For the first time in my voting life, I attended the Precinct Caucus for the GOP (Republican Party). The King County Precinct was held at the Redmond VFW Hall on Saturday, March 03, 2012. I attended with Barbara Johnston, who attended in 2008 (and was the only representative of our voting precinct that year).
We arrived approximately at 8:45 to stand in line for our registration process. There were only about 10 people at this time and the doors weren’t scheduled to open until 9 AM. Announcements were made about using computers to registers us, the need for both photo ID and Voter Registration Card, and a recommended (NOT required) donation of $5 per person to cover costs for the caucus. We were informed that the remainder of unused funds would be donated to the GOP nominee campaign.
On a side note, one of the attendees was immediately agitated that the “suggested donation” was in fact a “Poll Tax” and that we were not required to pay. He later made a motion to notify all attendees that the party was in fact, charging a poll tax, and that it was against primary regulations. The motion was seconded and noted in the record. (See below for definition of “Poll Tax”). This same attendee made another motion or two regarding items that were not relevant for this article (and in my opinion were not necessary or relevant for the caucus).
According to MSNBC, the “Caucus” is a non-binding straw poll, usually used together with the state primary to decide the candidate for the national convention. Washington State has 43 delegates at the Republican National Convention (held August 27, 2012 in Tampa Bay, Florida). As Washington State has no primary this election year, the candidate will be determined using the delegates (or alternates) selected at today’s caucuses; who will attend the county convention, then the state convention and finally the national convention.
As the caucus began in earnest, we located our precinct area and sat in the chairs; after most of the over 100 attendees were seated or registered (it was a SRO crowd), our King County Caucus Chair covered some housekeeping items and went over the basic agenda and format for the remaining time. We then moved into our individual voting precinct groups, were required to sign in and state our choice for GOP candidate (where the straw poll count comes from), and then set about to appoint a Precinct Caucus Chairman and Secretary. After the Chairman and Secretary were appointed by our group we discussed the platforms for GOP Candidates for Washington states by completing a “bubble sheet” using questions regarding the economy, health, immigration, education and several other topics.
After our platform sheets were completed, we elected two delegates and two alternates for our voting precinct (delegate and alternate needs are determined by the size of the voting precinct). We had a group of 10 people, and the voting was civil and informative. At the end of our elections, we completed the forms, tallied the “votes” for presidential nominees, sealed the envelope and turned our packet into the Caucus Chairman.
Our small group had some valid, respectful and thoughtful discussions regarding each of the three candidates. The Straw poll for our small group of 10 voters was 1 vote Ron Paul, 2 votes Rick Santorum and 7 votes Mitt Romney.
I was impressed by the number of people in attendance, the diversity of the crowd and the organization of the volunteers. The crowd was about 50/50 for new vs. experienced attendees and other than the few motions at the beginning regarding housekeeping items, it seemed to flow rather smoothly.
We adjourned at 12:30 PM.
Click here for more information on “Poll Tax”
For more information on the 2012 Republican National Convention, click here.
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