Democracy in action at caucus night - checklists and worksheets

I confess, I pretend to be a politico. People think I'm an activist, when that's not what I am, I'm an organizer. Not of people, but of processes and paper.

In preparation for Caucus 2010 (Held last night), I spent a good number of hours walking through the administrative process necessary to support all the activists. I developed checklists to make sure we weren't missing anything or anybody. Worksheets were created to gather data about delegates, alternates, precinct chairs and cochairs. I tabulated votes for the straw ballot for the govenor's race. I developed a system to ensure the tabulation was accurate.

I walked in with a plastic box full of paper, which I distributed to all 30 precinct caucus rooms. At the end of the night we walked out with those same papers, just a little heavier with the addition of some ink. Volunteers will assemble to do data entry.

It's not glorious -I'm no Norma Rae. It's work that must be done so that the best of political action process can take the spotlight. I've had the breath of a campaign staffer on my neck when the votes are being counted. I've taken the call from the state party when our delegates aren't ID'd within the Vote Tracker. Without this administrative support, the system would fall apart. Or would it?

Maybe I could have picked the rabble-rouser path. But I doubt it. Like mother nature, I move things from chaos to order, from high pressure to even keeled.

So, I'll be happy being a bureaucrat. Creating documents that people hate completing... but I know that someone needs that information more quickly then the time it takes to interpret caucus minutes that were scribbled on the back of a well used grocery list.

In doubt? Just think Katherine Harris in Florida in 2000, Coleman V. Franken, hanging chads and absentee ballot envelopes. The process must work for democracy to work.