opportunity for Jeff and I to legitimately get out of class early. :-)

Well, that was our original desire to go. Neither of us had ever attended a caucus, and being 30 (and very nearly 30), we thought it was time for us to enter the adult world of political awareness. We didn't know what to expect at a caucus nor did we really know which (Democrat or Republican) we should attend. I believe that both of us had only voted once previously--one voted Democrat in 2000 and one voted Republican in 2004, so we didn't really feel that we were really aligned with either political party.

Even driving to the caucus last night, we were still undecided. We reached the turn for the Republican one first, so we decided to check it out. We were mostly interested in just observing to see what it was all about, because of all the people that we'd asked, no one really knew what one was or what occurred at one.

Here is what happened:

• We found the location of our address on a map to determine our Ward (12) and Precinct (4).
• We gathered into an auditorium where letters from the candidates were read.
• We were then divided into precincts and each met in a different room (Or at least that is what was supposed to happen. In reality, they were short on conveners, so our precinct was combined in one room with another one.)
• We nominated and voted on delegates and alternates. (I'm still unclear as to what this means and what the delegates do--except it's something on March 8)
• We took the straw poll on the presidential candidates. (Romney & McCain were tied in our precinct)
• We nominated and voted on a Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary for our precinct. (No one was volunteering for these positions, and the Republicans apparently need more volunteers in Minneapolis, so Jeff volunteered to be Vice Chair, and I volunteered to be Secretary. We were uncontended, so we easily got the positions.)

Even though there were 50+ people crammed into a classroom at Minnehaha Academy, and they were getting a little unruly, since most people just came for the straw poll, and probably didn't know all the other stuff that was going to happen, we still really enjoyed it.

So, now we've aligned ourselves with the Republican party--at least for two years, because that's how long our positions are.

What started out to just be a curiosity and an excuse to get out of class early, turned into our becoming more active participants in our community. Our friend, Catherine, would be so proud. :-)