Yesterday I did my duty as a delegate. Go Barak! I don't know if this is a side effect of having to work everyday or going to grad school and having to sit through four and a half hour long classes, but anytime I know I have to be somewhere all day I anticipate boredom and irritation. Even so, I made my decision to be a delegate and I take that responsibility seriously, so I rolled in about a half an hour early. I signed in and then signed up to continue as a delegate. Then my neighbor (and friend from high school) and I worked the crowd a little and found a spot in the bleachers. The high school gymnasium was pretty packed, mostly with Obama supporter.
As it turns out it was awesome! I was both fascinated and invigorated by the process. The democrats surprised me and started promptly at 10:00am...I appreciate that. We had a short intro, then did the flag salute thing. I stopped staying the pledge in the fourth grade and still won't say it, but I stood respectfully, then our congressman Jim McDermott gave a speech. The theme was unity among the democrats. He encouraged us not to pick on the Hillary supporters and vise versa, but to focus on beating McCain. There were several other speakers some of whom are reps and some of whom wish to be reps in the future. It was all interesting.
It was about 11:00am before we actually got the first credentials report: which is a roll call of all the delegates and alternates signed in. The lady who was doing the tally was sick and had lost her voice, but she was so committed to doing her duty that she read the report anyway. There were over 1,000 of us present from the 1st and 7th districts, but some delegates were absent, meaning that many alternates were seated as delegates...which of course changed the count. The reason this was so important is because the State delegates are awarded based on the count, so for example if half of the Hillary people didn't show up and there weren't alternates to take their places as delegates, she would have actually lost delegates....even though on the local level she had x amount of delegates, the number that it translates into on the state level would be smaller. I don't understand the math precisely, but you get the idea.
In the meantime, in between counts we voted a lot. It was awesome. I love voting. There is nothing like getting to participate in making changes that will ultimately make everyone's lives a little better (well, hopefully). I had received the democratic platform in the mail and read through it, but I guess what I didn't understand was that these aren't things are set in stone. The platform consists of a series of statements and action plans beginning with our values which are: seeking peace, counteracting global climate change, protecting the environment, health care for all, fighting poverty and homelessness, economic justice, quality public education, fiscal responsibility, redesigning the criminal justice system, respecting religious freedom, and separating church and state. It is very much a work in progress and contains specific goals on how to proactively live out values. Anyone can add a resolution or move to strike a resolution, or add a word here or strike a word there. So we started by going through each item, section by section. People came up to the mike and flagged anything the felt needed changing....this took a very long time. Afterwards we voted to ratify any unflagged sections (which were like 10 sentences out of a long ass word document). Then we went back over the flagged material. First someone would explain why they chose to flag a section and any proposed change they would like to make, then 2 people could speak for it and 2 could speak against it...then we voted. I felt very empowered....like I was actually getting to make decision about my country. It also felt strange and cool to be in a room with a lot of people who seemed to want to make the same decisions that I did.
Once all the alternates were seated, there was a second credentials report. As the Kucinich and Undecided delegates accounted for less than 15% of the total delegates, they were not eligible to send delegates to the state convention which means that they were given the opportunity to switch their votes if they so chose....and several did. So the final numbers for the 1st were 84 seated delegates-23 for Hillary, 61 for Barak, translating into 1 delegate and 1 alternate for Hillary and 4 delegates and 1 alternate for Barak. In the 7th there were 1061 delegates seated, 277 for Hillary and 809 for Barak translating into 14 delegates and 7 alternates for Hillary and 41 delegates and 20 alternates for Barak. So out of the 809 seated delegates for Barak, 145 men and 123 women (including yours truly) signed up to continue on to the state level. Each delegate was allotted 20 seconds to explain why we should be allowed to continue and then we all voted on 20 women and 21 men (we flipped a coin for the odd delegate) on an elaborate 4 page ballot. This took HOURS! But I thought it was so fabulous that we each got to state our piece. There were some really amazing speakers and interesting people. We heard from Union shop stewards, people with severe health problems and no health care, nurses, immigrants, veterans, and all sorts of people about why they were supporting Barak Obama and why they wanted a change to go to the state convention in June.
Well, I made it! I am alternate # 3 and will be headed to Spokane this June to raise my voice and represent Barak Obama!
As it turns out it was awesome! I was both fascinated and invigorated by the process. The democrats surprised me and started promptly at 10:00am...I appreciate that. We had a short intro, then did the flag salute thing. I stopped staying the pledge in the fourth grade and still won't say it, but I stood respectfully, then our congressman Jim McDermott gave a speech. The theme was unity among the democrats. He encouraged us not to pick on the Hillary supporters and vise versa, but to focus on beating McCain. There were several other speakers some of whom are reps and some of whom wish to be reps in the future. It was all interesting.
It was about 11:00am before we actually got the first credentials report: which is a roll call of all the delegates and alternates signed in. The lady who was doing the tally was sick and had lost her voice, but she was so committed to doing her duty that she read the report anyway. There were over 1,000 of us present from the 1st and 7th districts, but some delegates were absent, meaning that many alternates were seated as delegates...which of course changed the count. The reason this was so important is because the State delegates are awarded based on the count, so for example if half of the Hillary people didn't show up and there weren't alternates to take their places as delegates, she would have actually lost delegates....even though on the local level she had x amount of delegates, the number that it translates into on the state level would be smaller. I don't understand the math precisely, but you get the idea.
In the meantime, in between counts we voted a lot. It was awesome. I love voting. There is nothing like getting to participate in making changes that will ultimately make everyone's lives a little better (well, hopefully). I had received the democratic platform in the mail and read through it, but I guess what I didn't understand was that these aren't things are set in stone. The platform consists of a series of statements and action plans beginning with our values which are: seeking peace, counteracting global climate change, protecting the environment, health care for all, fighting poverty and homelessness, economic justice, quality public education, fiscal responsibility, redesigning the criminal justice system, respecting religious freedom, and separating church and state. It is very much a work in progress and contains specific goals on how to proactively live out values. Anyone can add a resolution or move to strike a resolution, or add a word here or strike a word there. So we started by going through each item, section by section. People came up to the mike and flagged anything the felt needed changing....this took a very long time. Afterwards we voted to ratify any unflagged sections (which were like 10 sentences out of a long ass word document). Then we went back over the flagged material. First someone would explain why they chose to flag a section and any proposed change they would like to make, then 2 people could speak for it and 2 could speak against it...then we voted. I felt very empowered....like I was actually getting to make decision about my country. It also felt strange and cool to be in a room with a lot of people who seemed to want to make the same decisions that I did.
Once all the alternates were seated, there was a second credentials report. As the Kucinich and Undecided delegates accounted for less than 15% of the total delegates, they were not eligible to send delegates to the state convention which means that they were given the opportunity to switch their votes if they so chose....and several did. So the final numbers for the 1st were 84 seated delegates-23 for Hillary, 61 for Barak, translating into 1 delegate and 1 alternate for Hillary and 4 delegates and 1 alternate for Barak. In the 7th there were 1061 delegates seated, 277 for Hillary and 809 for Barak translating into 14 delegates and 7 alternates for Hillary and 41 delegates and 20 alternates for Barak. So out of the 809 seated delegates for Barak, 145 men and 123 women (including yours truly) signed up to continue on to the state level. Each delegate was allotted 20 seconds to explain why we should be allowed to continue and then we all voted on 20 women and 21 men (we flipped a coin for the odd delegate) on an elaborate 4 page ballot. This took HOURS! But I thought it was so fabulous that we each got to state our piece. There were some really amazing speakers and interesting people. We heard from Union shop stewards, people with severe health problems and no health care, nurses, immigrants, veterans, and all sorts of people about why they were supporting Barak Obama and why they wanted a change to go to the state convention in June.
Well, I made it! I am alternate # 3 and will be headed to Spokane this June to raise my voice and represent Barak Obama!
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