Well, I tried, at least.
Last night was both amazing and troubling for me as a first-time primary voter. I voted in the primary last week as an early voter. Then yesterday, at 7:00, I showed up at my precinct to caucus. We were told that the caucuses would begin promptly at 7:15, or when the last voter had cast their ballot in the primary, whichever was later.
The parking lot at the elementary school that serves as our polling place was slammed. I took Hannah with me because I thought she might like it. I left my non-voting slacker of a husband home with Caroline and promised to try and return in time to put her down for the night.
We waited outside for a while and at 7:15 some sort of official came out and told us that there were still people voting and we'd have to remain outside until they were done.
Fine. No biggie. But half an hour later, Hannah had lost her patience (the free stickers and buttons only held her off for so long), and declared that she needed to go potty.
We made our way inside and I asked where the restroom was. We were directed down a long hall, and when we turned the corner, I realized we wouldn't be staying long enough to caucus. This hallway ran the length of the school - at least a quarter of a mile - and it was filled with a row about four people wide that went the length of the hall and out the door at the other end.
When I voted early, I waited for approximately 15 minutes to get through a line of ten people. There was no way they would be able to convene the caucus within the next few hours, and there was no way I could stay, given the weather and my two kids.
I was so pleased with the turnout - more than I've seen, frankly, for even a presidential general election. But I wish there were provisions for dealing with such a high turnout successfully. Watching the polls come in, I really wish I'd gone back up after putting the girls back down, but I didn't.
So there you have it. Score one for democracy. Sort of.
