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April 17, 2004
Caucusoid
This morning I went to cast my ballot in the first-ever North Carolina presidential caucus. NC normally has primaries, but just like in 2002, there are all sorts of ridiculous legal and political battles going on regarding redistricting....so the official primary won't be until sometime in late July. Right about the time that the Democratic Party will be tapping John Kerry as the official nominee at the convention in Boston. So, yeah, Kerry's got this thing in the bag and this "presidential preference" caucus is somewhat pointless (though no more pointless than an even later May primary). But I saw it as an opportunity to cast a symbolic vote. And given the likely ultra-low turnout, a symbolic vote could actually have significantly more weight than a normal primary vote would. I wholeheartedly supported Dean for over 6 months, I started pulling hard for John Edwards after the scream, and in November I'll gladly cast my ballot for Kerry (and hopefully Edwards). But today I took my 8 1/2 by 11 paper ballot and scrawled an 'X' next to the name of Dennis Kucinich. I am normally not a huge fan of "pure idealism" candidates, not because I don't agree with some of the things that they say....but simply because I'm too much of a math-guy pragmatist to give up a vote that could help steer the outcome a little closer to my set of preferred candidate preferences (which is why I need instant runoff voting!). Since that wasn't an issue today, I voted for the candidate who supports univeral single-payer not-for-profit health insurance, among other worthy causes. To be honest, I think some of Kucinich's adamant and almost isolationist stands on foreign policy and trade are a little unrealistic, but hey, so were his chances of becoming president. I'm really glad he's out there saying things that other more calculated politicians can't afford to say. Any support or delegates that Kucinich wins at this point in the game might go a little way towards keeping Kerry and the Democratic Party a little more honest and left-leaning this fall.
Of course the main reason that I voted for Kucinich is that on 04/04/04, he became the first-ever presidential candidate to visit Carrboro. I never thought I would see a Secret Service agent at the Carrboro Farmer's Market!
Results Update: Wow, caucus turnout was way lower than low...less than 1%. Almost 2.4 million registered Democrats in NC but only 17,809 votes cast today. Which I guess makes sense given how little an effect this thing has, how little it was publicized, and how there were only a bare minimum of polling places open for a brief few hours. Anyway, Orange County had a pretty decent turnout compared to most counties and Kucinich actually squeaked out a victory here in the OC. He also won Buncombe County (Asheville) and Watauga County (Boone/App. State). Edwards won the whole shebang with 51%, but Kucinich's third-place finish (12.2% overall) ain't too shabby and he'll probably get a delegate or two for strong performances in certain districts. Here's the official county-by-county results PDF and the N&O report.
Posted by Tim at April 17, 2004 01:37 PM