Results tagged “Election” from V2
My precinct (SEA 43-2040) had about 75 people jammed into an elementary school library that was probably meant to hold about 50 children and one adult. Turnout everywhere has been overwhelming, and there were about a dozen precincts at the school, all in their own rooms such as the gym, cafeteria, art room, and so forth. There was supposed to be one large gathering of all caucus attendees in the cafeteria before the official start, but because turnout was so huge the organizer had to instead dash from room-to-room and address each precinct individually, meaning we were about twenty minutes late in getting started.
My precinct was a fair mix of seniors and thirty-somethings, with a few college kids thrown in to mix things up, but I'd guess the average age was a bimodal distribution centering around 35 and 65. The Obama campaign clearly had larger representation (in all age, gender, and racial distributions) from the number of signs and stickers people arrived with, and when additional stickers were handed around the majority of people sitting around me took them. When we all finally signed in and the first tally was complete, the raw numbers were Obama 50, Clinton 18, Gravel 3, Uncommitted 1. With seven delegates to the district convention at stake, this resulted in five going for Obama and two for Clinton. After the tally, there was a brief speech from one supporter for each candidate (the Gravel supporter luckily acknowledged he hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell at getting the nomination, and instead her vote was in protest of something or other that the other two candidates weren't addressing sufficiently...) and after that two additional voters arrived and a two people (including the one uncommitted voter) switched allegiances. I didn't catch the raw numbers for the second tally, but the net result was that from our precinct Obama remained with five delegates and Clinton with two.
At that point we split among the various viable factions and selected our delegates and alternates to go to the various state legislative district conventions in early April, where the numbers will be whittled down further before holding US congressional district conventions where the delegates to the DNC convention in Denver will be selected. I'm attending my LD convention as an Obama delegate, so when that time comes around I'll let you know how it goes...
My precinct was a fair mix of seniors and thirty-somethings, with a few college kids thrown in to mix things up, but I'd guess the average age was a bimodal distribution centering around 35 and 65. The Obama campaign clearly had larger representation (in all age, gender, and racial distributions) from the number of signs and stickers people arrived with, and when additional stickers were handed around the majority of people sitting around me took them. When we all finally signed in and the first tally was complete, the raw numbers were Obama 50, Clinton 18, Gravel 3, Uncommitted 1. With seven delegates to the district convention at stake, this resulted in five going for Obama and two for Clinton. After the tally, there was a brief speech from one supporter for each candidate (the Gravel supporter luckily acknowledged he hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell at getting the nomination, and instead her vote was in protest of something or other that the other two candidates weren't addressing sufficiently...) and after that two additional voters arrived and a two people (including the one uncommitted voter) switched allegiances. I didn't catch the raw numbers for the second tally, but the net result was that from our precinct Obama remained with five delegates and Clinton with two.
At that point we split among the various viable factions and selected our delegates and alternates to go to the various state legislative district conventions in early April, where the numbers will be whittled down further before holding US congressional district conventions where the delegates to the DNC convention in Denver will be selected. I'm attending my LD convention as an Obama delegate, so when that time comes around I'll let you know how it goes...
Barack Obama just spoke to a beyond-capacity crowd at Key Arena -- approximately 18,000 people inside and an additional 3,000+ outside listening on loudspeakers. I (and thousands of others) walked to the Seattle Center from our homes, beating most of the traffic and buses in doing so. I ended up standing in an entryway in the upper deck, and every stairwell, walkway and hallway in the arena was absolutely packed with people.
The last time I remember an audience even close to this boisterous was when the Buffalo Bills reached the Super Bowl for the first time in 1990 and the 80,000+ fans at the stadium nearly reached the same volume and intensity of excitement.
Lots more pictures to come here (click this one to enlarge... behind him are US Congressman Adam Smith, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.) On a vaguely-related note, I officially wuv my camera.
UPDATE: Check out the GALLERY here!
The last time I remember an audience even close to this boisterous was when the Buffalo Bills reached the Super Bowl for the first time in 1990 and the 80,000+ fans at the stadium nearly reached the same volume and intensity of excitement.
Lots more pictures UPDATE: Check out the GALLERY here!
I went to see US Senator John Kerry speak this morning at a rally for the Obama campaign at the UW HUB Auditorium. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels (sitting at far left, with the UW Students for Obama in the background -- click the image to enlarge) introduced the senator and also announced his endorsement of Obama in the presidential campaign. Overall the speech was about what I expected. Kerry's a fairly dull but well-versed speaker and he went through the salient points for the audience -- the youth vote is critical (especially beyond the primaries!) and thus far has been surpassing all expectations, unlike most years where it seems to be there but vanishes at the last moment. Either candidate will be a dramatic (and welcome) departure from the current administrative snafu, but it's important to pay attention to the details. And of course, since the Washington primary means squat, it's critical that people actually attend their caucuses. Most of the crowd was already pro-Obama so it was basically preaching to the choir, but there were a few undecideds present and a few reasonable questions asked... although since he's merely a proxy for Obama it's not quite as effective as talking to the candidate himself.
Still, how cool is it that the man who nearly became President of the United States a mere four years ago can drop in at the last minute and give a rousing half-hour talk to over three hundred people and then take open questions without hesitation?
Still, how cool is it that the man who nearly became President of the United States a mere four years ago can drop in at the last minute and give a rousing half-hour talk to over three hundred people and then take open questions without hesitation?
So get out there and vote, while you still have the right to do so.
NaNoWriMo 2007
