Hawaiians Let Their Blue Flags Fly

I grew up in a state with primaries. I had always thought that a caucus was a vote and that equaled a primary, and didn’t give it much more thought. So, as the Hawaii caucus came closer, I thought I would head to the local polling place sometime during the day, cast a vote, and be done with it. Well, a caucus is not a primary!

Noel caucused on Tuesday at the local middle school. I thought I would be going, too, but opted out late Monday night when I learned more about the Hawaiian caucus that I’ll share with you. It’s not an all day thing. You caucus at a pre-set time – in Hawaii, it was established that the caucus would start at 7:00 PM. And because the Republicans are doing their own thing later this year, it would be for registered Democrats only, but you could become an instant Democrat by filling out a form on the spot. A caucus is also a day that the Dem party convenes and holds meetings. Therefore, they had hoped that once everyone was assembled, they would shut the doors (Noel originally claimed they would lock the doors! How draconian!), discuss party business, then get down to the vote part. And get this: Noel also thought that you would have to walk your ballot up to the candidate’s representative. No silent vote, private ballot, or collection box. I burst out, “So when I vote for Hillary, you’d know?” Oh dear.

But the final blow for me? No kids allowed - only persons of age eligible to vote. We got a little lazy around here. We could have driven into Waikiki and picked up Noel’s Mom to baby sit, but the long round trip didn’t seem worth it. As Noel is an Obama volunteer, we thought it was pretty important for him to get involved, so I stayed home. (I was hoping to do some sort of campy live blogging, but it didn’t pan out. Obviously, as I’m just posting this two days later!)
Here’s the first shot: Chaos! The turnout blew all sorts of expectations.* In our district alone, 600 people came out, whereas in 2004 only 40 showed up. There were reports that some people lined up for two or more hours in other areas. Noel’s Dad circled the parking lot of his designated caucus, couldn’t find anywhere to park, and turned around and headed home. Back in Kapolei with Noel, there was a shortage of pre-printed ballots (shown below, printed eons ago in the political realm) and folks resorted to writing the name of their candidate on random pieces of scratch paper. (Noel later discovered there were a ton of blank ballots and brought a few home, he didn’t know who had misplaced them.) And no, they didn’t lock the doors. They took care of the voting immediately (they had a collection box for votes), and once that was complete, a huge proportion of the voters went home. But Noel stayed around and that’s when it got interesting!

Noel’s ultimate goal is to attend the National Convention as a Hawaiian delegate this August in Denver. To get there, he has to first become a delegate for the State Convention to be held in May where they will vote for national delegates. So the small group of people who hung out after the voting were given a chance to nominate themselves for the state convention. There were about 6 people interested. The organizer asked them who had been a delegate in the past. Three people raised their hands. Then the organizer said, “OK, anyone have any problem with giving the ones who haven’t gone a shot?” So Noel was in! Noel overheard the female companion of one fellow who raised his hand ask him, “Have you really been a delegate in the past?” And the guy sheepishly shook his head no. Honesty paid during this round.

So, off to the State Convention we will go in May. I can tag along as a guest to some of the events (well, with a nominal guest fee) and I’ll have to shake my wallflower tendencies and get out there and campaign for my man. Noel is already working on his talking points.

* In the Sunday paper, Hawaii Senator Inouye wrote a piece in support of Clinton. Trying to discredit Obama’s Hawaiian roots, Inouye wrote: “(Barack Obama) went to school in Hawai’I but he went to Punahou, and that was not a school fro the impoverished.” I’m happy to see that many people still read the paper here. Folks went nuts over this comment, and I think it brought people out against Hillary instead of for her. Punahou is a private school, and true it attracts top athletes and white people (female golf phenom Michelle Wie and...er, well, white people) but according to alums and not-alums alike it is not elitist. And if he hasn’t already shot a future re-election campaign in the foot, Sen. Inouye, one of the state’s nine super delegates, stands by his commitment to vote for Hilary at the National Convention. It’s his right, but goes against the will of the Democrats here, who voted 3:1 in favor of Obama.