gig harbor & caucusing

Eric and I took a drive out to Gig Harbor today (just west of Tacoma) to pick up a serger sewing machine I had found on craigslist. We made a morning of it, taking a walk along the waterfront and having lunch (possibly the best clam chowder I've ever had) at what was obviously a local favorite, Tides Tavern.

The Gig Harbor waterfront -- old boat dock

The water in Gig Harbor was so clean and clear, we got to see lots of thriving harbor wildlife.

We drove back to Seattle just in time to get to our caucasing site. We were a little hesitant about the time commitment (I think I thought it was going to be more like jury deliberation, with everyone in the precinct having to be in agreement on a single candidate), but felt that we ought to see what it was all about. Our caucasing site was at a local middle school, and was actually the site for several different precinct, and as we approached and saw the parked cars all down the street and the sharp increase of pedestrians hoofing it towards the school, we pulled over and joined them. The line of voters snaked out the front door of the school and around the corner, so we stood in it. Inside was a bit chaotic for people like us who arrived without our presinct number, but when we all got to the right place and our precinct leader showed up and got us all signed in and recorded our initial candidate preferences, it went pretty smoothly. We sat and stood in roughly a circle, sharing the school library with another precinct. Our leaders tallied up the initial preferences: the Obamas and the Clintons and the "others": two for Kusinich and three undecideds. Two of those three undecideds were Eric and myself. Then about eight folks volunteered their opinions -- who they were voting for and why -- then the leaders asked if anyone wanted to change their preferences. Still not totally convinced, but swaying enough to write down a name, Eric and I went and changed our paperwork, the leaders retallied and based upon the nearly three-to-one Obama to Clinton ratio, we broke into two groups and elected a total of seven delegates (and a few alternates) to represent our precinct at the County caucus in April. That done, we headed home.

The line to get into our caucus site, when we got there...

I'm glad we went. It was good to get out and feel like we were participating, especially in such a different sort of atmosphere than your basic rickity voting booth.