I attended my first Democratic Party caucus. I enjoyed the sense of participation in the process of choosing our next president. Everyone was friendly, supportive of speakers whether in agreement with them or not. My candidate only got a third of the votes in my precinct, but it felt good to be part of it.
However, the process did leave a sour taste because of all of people left out of the process. The frail, people who had to work, people with illness, or folks with transportation issues. Sure, there was a process for absentees, but it isn’t much help to people whose work schedules aren’t set a week in advance, or for any reason are unexpectedly ill.
While waiting the 45 minutes in line, I saw folks leave, it was cold. How many folks saw the long lines and drove on? In my precinct, one man’s vote didn’t count because he was in the wrong precinct. By the time it was discovered, his correct precinct had finished, so after two hours, his vote didn’t count. Two people rushing from work were a few minutes late, their votes didn’t count either.
Voting is too important to only be for the healthy, strong, mobile and or those with weekends off. We have four years to move to a simple mail-in primary in which all can take part.
