a yen for style.

soapbox time: caucuses

may i honor my right to freedom of speech right now and talk about how i think our current electoral process is a joke? at least how it was handled by the political parties in washington state yesterday was.

i am incredibly annoyed right now with the fact that the parties of the state of washington still use an antiquated caucus process for making party decisions in the current presidential race. although the state also has a primary, and the state spent millions to create a process that is more convenient and accessible for voters (and, likely, more accurate), the parties ignored that and decided to go the way of the ancient and hold caucuses all over the state yesterday. being that this is the first time i have experienced one of these, i can say i and many others who come from states where the parties honor a more progressive primary voting system were very confused when we arrived at the "voting" location (which i had to spend 20 minutes on the internet to find--how in the world did people know where to go before the internet?) and i was told that i would not be able to drop off my absentee ballot, but would rather have stand around in an overcrowded auditorium and literally "caucus" to determine who would win the washington delegate vote for my party of choice. i certainly wasn't the only confused person there.

i am all for upholding my duty as a citizen of the United States by being a registered voter, and subjecting myself to the horror that is jury duty, so i may vote for my elected officials. but, as this great nation (and the world as a whole) progresses by creating new technologies that allow us to do things in a more streamlined and efficient fashion, why doesn't someone step in and say enough to this ridiculous caucus process? i can say that what i entered yesterday was chaos. half of the people, who most likely moved here from other states that got rid of this system long ago (i being included), were wondering and saying, "what the hell?" even the volunteers couldn't seem to answer our questions. it was like they were just told to show up. not preparing myself to spend an entire afternoon in an overcrowded, stuffy elementary school auditorium doing Lord knows what since the volunteer couldn't quite tell me what i needed to do to make my choice of candidate known, i left without voting. now i know that my vote during the state run election won't even count since the decision was already made yesterday. although my main excuse was just not wanting to spend my afternoon in such chaos, what about the many people who had to work yesterday and couldn't attend if they wanted; or those without transportation options (the public transportation system in many areas here is poor or non-existent); or those who needed to stay home and care for their dependents and couldn't find someone to step in for a few hours? do these voices not count? this certainly isn't very a democratic process since it is exclusionary to those who can't set aside the time for caucus, but would like to cast a ballot.

so now i can take my absentee ballot and run it through the shredder, since it is of no use at this point. the decision was made for me and countless others in crowded auditoriums across washington state. why we can't all move to a more unified and progressive election process across all states baffles me. selecting our president is a heavy responsibility, and the process should be set in a way that is convenient and easy for all. this might help increase the number of people who vote.