September 18, 2003
Backyard Realpolitik v 3.0
So tonight, I went to my first district meeting for precinct committee officers, or PCOs. Somebody brought cookies and juice, and we met in an elementary school library.
I'll digress for a moment to note that one issue of concern among the people who've actually been doing this for a while is the increasing number of former caucus venues that now charge for meetings. This is an impact of our poor economy and the squeezing of state budgets to the point that organizations of many kinds operating on shoestrings and elbow grease have a hard time finding places to meet. The impact of that isn't going to show up on anyone's bottom line, but it will definitely show up in our quality of life and civic participation.
My district has 117 empty precincts, so it's a sure bet that I'll get one to take care of, even in the off chance that the one I live in is covered. Apparently, PCOs in this district are selected in much the same manner as Discordian priests/esses (except that you do actually have to apply and go to the odd meeting, which never happens in Discordianism):
...There are no particular qualifications for Ordination because if you want to be a POEE Priest then you must undoubtedly qualify. Who could possibly know better than you whether or not you should be Ordained?...
A PCO is the person who, for a few blocks of their district, makes sure that all members of their party are registered to vote and know where the caucuses are held. They explained that in more detail tonight, along with more about the caucuses, and then they told us how to use the voter information when walking or calling our precinct.
And of course, there was the warning. Use of voter information for any non-political purposes is a felony that will land your tookas in jail. Good.
Washington state also has permanent absentee voting, and we're encouraged to sign people up for it whenever possible. Particularly if their voting record is a bit spotty. Apparently, poll registered voters show up about 30% of the time. Absentee voters will cast a ballot about 70% of the time.
As another aside, if your state doesn't have this, lobby for it. Absentee voting leaves a paper trail that can't be subverted by paperless electronic voting machines. It increases voter turnout. You can read your voter pamphlet at leisure while filling it out. And if you were to have a badly designed ballot one year, you could look at the thing for a while in no rush at all. Think about it.
It was clear that the chair and the other PCOs who've been doing this for a while were both amazed and enthused by all the new faces. The trainer from the state party who came out to explain about the lists was also impressed. It seems that participation in local government among Democrats is on the way up, and that can only be good.
Afterwards, a few of us new and newly applying PCOs (and there were a bunch), got together to talk about the candidates. Mostly it was a few Dean supporters talking with a couple very committed Kucinich supporters. We were all very polite to each other, as I only wish the candidates would be. At some point, we'll all need to work together to get the Democrat into the White House.
We can squabble (politely, please) until the primaries, and we can go right back to it after the election next November. But we had better stick together during that general election and mean it.
Posted by natasha at September 18, 2003 02:29 AM | TrackBack