Our caucus was held in a 100-year-old school building, in a square classroom covered in student art and chalkboards. Several old sofas, tables and folding chairs, plus the banged-up, varnished cedar floor, provided places to sit. It was standing room only but it was comfortable. We saw three neighbors we recognized plus one member of my book club who lives nearby.
Our neighborhood is an historically black area that has gone to about 60 percent white in the past ten to 15 years, and of the 88 people in our precinct caucus room, there were maybe 10 black people. We didn't specifically count. What surprised me was that the room went 85 percent for Obama, with 75 votes for him, 12 for Hillary, and one undecided who later swung to Obama's side. I had thought it would be closer and that there would be more undecided voters.
The New Yorker magazine had written about the Iowa caucuses. The story gave me the impression that there would be aggressive recruiting from the two sides, with people trying to persuade the others to come over to their side. Our caucus had none of that. One person was spontaneously chosen from each side to speak in favor of their choice for sixty seconds. After each side spoke, the one undecided voter identified herself and changed her vote.
Votes had been counted by a couple sitting next to me on the sofa. They had collected the sign-in sheets on which each person had written their choice, tallied the votes (two or three times, though no one else doublechecked their count), and then handed the sheet back to the woman who wanted to change her vote.
Luckily there were more than enough volunteers to be delegates and alternates to the next levels, the district and county conventions. Our precinct assigned five delegates--four to Obama and one to Hillary. Tom and I didn't volunteer, though we would have if there hadn't been enough people who wanted to do it. Once that was over, we left.
Our neighborhood is an historically black area that has gone to about 60 percent white in the past ten to 15 years, and of the 88 people in our precinct caucus room, there were maybe 10 black people. We didn't specifically count. What surprised me was that the room went 85 percent for Obama, with 75 votes for him, 12 for Hillary, and one undecided who later swung to Obama's side. I had thought it would be closer and that there would be more undecided voters.
The New Yorker magazine had written about the Iowa caucuses. The story gave me the impression that there would be aggressive recruiting from the two sides, with people trying to persuade the others to come over to their side. Our caucus had none of that. One person was spontaneously chosen from each side to speak in favor of their choice for sixty seconds. After each side spoke, the one undecided voter identified herself and changed her vote.
Votes had been counted by a couple sitting next to me on the sofa. They had collected the sign-in sheets on which each person had written their choice, tallied the votes (two or three times, though no one else doublechecked their count), and then handed the sheet back to the woman who wanted to change her vote.
Luckily there were more than enough volunteers to be delegates and alternates to the next levels, the district and county conventions. Our precinct assigned five delegates--four to Obama and one to Hillary. Tom and I didn't volunteer, though we would have if there hadn't been enough people who wanted to do it. Once that was over, we left.
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