The Ada County Caucus
to sum up everything I can remember right now
I waited in line for an hour and a half (got there around 4:30) and was lucky enough to get a seat, that was nothing compared to some other poor souls who were stuck out in the cold for over three hours.
started after 9 pm, was supposed to start at 7 pm
estimated 12,000 people showed up - they were only prepared for ~8,000
they were saying it’s the biggest county caucus in US history but I’ll wait for someone to fact check that, google wasn’t helping me tonight
the majority of voters were on Bernie’s side of the room
around 10:30 the MC got up and explained again that if you don’t want to change your vote then your initial vote counts for all three rounds so at that point about half the people there - myself included - got up and left because we were all exhausted and I have to get up early for work.
we got to spend about four hours sitting around, listening first to early 2000s emo music then pop country, there were beach balls, lots of twitter activity...
I think the Idaho Democratic Party should take this as a hint to switch to a primary system. This is ridiculous, nobody should have to set aside hours of their time in order to vote, especially in this manner. It’s unfair to the elderly and disabled, it’s unfair to students and to blue-collar workers, it’s unfair to people who can’t be physically present for any reason. Caucuses are just another part of an outdated system that needs to be removed.
