last night, i did something i’ve never had the urge to do before: i participated in a caucus.
apparently everyone calls this “the texas two step” cos of the whole primary then caucus thing, but what they should *really* call it is, “the texas tendency to do things that are extremely outdated and inefficient, because this is texas, and we don’t need yr new fangled politics!”
seeeeriously, guys. there has GOT to be a better way to do this.
i arrived at my precinct location, which happened to be a lovely church down the street from trudy’s, around 7:00 or so. the place was PACKED, and i really hope the pastor wasn’t there, cos i *highly doubt* the pews ever get that full on sundays. nor would you want them to, actually, cos it would be highly uncomfortable, and then people would just want you to speed through yr sermon so they could get the heck out of there and actually BREATHE.
er anyway
here’s a picture of the church, but note that i took this photo MUCH later in the evening.
at 7:15, the guy in charge got up at the front and basically said, “wow. i had no idea there would be so many of you guys. we only had four people here last time. so… uh… i guess everyone just come up and sign out?”
WHAT?
immediately everyone rushed to the front of the sanctuary, like some cray cray rabid communion. seriously, i had visions of people grabbing communion wafers and stuffing them down their throats (but without salsa, josh) and then smashing each other in the head with the wine goblet.
where was the organization? the line? the letting people go pew by pew?
i’m totally the kind of person that needs a line. i want to know where the line begins, where it ends, and i want everyone to stand in single file so that there is NO CUTTING. I HATE CUTTING.
there was none of this. it was the v. definition of, pardon my french, a clusterf*ck.
i stood in the “line” for about 20 minutes and did not move a single inch. then i realized that i could actually go home, take a shower (i had come straight from the gym, so, yay sticky!), eat dinner and THEN come back.
so that’s what i did. MUAHAHA, suck on THAT, caucus black hole of time!
when i got back approximately an HOUR AND A HALF LATER and stood at the end of the line, it looked like this:
much, MUCH better. note that there were now three people taking signatures AND three orderly lines. how hard was that?! maybe next time someone should bring a whistle and tell people to line up like it’s recess.
then, when i got to the front, i just had to show my id and my card thingie, and then he wrote down my info. and that was it.
ok, guys, is there NO WAY we can do this on a computer?
i know, i know, there are hackers out there and computers crash and yeah yeah i get it. but i guess i’m just part of the generation that thinks everything worth doing can be done online (except for eating and hanging out with friends and dancing, OBVS).
and you know, in spite of the disorganization, there was something utterly charming about the whole process. it sort of felt like a town hall meeting, and i wanted some old lady to get up and screech about getting rid of the whores on the street or some portly guy in a bow-tie to give a spiel about the new railroad line coming into town. and then we’d all cheer or jeer and the mayor would attempt to call order and then maybe a fight would break out afterwards on the street and everyone would rush out and i’d likely be wearing a hat.
yeah, i can see why texas finds it hard to change. i kinda miss that brand of politics myself.
LINKS
reason #48 why i love posh: cruz, in a batman suit.
did you see the link caitlin left me yesterday? celebrity baby blog! ZOMG!
for everyone freaking out today about patrick swayze possibly dying of cancer in five weeks, it’s not as bad as we thought. I AM SO RELIEVED. and i am totally not even kidding. i love patrick swayze. two words: road house.
No, what was a clusterf*ck about the caucus situation is that there are probably thousands of teachers across the state that did not participate due to the fact that they had to administer the f*cking TAKS test today. My caucus, which I did not attend due to being aforementioned teacher, did not end until 1 am. There were caucuses in Houston that did not START until 1 am. It should be a primary where each person’s vote counts once, and I am writing my representative at the state level to tell him so. I know that I have friends who are teachers and because they did not early vote, they ended up not voting at all.
I think the caucus is an awesome idea. However, I really can’t believe they’d hold it the day before state-wide tests. I heard on the news that parents were sitting in line with kids studying books in the halls!!
Becky’s post is more evidence that it seems to have been a bit of a disgrace. Why is it at night? I can’t believe they didn’t know the turn-out was going to be that big.
Thank you! Administering the TAKS test is probably the most boring job ever, because you can not be at your computer, you can not read, you can not sit down, you can not look at what the kids are doing, and yet if you screw up on ONE thing your job is on the line. There is no way you can proctor the test if you are not rested!
I wouldn’t mind caucusing if it was say at 10 am on a Saturday. Otherwise, I prefer my early voting at a time and place that is convenient for me!
And, originally the TAKS test was supposed to be on the 4th. It was changed to the 5th because schools are polling places.
Here I am complaining on behalf of teachers, when Raymond’s students that are of voting age would have had to attend the caucus and THEN TAKE the TAKS test the next day. What a way to introduce them to their voting rights. Can you imagine being 18, exercising your right to vote for the first time, and then finding out that it may not even really mean anything because you did not attend your caucus because you had to take and pass the TAKS test the next day in order to graduate (although, this is not their last chance)? And, that TAKS test is much more difficult than the TAAS tests we took when we were in school.
The caucus system is also unfair as it does not consider the citizens who work late shifts at factories or refineries and would not be able to get out of work to participate. Just my 2 cents; I’ll get down off my soapbox now.
i was going to make a comment about the taks test but saw it had already been done. last night in my precinct, i stood in line next to a former teacher–who quit, of course, after two years of teaching. and i am just so, so hopeful about this election, because i don’t think i can continue teaching if nclb isn’t seriously revised or overturned completely.
former teacher and i agreed that, when this voting arrangement was devised, people were still wearing powdered wigs and signing their names in quill pens. i got in at 6:45, left, came back at 7:30, and left at 9pm. bad night to wear flip-flops. who knew i’d be in a line that stretched out to the school monkey bars for hours?
unfortunately jessica none of the candidates left feel like nclb is that big of a problem. teachers lost that battle when edwards dropped out.
Gawd. I hate the Tx public school system. It just seems to get worse and worse. So many good teachers (my husband included) are about to quit or have quit.
And about the working/schooling during voting thing: This has been my major problem with voting all along. So many people get left out because they are working two jobs, have 4 kids, maybe they don’t have a car, etc…Voting probably just seems like a hassel to them. I know it sometimes does for me and I only have one job and a car! I think voting day should be a holiday where we don’t go to work.
And what’s the nclb?
A POS bill called “No Child Left Behind” which basically means we mainstream everyone even if they clearly aren’t ready to be in a regular education classroom and that they are required to pass a state test in order to go to high school or graduate from high school.
This year is the first year that 8th graders have to pass the reading and math TAKS test in order to be promoted to the 9th grade. In my district we’re anticipating a 90% passing rate of the first two chances (the third being over the summer) which means that they expect about 600 8th grade students to fail the test, then take summer school and retake the test in June or July. We’re in desperate need of teachers for summer school. In my school there are 12 math teachers and I’m the only one who’s agreed to teach so far.
And what Becky said about administering the test is very true. You can’t do anything. There are so many stories about teachers venting the teachers lounge about it and some uptight know-it-all teacher telling on them for talking about the test. Case in point, a few years ago a teacher had a student who crawled under his desk, pulling his hood over his head, refusing to work and the teacher told him to sit and his desk and get started. When the teacher was telling this to her friends in the lounge, someone else overheard, reported it and the venting teacher was written up because as a teacher, we can’t “make them take the test”. Apparently we aren’t allowed to make them sit in a desk either.
Of course that gets me started on a whole new rant about parents and administration stripping away the teacher’s rights in the classroom and letting the inmates run the asylum.
I did not caucus but my dad did and he agrees that it was a fubar too. Apparently no one in Texas paid attention to the record setting turnout in other states for this election or the fact that for the first time the Texas primary and caucus could actually have an impact on the nominee.
Dad said that at his place no one was checking voting cards or IDs because it was so hectic.
They didn’t get started until 9 pm.