Caucus Process
Last issue I explained what happened at the local caucus meeting. This issue I will tell you about my experience at the county caucus and the state caucus meeting.
County Caucus
The county caucus was held at Horizon High School. People were lined up at the entrance and everything seemed a little unorganized. Everyone had to line up by precinct # to get a badge and envelope with different colored cards inside. We then found a seat in the auditorium and waited until the expected 8:30 start. We actually didn’t start until 9:08.
We listened to several people argue and express opinions regarding assembly rules. It definitely proved that a pure democracy would take 2 to 3 times longer than a republic, but was interesting to see how laws get started. It helps to understand why Congress takes so long to get things done. The rules were approved by yay or nay vote.
County Caucus
The county caucus was held at Horizon High School. People were lined up at the entrance and everything seemed a little unorganized. Everyone had to line up by precinct # to get a badge and envelope with different colored cards inside. We then found a seat in the auditorium and waited until the expected 8:30 start. We actually didn’t start until 9:08.
We listened to several people argue and express opinions regarding assembly rules. It definitely proved that a pure democracy would take 2 to 3 times longer than a republic, but was interesting to see how laws get started. It helps to understand why Congress takes so long to get things done. The rules were approved by yay or nay vote.
The candidates for Senate, Secretary of State, Treasurer, CU Board of Regents, and Colorado School Board were then introduced and all were given 5 minutes to speak about themselves and what they wanted to do. It was encouraging to hear that people are basically interested in the same things: conservative values, voting protection, parents’ rights, teacher unions bullying parents, no mandates, support of police and small businesses, and energy independence.
We voted on the candidate that we liked best by writing their name on the designated colored card. Since we were paper balloting, everyone had to walk to the front and deposit the vote in a box. It was good exercise, but challenging trying to get back to your seat. Then you had to wait for approximately 20 minutes for each vote to be counted. During the wait, we heard from some of the candidates for Governor, U.S. Senator and U.S. House of Representatives. The caucus was over at approximately 1:30 and we left excited about hearing from people who have the same ideas as us and definitely ready for LUNCH! |
STATE ASSEMBLY AND CONVENTION
We left early Saturday morning on April 9th in order to meet 7 to 9 am check-in. When we got to the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs there were thousands of people lined up to get in. There was utter chaos! No one even knew where the end of the line (or lines) was. It seems there were problems with having one door entry, few security scanners, and lack of organization of the lengthening lines of people. When a second door was opened all lines fell apart and people began rushing to the second door. As a whole, people were generally considerate (for a mob) and after we maneuvered through the crowd inside, we got to our seat.
We left early Saturday morning on April 9th in order to meet 7 to 9 am check-in. When we got to the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs there were thousands of people lined up to get in. There was utter chaos! No one even knew where the end of the line (or lines) was. It seems there were problems with having one door entry, few security scanners, and lack of organization of the lengthening lines of people. When a second door was opened all lines fell apart and people began rushing to the second door. As a whole, people were generally considerate (for a mob) and after we maneuvered through the crowd inside, we got to our seat.
There was a lot of excitement in the arena with delegates grouped in their respective counties. There was a great deal of patriotism displayed and while singing the National Anthem and repeating together the Pledge of Allegiance a unity of love for our country was experienced. There were speeches from party officers and committee reports before we got to the interesting part.
We heard briefly from congressional delegation members Doug Lamborn and Ken Buck, but I was especially excited to hear from Lauren Boebert. Her speech was exceptional! She has great excitement about our country and the fight for which we are expected to take up. She is a fighter with real spunk! She built a fire in the crowd and hopefully that fire will go to every community.
Then we proceeded to the voting for candidates. It was explained that we were going to use electronic balloting devices and that caused an uproar in the arena, especially those from El Paso County. There was an obvious objection to electronic balloting and support for paper ballots. I am sure this is due to the remaining fears that electronics cannot be trusted because of possible malfeasants regarding the last election. After a great deal of discussion, shouting, booing, etc. the chairwoman explained that if we used paper balloting we would be there until midnight. I was convinced I didn’t want to go there because we experienced the down time during the county caucus. So, the “clickers” were passed out which took a great deal of time and, of course, not everyone got their “clickers”. We were then disrupted throughout the following candidate speeches by people checking to see if we had the right “clickers”.
The candidates were a mixture of ex-military, an Olympic athlete, an ex-police officer, business men and women, lawyer, former congressman, and local office holders. There were some exceptional candidates that got beat, but I hope they would continue to fight a good fight.
The candidates were a mixture of ex-military, an Olympic athlete, an ex-police officer, business men and women, lawyer, former congressman, and local office holders. There were some exceptional candidates that got beat, but I hope they would continue to fight a good fight.
Here's who qualified for the GOP primaries:
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The whole process was time consuming and tiring, but the opportunity to see how our country was supposed to be run was exhilarating. It takes commitment and devotion for our country to keep it the way God intended. There are great people out there who are trying to make things better. We owe it to them to not only support them with finances, but by voting. We should also run for office, run for school board, run for any office that you are concerned about making better. This is our country! We need to continue to support it.