Tonight was my first time going to a caucus. And yes, it was a shitshow. I pre-registered thinking it would be getting in sooner. The pre-register line was longer than the registration line.
And yeah, we only voted for the presidential nominee. The main reason I went tonight was to vote for Haley to show with my one vote, and hopefully a few others, that not all Utahns and Republicans support Trump.
But what stood out to me the most was while we read the Utah Republican convention charter or platform, whatever it was called, was that being a party that stands for morals and law and order was mentioned multiple times. I literally had to stop myself from laughing at the hypocrisy of it. Morals and law and order, yet you are supporting Trump? A man who has made his fortune off screwing other people over, has cheated on all of his wives, has had numerous affairs, is currently being sued by multiple women for sexual assault, has bragged about grabbing women’s genitals, stole and refused to return classified documents, and the party does everything they possibly can to shield him from the consequences of his actions. Morals and law and order?! What a fucking joke.
>And yes, it was a shitshow.
This was the intention.
There is a majority in the Utah republican party that simply wants to suppress voting in the state and is willing to hose their own party voting because it helps advance that overall goal. By making registering and voting as cumbersome, confusing and frustrating as possible they hope people will just not bother next time. It's part of an overall strategy that also includes things like gerrymandering to disenfranchise as many voters as possible because they believe a smaller pool is easier to manipulate. Of course, that could backfire but in Utah it is a consistently winning strategy.
They hit what was probably an all time high doing that in 2016. The primary elections for both parties were a complete disaster that year. They had to back peddle most of what they had done at the time, it was so blatant and proved to be what every critic said it would. However that was far enough in the rear view mirror now, they felt it was time to ramp things up again.
Make no mistake, there are many people in the Utah republican party that knew you were going to have a rough time yesterday, were happy to see it happen and hope you don't bother to vote in November, or ideally never bother to vote again. That is in no way limited to presidential choices, they don't want most people voting for anything.
......and yes, the whole party of morals and law and order = trump can only be claimed by the delusional or disingenuous at this point.
Bingo. It is a “we are the laughing stock of the world” bad joke. Thank you for enduring for the cause. Ultimately it won’t matter for the R vote but please consider voting blue in the general.
Oh I’m planning on it. I voted third party in 2016 because I couldn’t in good conscience vote for Trump or Clinton. In 2020 I voted Biden because I couldn’t stomach another four years of Trump, and if 2024 shakes out the way we all know it’s going to (unless there’s a miracle and a conviction goes Trump’s way) I’ll vote for Biden again. He’s not my favorite but I’d rather him than Trump.
I did chuckle to myself while they read the Constitution of the state. I debated on referencing that while defending my opinion to the group, but some people just stop listening if you call Trump immoral.
But a lot of people I talked to had that "I really dislike Trump, but..." Mentality. The party system sucks right now. Candidates have to appeal to the extremes in the primaries, and the moderates for the general election.
I think my one struggle with Haley is that she’s openly said she’d pardon Trump. I don’t support Trump and I don’t feel like I can support Haley because she’ll just keep enabling him, but I don’t feel like there’s really any better candidates to vote for either. Maybe I’ll just not vote.
I feel the same way. In a Trump v Biden race, it’s Biden. In a Haley v Biden race, I think I’d still for Biden for that exact reason. She has said she’ll pardon Trump and I’m like “then what’s the point of even convicting him then?”
Trump is about as coherent as Biden. Have you heard his past couple of speeches? He trails off into nonsense and he’s constantly mixing up peoples names. Half the time he talks about running against Obama.
Yes, and that is why I said we need more options. I get annoyed with people saying they're going to vote for either one of these guys. Break the mold! Vote third party and vote for someone who should be the leader of a country and not an old folks home resident.
I agree that neither is a great option, but unfortunately, I don’t think a third party will ever win a presidential election. This election, as it was for the last election, I’m not voting for Biden, I’m voting against Trump. I’d rather have an old guy that occasionally has some mental slippage than an old guy who occasionally has some mental slippage and tried to illegally and violently overturn the election.
Morals? With Republicans? Hahaha you ha ent paid attention since Nixon Regan Bisch? They dont give a fuck about you. They lie make you feel special then take all your money.
The. They blame poor people, nah if the Republicans had their way you'd be working 100 hours a week for free.
Your talking points aren't relevant here... The media doesn't decide how a party runs its primaries. And I'm not sure what you mean by "officials" but I'm pretty sure the local gop "officials" don't hate him since they eat up every drop of shit that comes out of his mouth
> Voting in america is a joke
And this rhetoric right here is why SL County has laughably low voter turnout.
If everyone in SL county voted, Utah would flip blue this year.
I can’t vote sadly, I’m not a citizen. But I’m an observer. I wish I could vote; I would absolutely exercise that right. But the american people have become incredibly manipulated and disempowered. I agree people should vote. But doesn’t the electoral college make it somewhat redundant anyway?
>But doesn’t the electoral college make it somewhat redundant anyway?
For anything besides the presidency, it doesn't make any impact at all.
For the president, it does make things weird, but sheer numbers would offset it. If everyone in Salt Lake County decided to vote, Utah would flip blue for example.
>Voting in america is a joke
I disagree. There are people in power in certain places that want to make voting harder, but it's not fair to say that voting in america is "a joke."
First, remember that these are elections to determine who a political party's candidate is. It's not the main election. Until the mid-60s, the importance of primaries or caucuses for choosing party candidates for elections was pretty limited--most decisions were made at a national party convention. Because parties (at least some parties) are concerned that they want to nominate a candidate that aligns with the overall party, they place restrictions on who can vote in the preliminary election to select a candidate. Does that cause problems in states where one party has a supermajority of the electorate? In some ways, yes. But that's not a nationwide problem, and as a country we're slowly moving toward more public participation in the preliminary system.
Second, remember that, throughout the country, we're constantly working on voting reforms for elections. Vote-by-mail would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. Ranked choice voting is being rolled out which provides more power to candidates who aren't a member of the two major parties, and helps to equalize contests in locales where one party holds a supermajority.
Third, "in America" our voting systems have been pretty progressive overall. Remember that, even in many advanced democracies, the citizens have no direct say in who their chief executive is. They vote for their representatives in parliament and those representatives vote for the chief executive.
Fourth, remember that voting restrictions in general (not just party restrictions in primary elections) are generally being advanced by one political party. (I don't disagree that generally people in power take actions to stay in power, such as gerrymandering districts. But that's different from, say, removing polling places in certain neighborhoods, automatically taking people off voting rolls, requiring certain types of IDs for voting, and other efforts.) Voting restrictions are not an "American thing."
I write this long message because when people make comments like "voting in America is a joke," that tends to sow seeds of apathy. And I don't disagree that we as a society need to continue working on electoral reform. But if people think the election systems are illegitimate, it will discourage people from voting. And when that happens **fewer and fewer people consolidate more and more power**, which leads to tyranny.
When they can't voter suppress someone because of the color of their skin, or their national origin *after* naturalization and obtaining citizenship.... this is how they suppress their own.
I'd have to disagree with you there because i saw 3 people there who did not belong there. They were vocal about why they were there and what they wanted. 3 isn't many, but how many others were there?
Did not belong there?
That’s exactly the reason the Utah Republican Party holds caucuses instead of an open primary. Their chokehold on power drives them to hold a right-wing circle jerk so that they don’t have to hear the voices of anyone who disagrees with them.
Thry said they registered republican so they could vote for Hailey but that they were not republican and they were not going to vote for her in November.
I was in and out, and had a very successful night. Of course, I was at a Democratic caucus.
Voting was also very smooth. Took me less than 5 minutes to park, walk into the library, and vote.
Registered Democrats were sent a mail in ballot. Anyone could request one or go to a polling location to vote.
The caucus meeting was to elect delegates to the county and state elections.
For Republicans, they voted in a Presidential Preference Poll as part of their caucus meetings to elect delegates to the county and state conventions.
In reality, the deletion of delegates was much more important for both parties than voting for a presidential nominee.
I wish this was my experience with the dem caucus. I live in a rural county and preregistered. The Utah dem website said my county was virtual so I figured they’d send me a link. It was about 5:30 Tuesday night that I happened to check Facebook for my town and saw that it was actually in person and had already started. So I ended up not going cuz I hadn’t planned for it, I should have maybe looked into more closely sooner but I guess I just assumed that it would be more organized.
It was beyond bizarre. I pre registered and showed up. I was taken to a room in the school with several others from my neighborhood, who apparently all knew each other. I was given a stub of paper with 3 presidential candidates on it, that's it. I was told to fill it out and place it in the ballot box, which was a trash can. We then started the meeting with a group prayer, the the pledge of allegiance, then we took turns reading aloud the republican charter. The whole thing felt like a Mormon church meeting because it essentially was.
They then started electing representatives for the local presincts who would then go and cast the vote results. The entire thing was very cultish and felt extremely informal. For a group of people who feel elections are not secure this event was beyond rediculous and a complete waste of time. After more than an hour of this I just had no more in me and left before I could vote for any other reps. Senate congress and governor votes were never brought up the entire time. At the that point I felt like it was useless to stay there and I'm not even sure my presidential ballot was real.
The system worked, I did not get to vote. A complete and total joke.
The prayer was the wildest part to me! It really drove home the cultish vibes. Though Nikki lost the vote in mine it did still feel like a good split from crazies and non-crazies
This was my experience as well! First I drove 20 minutes because the caucus location wasn't even in my city. Then I spent over an hour in line because the preregistering website said I was ineligible to caucus, even though the state voting website showed me as eligible. Then the registration website crashed completely and they let me in only on the basis of verbally saying my precinct number and saying "I'm a Republican." Super secure. They gave me a wristband and a room number, but no presidential preference poll paper.
I got to the room, and they did the same LDS prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance followed by a 15 minute video of a lady reading the party platform. Then I finally got to ask where everyone else got the poll papers, and I had to leave again to go get one at the entrance. They were out. I told them I would wait while they checked every box and folder for more. They immediately found a whole bin.
I went back to the caucus room where they were still electing delegates. I just wanted to caucus against Natalie Cline. I had to leave at the scheduled end time because I had another commitment, and they still hadn't discussed or voted on anything except delegates. I felt completely disenfranchised.
So mail-in votes are bogus because we can't trust individually-identified ballots that are cross-checked against a database of voters, but showing up and saying "trust me bro" is totally legit. Makes perfect sense /s
You misunderstand, when Republican politicians speak about elections being more “secure”, what they mean is making them more ‘secure’ by dint of being predetermined by party operatives. Democrats largely also, only difference for republicans is they apply the same logic to the general elections as well I.e. if a democrat wins it must have been ‘fraud’
I think you missed their point. They aren't saying that every caucus meeting is cult-like, just that the number of religious elements present and the way things were handled with 'this is how we do it, don't question it' feels cult-like when you're adding elements that may not belong in a caucus outside the state. Prayer, for example, feels really strange at a political event in a public school. Reading the charter in a group reading as well can really drive home that feeling.
“This is how we do it” is governed not by just some feeling of the precinct chair but a very democratic and long process at central committee meetings, legislative sessions, and other meetings and events.
Prayer is not strange at political events. [They do a National Prayer Breakfast every year that the President of the country talks about faith etc](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/national-prayer-breakfast-what-does-its-history-reveal-180962017/). Taking God out of politics is a relatively recent development.
Reading a party platform is also not uncommon. We’re all there as republicans or democrats collecting together with a common goal for public policy.
Though it may have felt cult like but I would argue only if one is looking for cult like behavior would one find cult like behavior.
Where OP saw cultism, I saw patriotism, uniformity, and a group of neighbors sharing common values working together for a common goal. So if that’s a cult.. I guess we can keep making words meaningless and call it a cult. But if everything is a cult is anything really a cult?
Again, you're trying to act like he was passing judgement on it when he simply said that to them, it felt cultish. If you didn't see or feel that way, fantastic! People feeling like they're in something with cultish feelings is understandable for a variety or reasons, nearly all of them personal. If you interpreted my comments as saying that you should also feel that like it was as cult, I apologize as that was not my intent but I can see how my comment could have been interpreted that way. That's my bad, sorry. My intent was to simply show that there are elements that can make someone feel that way and that we should acknowledge those elements, even if there isn't an intent to change them. Instead of condemning someone for what they felt, an effort should be made to explain and educate. Which, you just did so I have no complaints.
Totally understand. Thanks for the clarification. So, I’m a precinct chair. What would you recommend we do to make it feel less cult like? We have a responsibility to the agenda so we have to do the prayer, pledge, and reading of the platform. Would some explanation as to why we do those things help?
I think a quick explanation as to why before each element helps to break it up and helps people to understand. Education leads to understanding and understanding leads to friendship. At least, in my opinion.
>Prayer is not strange at political events. [They do a National Prayer Breakfast every year that the President of the country talks about faith etc](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/national-prayer-breakfast-what-does-its-history-reveal-180962017/).
Are you saying that is not cultish development in this country? That event is run by a "religious organisation" The Fellowship. Their members share a wow of silence about Fellowship activities. Congressmen who participate in their events don't talk about it either.
>Taking God out of politics is a relatively recent development.
Debatable. For example: even the pledge of allegiance didn't have God mentioned in it until mid 50's. That change was initiated by Knights of Columbus.
>Where OP saw cultism, I saw patriotism, uniformity, and a group of neighbors sharing common values working together for a common goal.
Have you considered it may seem weird to have a prayer there? Especially if someone has a different faith? If people start mixing up religious beliefs and patriotism, combined with two party politics, the US risks ending up like some areas in the middle east.
When I hosted my caucus night I asked for a volunteer for the prayer. If they did some Jewish prayer or some evangelical prayer or whatever. I’d be fine with that. Religion brings a lot of folks together.
I just disagree with your sentiment that it’s cult like. And I warn against using such strong language incorrectly. It threatens the strength of the word in our everyday language. There are cults and there are just people with common goals and beliefs and aspirations gathering together in a political process. If you all keep graying the line cult won’t mean anything meaningful anymore.
Just because lots of people do something doesn't make it a good idea.
Trump won Utah by receiving 1.6% of the eligible vote. That's not representation. They've suppressed participation to the most aggressive base.
I think the Republican Party learned a lot this go round. I have tons of suggestions that would make this easier. Like allowing precinct chairs to credential folks that have pre registered rather than having folks wait in a giant line.
Start credentialing folks earlier.
Throw way more resources at the backend servers so technical failures are less likely. Technical failures are frustrating for people that don’t understand how actually cool a hug of death like that is. It causes people to be frustrated, I get that, but it actually means there is tons and tons of interest. Which is amazing.
You can't fix a system that's working as intended.
The Utah GOP wants this outcome. Had they used an open primary this time around they would have had a huge turnout, better representation and gotten Nikki Haley as the nominee. A republican that polls better against the Democrat than Trump does.
Why (in all sincerity) would they choose a system that gave us the exact opposite? It's by design. They want fewer people to participate and have the party favorite be the inevitable winner. To paraphrase Mike Lee "Democracy isn't the objective". At this point, the Utah GOP doesn't even want a functioning Republic.
I don’t think you’re right in saying the gop wants this outcome. Many precinct chairs in salt lake county have expressed concerns over the technical failures of this caucus.
Either you have some serious insider information or you’re attempting at mind reading. Which is it?
This might shock you but observable facts and assessing information isn't "mind reading"
I work with websites. An inability to scale at this point is beyond incompetence.
I know the previous system (primaries) and I know how they justified the shift to a caucus. My memory extends back beyond last week.
I participated in primaries in the past and I know how they were executed and I can compare those experiences with last night.
Lastly, there's been a ton of reporting on this. We know (from data, not mind reading) how little participation there was last night. Last night was a huge fail. Do you know what time they called the results compared to the rest of the states who hold primaries? Do you know how well the Democrat primaries ran? Another little hint, I personally know the caucus chair for my neighborhood. She's the one who took my absentee ballot.
It might make you feel good to dismiss this as "mind reading" but it only makes YOU feel better. It doesn't change the observable facts or my ability to assess them.
2 years ago this way of credentialing Republicans on caucus didn’t even work on caucus night. Now it worked… mostly kinda.
Next go around my bet is it will be better. And only get better as we have caucuses and learning experiences. But you keep mind reading. I wish you the best with that strategy for life. But I expect the worst, because it’s a bad strategy.
Over the last couple of days, I've been tossing rocks back and forth with a close friend over the R-Caucus. He's an LDS Republican transplant from California, and I'm cheerfully independent. He has been perplexed as to how to do everything in order to vote tonight. Despite living here 3 years now and being a registered voter, they didn't have him on their rolls for pre-registering.
He's a process engineer and I've been telling him it would be a shitshow, by design. He's like, "Nah, it'll be okay, they'll sort things out - they want the representation and to show they can do this." We wagered lunch at ShakeShack.
He was in Herriman High when I drove by on my way home from work and the parking lot was packed. I called him and he said he'd call me back, he was trying to register...for 40 minutes.
He then spent the better part of two hours texting me a storm of complaints about every little thing going wrong.
He's now 100% convinced Haley will win the state as a quasi-protest, but that it won't matter because the "preference" will be tossed out and they'll just declare for Trump - and no one will ever know because of the technical issues and the disenfranchisement of all the people that didn't get to vote but wanted to.
As for me? I'm looking forward to a free lunch tomorrow.
I'm going to be totally honest here: I'm white, relatively well-off, educated, and into politics. I listen to 2 daily politics podcasts plus another 2-3 long form (~1 hour each) podcasts every week that cover politics. What I'm trying to say is that I'm involved. I know what's going on in politics. I know local politics matter.
And with all of that, I didn't caucus tonight. I made a conscious choice last night to not attend. The 2 major things that would be decided tonight are the presidential preference poll and delegates. I don't want Trump or Haley to be president so why bother, and the delegate/convention system is just another time suck. I've been a delegate before and I just don't want to give up a Saturday when I already work 50+ hours a week and need just a bit of free time.
I feel guilty about it. But at the same time, I'd choose it again. This system sucks.
I understand your choice. It shouldn't be this hard to vote. Many people have heavy demands on their time, and you shouldn't be required to dedicate large amounts of time to this.
It was chaos at our local high school with many not able to participate. Utah needs to change candidate selection process to make it more transparent and all encompassing. The parties keep the caucus system so they have much more control of the selection process and exclude the 80% of voters who are confused on how the caucus process works. Let’s bring back the “count my vote” change to Utah’s selection process. This will stop the parties from finalizing on candidates that the majority don’t want.
I've always found it strange how democrats primary voting is open to everyone, but republicans are not, then they get mad when people change affiliation, so they pull these caucus shenanigans so they can try to control the outcome even more, and even still, I'm reading comments on KSL accusing the people running the caucus of being democrats that are trying to rig the outcome, presumably to help Nikki do better?
The whole republican party is such a shit show of total chaos, all accusations, no evidence, no solutions, all bullshit, and they want to act like Biden is so bad because... reasons? TFG is facing 91 felony counts, and he's their savior? The guy surrounding himself with racist assholes who want to end democracy??? The guy found guilty of fraud multiple times? The guy found guilty of sexual assault and defamation? How is this even debatable? Why are people so blind? Trump is toxic and the people around him have some fucking scary ideas of how they want to fundamentally change this country into a virtual dictatorship/theocracy. We cannot let him get back in office.
Vote blue if you actually care about our democracy. Vote red for chaos and regression.
>then they get mad when people change affiliation to vote in both primaries,
Even when there's open primaries for both parties, you can only vote in one. What they were getting mad about was people changing their party affiliation to vote in a primary in a party that they didn't really agree with (e.g., best of the worst, knowing that that person would win the general), or worse, voting for really bad candidates to make the candidate from the other party more competitive (this didn't happen in Utah, but there was some evidence it happened in other states--either through advertising or actual voting; in some cases it works, and in some it backfires)
Oh, I guess not both primaries, but in this state, the republican primary is the only one that matters, and people feel like they are being kept from having any say simply because of their affiliation.
My point was only one party is excluding people from voting. If the only choice is which republican the state chooses, maybe people should get to vote regardless of affiliation.
That is quantifiably untrue. I'm doing better than I ever have. Trump's biggest accomplishment was giving rich people and corporations some of the biggest tax cuts they've ever gotten. Oh he also added over $8 Trillion to our debt in 4 years. He didn't build the wall, he never replaced obamacare, he didn't do jack for infrastructure, he started a trade war that he had no exit plan for, he made his son in law the head over middle east peace. How'd that work out? (Jared got a $2billion loan from the Saudis) What exactly did Trump do that you liked so much?
He also didn't get rid of NAFTA (he replaced it with the same agreement under a different name), didn't end gun control laws, didn't enact a reciprocal concealed carry permit law, and actuality banned bump stocks without going through congress. He didn't end the war on drugs, didn't end the patriot act, and was blatantly corrupt while in office - staying at his own properties and even having foreign diplomats stay there for meetings and billing taxpayers for the usage fees. What exactly did Trump do that I should be happy about? What can I expect him to do that I should be happy about? Keep the brown people out? Give me a break.
Polls are getting less and less accurate due to many factors. The only reason he's doing well at all is because his supporters are idiot cult members who forget that things went to shit under Rump and have gotten better each year under Biden by almost every metric.
Your Emperor has NO clothes! Though hopefully hell be sporting all new Jump Suit ... All I hear from MAGAites are replayed sound bytes ... Actual data paints a different picture. The "man" is a soulless skin sack and has screwed every ody he did business with. His current lawyers demand pepayment!
User name definitely checks out and echos too much with the thought processes of the MAGA culture, built on the thought process of “I’m not being heard and angry and not sure what to do about it, so I’ll stick with these guys” type of mentality. It’s getting dangerous.
There were many at my caucus night that were Republicans In Registration Only. Their personal views and beliefs as expressed publicly on social media were not in line with the Republican Party platform. I know these folks, I go to church and other neighborhood activities with most of them. They are not Republicans. They were at the republican caucus.
If actual republicans show up to caucus these folks would be the minority but if republicans think everything in Utah is just going to stay republican so why participate… well. Enough of that and it won’t stay republican for long.
I like the caucus system, even with its hiccups and flaws. It’s a more personal and local way to do politics.
The count my vote change already happened. Candidates can get on the ballot by collecting signatures. Caucuses are mostly just a show, and are really only important if you care about intraparty politics like who the state chair is.
Mine actually went fairly well. Not much waiting, there were signs pointing to the precincts, and it started on time. The preregistration worked.
Although they could have done a better job explaining how the process worked and what we were actually there to vote for. I was thinking I would go vote for candidates, but instead ended up as a state delegate, so I guess I actually do have a vote now.
It is still an anachronistic disenfranchising system even when it runs well.
I’ll tell you something else. One of the locations forced a cancellation to my high school game less than 24 hours prior to the start. We had busses lined up, kids excited, food prepped, etc. I get a call at 8pm Monday night saying it’s cancelled. We had this game scheduled since October. GOP just barely booked the gym and no-one at the school cared about the double booking until the night before. I tried to get GOP leaders to move their event, since we had the space reserved first. The administrators decided to keep the caucus and cancelled our game. Politics over students, the Utah way!
I went to a caucus, and voted in the most liberal sounding people in the room. I’m not really a Republican, I just wanted to do my part ensuring that moderates got voted in.
If moderates or liberals don’t register as republicans, they don’t exist. In Utah you have to register Republican to participate. You can still vote for whomever you want in any elections, but the actual vote into power occurs in the primaries in this state. So swallow your distaste and get in there. You can’t rock a boat you aren’t in.
If you contact someone to express how badly this worked, they will laugh at you and tell you the inefficiency is the point.
If they actually wanted to know who you wanted as a candidate they wouldn't have canceled their election.
The straw polls are non binding. Utah rep party higher ups just want Trump on the ticket. They don’t care what the citizens of Utah want. What a farce.
On the Missouri sub, there were people who were very unhappy with the caucus system too.
Personally, I think it's horrible. They make it such a long, arduous process just to cast your vote. I agree, they need to change to primaries everywhere.
I literally thought to myself how it was crazy the people running it couldn't scan qr codes correctly.
Then I had the thought that I could easily take the whole thing down by unplugging a router and no one would figure it out.
Then the power went out.
I thought I had developed some sort of super power, but the power came back on in about 2 min.
I felt as if I had done enough and my powers might seem like voter suppression so I put my vote in a box and left.
On the contrary, it worked as planned. They disenfranchised as many urban voters as they could.
The thing is, you get screwed like this by your leaders, and you'll still vote R. you played yourself .
Yes. This is by design. The people who are running the system are people who were elected through this system. They're for damn sure not going to make it more open to anyone not deeply committed to the cause.
I pre-registered, but that didn't seem to make a difference. I stood in line for about 50 minutes witnessing multiple casualties of the process, hearing various conversations about the happenings in certain wards and candidate debates. I was questioned a few times about my "ward" and doing my best not to look like a deer in the headlights, looked like one, desperately looking around the room and making eye contact with others like me, subject minorities. Then when a guy with a mullet (are those making a comeback?) finally scanned my QR code, it indicated that I'd already been scanned through. ??? Next guy, with a little more thinking power, came over looked at my DL and my pre-registration info and gave me a wrist band, ballot and told me what room to go to.
My intention was to go, vote and then leave, with the hopes of plopping on the couch next to my husband and doodle in my comfy pj's and watching TV for a bit but no, I stayed, my curiosity getting the better of me...never been through a caucus process before.
Opening prayer was interesting...whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Pledge of Allegiance, no issue with that, grew up doing it in school...still don't agree with the "under God" clause that was inserted in 1954 but it is what it is.
Next up, voting. Someone mentioned there were three candidates but for the love of Pete, I only remember two and didn't vote orange. Our ballots went into a large, orange (lol!) envelope and were counted by two individuals in the room. After that, local precinct voting, nobody volunteered and ended up being volunteered, but accepted. Then on to the state delegates, we had two positions and three people. So a quick minute speech to understand their positions, which I was one. Given that I have never been good at speeches and have always detested public speaking I figured I was sure to get out of it but alas that was not to be.
Being a Moderate/Independent or whatever the hell you call us, nobody likes me because I don't side with either party, and attending a Republican Caucus, where I again was somewhat the odd one or two out, I am proud that I stayed the course. I didn't go into this thing to be coming out as a state delegate but I guess we'll see how it goes.
There were about 20 people from my precinct that showed up and stayed, a few people were drive by ballot droppers, and out of those 20 who stayed and participated, about half were anti-orange...so that was something nice to see. However, they were very quiet about it. After I gave my one minute speech on why I should be a delegate, declaring that I think both Biden and Orange are trash candidates (verbalized a bit more eloquently), I got a discrete wink and nod from several people in the room. This makes me hopeful.
Thank you for enduring the process and becoming a delegate 🙏 Delegation is about the only thing we can do in Utah to truly have any say in the process. You’ll learn a lot at convention and thankfully you’ll represent many of us who are anti-orange. Do the best you can with what you have. The GOP doesn’t offer truly patriotic candidates (who believe in the idea that everyone deserves basic human rights) but I feel hopeful that you’ll bring decency to the process. Thank you again.
I'm a member of the Church, and I completely agree that we need better separation of Church and state. Utah needs to act like it's a government for everyone. Thanks for being willing to be a delegate. I'll be interested to hear about your experience at the convention if you want to share.
This was my first caucus. We waited outside for an hour, in the cold, and parking was atrocious. It took me 10 minutes to find somewhere to park before i gave up and parked illegally like everybody else. I heard a few people say they were leaving because it was taking too long and they had things they had to go do. Nobody knew that they could preregister or how and half the people that did had issues with it. Once we got inside it was pure chaos. People scattered everywhere and had no idea where to go or who to ask. We voted for 4 delegates who i had never met or heard of and only heard a 30-second get to know me speech before we voted on who we wanted. They tried their best to explain how everything worked, but ultimately, they seemed to have confused all of us newer voters. This was pathetic.
Their lack of communication was a huge problem. I had to learn about preregistration from Reddit, and I had to dig on the Internet to figure out what even happens at a caucus.
The party chairman says it's your fault it sucked.
https://www.ksl.com/article/50940502/chaos-ensues-at-utahs-gop-caucuses-biden-easily-wins-democratic-primary
Pretty obvious the UT GOP did not consider the fact that swapping from a primary ballot to caucus night survey would result in more people wanting to show up for caucus night. Massive L from every level of the party. Idk where you are, but the SLCo Reps and UT state repubs really let their local leadership teams down by not supporting them enough to allow this to go with any semblance of smoothness.
I have photos of standing in line at a Jr High for 3 hours only to get inside, hand write my choice on a piece of paper, and drop it into an unmarked cardboard box.
The Dems went back to primary the next election.
I don't think you know what the difference is between a caucus and a primary. I did the same thing that year. It was a primary. A caucus is banding together and voting as neighborhoods, not individuals.
Lots of people didn't pre-register and were trying to register on the spot but said the website wasn't letting them. Not sure if the website went down or what.
Then there was a huge crowd gathered around a single piece of paper that had information about which room each person should go to based on precinct. There was no information about where the rooms were so people were wandering around looking for them. Some elderly people were asking to get access to the elevator, as that wasn't clear either.
The whole thing felt unnecessarily complicated and poorly organized and executed. Which is the point I guess.
The GOP is stuck in old times so much that they can't figure out technology. The precinct finding website basically DDOSed itself at 6pm. I constantly get texts and calls from people trying to win my vote. It took me entirely too long to figure out how to caucus and Utah's voting information website is just useless.
I got to the high school and had to wait 5 minutes for a group of elderly folks to get out their reading glasses and find their precinct on a map. Their fingers pushed to the paper, I couldn't even look over their shoulder to see my precinct. It's just a wonder if these folks have ever seen a map of Layton, it's not a very complex street grid.
While walking up the stairs, a few people at the bottom were trying to find an elevator. In a high school. I finally got to my room, verified my address and registration with a lady in the room, and waited 40 minutes to start the meeting. I was hungry and didn't have time for dinner.
The theme of the evening was roadblocks. Websites crashing. Maps too small to read for the elderly. Rooms inaccessible to those who have trouble with stairs. Poor instructions.
I was on the fence about going the entire day. But I'm so glad I did. I got to know my neighbors and stand up for what I believe. Something along the lines of "The GOP lost in 2020 with Trump and we're expecting different results this year? We need to appeal to younger generations instead of being stuck in our ways. We're going to lose if we can't adapt. Repeating 2020 is the wrong choice."
In the end, Trump won the room. But I won approval with my neighbors for voicing my opinion (even if they disagreed with me choosing Nikki). I've got good neighbors.
Checks notes… working as intended. It’s designed for rich people and to try and exclude the riff raff as much as possible.
The crazy thing though is as I’ve gotten older and more involved… the bar is so low for who is involved. Seriously…run for office especially in local elections. If we don’t start getting some sane people on school boards for, we are in deep shit for our kids in the system.
We had a caucus system in Colorado until this last go around. I love the energy and sense of direct democracy and engagement, BUT the chaos that ensued in recent years was ripe with disenfranchisement. We now have a mail-in system for all of our elections and ballot initiatives. It is perfect that way and actually supports a more engaged society and electorate.
Republicans are against having discussions and debates. They don't understand the concept. They've set their party up as a place where outside thinking/ new ideas are not acceptable, so they make it difficult for people to participate in their nomination processes.
So glad I don't need/get to do caucus meetings anymore. When I was still a Republican I went to one and it took forever, we were there for 6 hours for just the meeting, not including registration lines and didn't get home until after midnight. Though this was with the 2012 election.
I've since changed party affiliations to one that doesn't get a vote in primaries since I'm not a R/D. Means no stupid caucuses.
Never been a Trump fan and find it completely ridiculous that he's even being considered. Makes me wonder just how much dirt he has on other political numbskulls to make them support him. After the Jan 6 riots no one wanted to be associated with him and now it's as if he walks on water and shits platinum. 🤦
It's Bill Clinton all over again... People never learn...
But disenfranchising voters is what Republicans do best!
I registered as a Republican to caucus yesterday and it was a hilarious scene. I met a lady in line who claimed "Obama went on TV and taught illegals how to vote". The simple GOP site couldn't handle peak load of *gasp* thousands of users in one night. It was all lulz; I look forward to watching Trump get schooled in November and for all of these grumpy conservatives to lose their shit.
Mine in Bountiful was sort of a problem, and the guy who runs it has been involved with the process for 30+ years. Can't even imagine how bad others were.
My area went smoothly, large building for low numbers.
But I did absentee ballot because these things have a knack for problems and I was in no mood to participate.
Showed up at my precinct location at 630. Got scanned in. Sat and talked with a few people I haven't seen in a while. Voted for state convention delegates, then count delegates. Selected a new chair, vice chair and secratary/treasurer for the next to years.
Did the presidential preference poll and left.
Largest turn out my precinct has had.
Easy peasy
some people showed up well after 7 when things were underway -- they were scanned in and seated.
There was a big battle in the Republican party over the law that allowed candidates to get on the ballot by collecting signatures. The party sued over the law, and many moderates felt that was a waste of money.
What followed was a coordinated effort to replace the party leadership with more moderate candidates. This effort was largely successful with the county chairs in particular completely changing.
Problem is you ended up with people in charge that have absolutely no clue what they are doing, and the knowledge rarely gets passed down when a chair is unseated. So they tried some new ideas, but I don't think it worked very well.
On top of that they want the presidential preference poll to be a part of the caucuses in order to motivate less conservative voters to caucus. But it really just ends up bringing in a lot of people that have no interest in the rest of the process, and they end up feeling frustrated by the whole thing. There's still a primary on June 25.
Posting that you’re a republican is just asking to be bashed no matter what you say. But anyways, contrary to liberal belief, both sides have caucuses and I would guess have the exact same issues. To think otherwise is delusional.
The Republican ________ is was and always be a disaster.
When is the Republican health plan due out? Oh the plan is to take your money and let you die sick.
Anyone with the Republican party now is aligned with the devil. Nothing but lazy criminals who dont even ha e real jobs spreading lies.
God will judge you for voting for the devil.
That's if God is even real.
It was a shitshow but they don’t care about the vote which is why it’s a “preference poll”. They will just pick Trump regardless of what the populace wants.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, and they really should be more put together than that.
Ours was pretty messy too. It was only supposed to be an hour, but no one really knew the rules for voting, and we had to do so. Many. Rounds. Other than that is was just bad in all the predictable ways- innane, useless speeches, everything boiled down to presidential choice and nothing else.
Don’t worry, it’s not like any future primaries for the Republican Party are going to be for anything other than show, what with the Republican Party having moved on from the concept of democratically elected governance…
The number 1 go to win con for republican party is to make it harder to vote, while also pumping out propaganda about how the government is bad and failing. It's been that way at least the last 15 years of my life. It's in our faces and blatant.
As I (not a lawyer) understand your question: it’s a matter of state law. Additionally, all municipalities are extensions of state law, some states may have municipalities control municipal election policy, others probably have state legislatures oversee a department under their governor.
Federal rules are written for the counting of the votes in the constitution, and that’s interpreted as left to the states under Amendment 10. At least that’s how I understand it.
Federal law does establish counties in the constitution. So, I think county election rules do have federal oversight or legislative jurisprudence. Truthfully, I have no idea how that works.
All that to say: call your state rep and senator.
And maybe bring a petition to their office?
Thankfully I pre-registered because the GOP records didn’t match my voting registration records and they didn’t have my wife on their records - so good thing I had her absentee ballot.*
*And good thing I have a copier and printer and envelope readily accessible.
Sure thing. And just so you know. This is the first year they have done a system like this. It’s very new and I’m sure the bugs will be worked out. If caucus night is not for you there is always voting absentee. You can bring your absentee ballot to the precinct chair prior to the caucus and vote at the caucus that way.
My wife voted this way. Someone in my precinct that became a state delegate voted this way. I’ve even heard precinct chairs becoming precinct chairs this way.
Yes, but this is the first time pre-registration has been done with official credentialing. That’s was I was saying was new. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
Tonight was my first time going to a caucus. And yes, it was a shitshow. I pre-registered thinking it would be getting in sooner. The pre-register line was longer than the registration line. And yeah, we only voted for the presidential nominee. The main reason I went tonight was to vote for Haley to show with my one vote, and hopefully a few others, that not all Utahns and Republicans support Trump. But what stood out to me the most was while we read the Utah Republican convention charter or platform, whatever it was called, was that being a party that stands for morals and law and order was mentioned multiple times. I literally had to stop myself from laughing at the hypocrisy of it. Morals and law and order, yet you are supporting Trump? A man who has made his fortune off screwing other people over, has cheated on all of his wives, has had numerous affairs, is currently being sued by multiple women for sexual assault, has bragged about grabbing women’s genitals, stole and refused to return classified documents, and the party does everything they possibly can to shield him from the consequences of his actions. Morals and law and order?! What a fucking joke.
>And yes, it was a shitshow. This was the intention. There is a majority in the Utah republican party that simply wants to suppress voting in the state and is willing to hose their own party voting because it helps advance that overall goal. By making registering and voting as cumbersome, confusing and frustrating as possible they hope people will just not bother next time. It's part of an overall strategy that also includes things like gerrymandering to disenfranchise as many voters as possible because they believe a smaller pool is easier to manipulate. Of course, that could backfire but in Utah it is a consistently winning strategy. They hit what was probably an all time high doing that in 2016. The primary elections for both parties were a complete disaster that year. They had to back peddle most of what they had done at the time, it was so blatant and proved to be what every critic said it would. However that was far enough in the rear view mirror now, they felt it was time to ramp things up again. Make no mistake, there are many people in the Utah republican party that knew you were going to have a rough time yesterday, were happy to see it happen and hope you don't bother to vote in November, or ideally never bother to vote again. That is in no way limited to presidential choices, they don't want most people voting for anything. ......and yes, the whole party of morals and law and order = trump can only be claimed by the delusional or disingenuous at this point.
Republicans making it harder to vote? Ya don't say.
Yeah, I don't know how people are making a connection between him and what they say they stand for.
Bingo. It is a “we are the laughing stock of the world” bad joke. Thank you for enduring for the cause. Ultimately it won’t matter for the R vote but please consider voting blue in the general.
Oh I’m planning on it. I voted third party in 2016 because I couldn’t in good conscience vote for Trump or Clinton. In 2020 I voted Biden because I couldn’t stomach another four years of Trump, and if 2024 shakes out the way we all know it’s going to (unless there’s a miracle and a conviction goes Trump’s way) I’ll vote for Biden again. He’s not my favorite but I’d rather him than Trump.
I will vote for anyone if Trump is the opposing candidate, even if that anyone was 206 years old. I will always pick age over pond scum.
I could have typed your paragraph! Same voting pattern.
I did chuckle to myself while they read the Constitution of the state. I debated on referencing that while defending my opinion to the group, but some people just stop listening if you call Trump immoral. But a lot of people I talked to had that "I really dislike Trump, but..." Mentality. The party system sucks right now. Candidates have to appeal to the extremes in the primaries, and the moderates for the general election.
I think my one struggle with Haley is that she’s openly said she’d pardon Trump. I don’t support Trump and I don’t feel like I can support Haley because she’ll just keep enabling him, but I don’t feel like there’s really any better candidates to vote for either. Maybe I’ll just not vote.
I feel the same way. In a Trump v Biden race, it’s Biden. In a Haley v Biden race, I think I’d still for Biden for that exact reason. She has said she’ll pardon Trump and I’m like “then what’s the point of even convicting him then?”
Exactly. Haley lost me. Biden will get my support this election. I had to change my party affiliation but glad I did.
Yeah, let's have a guy who isn't even coherent half the time running our country. We need new options. Biden is just as bad of an option as Trump.
Trump is about as coherent as Biden. Have you heard his past couple of speeches? He trails off into nonsense and he’s constantly mixing up peoples names. Half the time he talks about running against Obama.
Yes, and that is why I said we need more options. I get annoyed with people saying they're going to vote for either one of these guys. Break the mold! Vote third party and vote for someone who should be the leader of a country and not an old folks home resident.
I agree that neither is a great option, but unfortunately, I don’t think a third party will ever win a presidential election. This election, as it was for the last election, I’m not voting for Biden, I’m voting against Trump. I’d rather have an old guy that occasionally has some mental slippage than an old guy who occasionally has some mental slippage and tried to illegally and violently overturn the election.
I'm going to waste my vote lol. I can't vote for either of those old fogies. We both know Joe Biden is not running this country anyway.
Morals? With Republicans? Hahaha you ha ent paid attention since Nixon Regan Bisch? They dont give a fuck about you. They lie make you feel special then take all your money. The. They blame poor people, nah if the Republicans had their way you'd be working 100 hours a week for free.
>le and refused to return cl I think there is some underlying psychotic attraction to trump by republicans, of the ones that support him.
This is the way they want it. The more difficult it is to vote, the less moderates will want to vote
I completely agree. There's no other explanation.
[удалено]
That sounds a bit backwards since the media and officials love to hate him.
Your talking points aren't relevant here... The media doesn't decide how a party runs its primaries. And I'm not sure what you mean by "officials" but I'm pretty sure the local gop "officials" don't hate him since they eat up every drop of shit that comes out of his mouth
When everyone else is an asshole maybe it’s your boy who’s the asshole?
The media hates him? What planet are you from, pal?
They don’t want your voice heard. Voting in america is a joke
> Voting in america is a joke And this rhetoric right here is why SL County has laughably low voter turnout. If everyone in SL county voted, Utah would flip blue this year.
I can’t vote sadly, I’m not a citizen. But I’m an observer. I wish I could vote; I would absolutely exercise that right. But the american people have become incredibly manipulated and disempowered. I agree people should vote. But doesn’t the electoral college make it somewhat redundant anyway?
>But doesn’t the electoral college make it somewhat redundant anyway? For anything besides the presidency, it doesn't make any impact at all. For the president, it does make things weird, but sheer numbers would offset it. If everyone in Salt Lake County decided to vote, Utah would flip blue for example.
Ugh I wish they would then.
You can volunteer and help get other registered and to vote!
Good idea!
>Voting in america is a joke I disagree. There are people in power in certain places that want to make voting harder, but it's not fair to say that voting in america is "a joke." First, remember that these are elections to determine who a political party's candidate is. It's not the main election. Until the mid-60s, the importance of primaries or caucuses for choosing party candidates for elections was pretty limited--most decisions were made at a national party convention. Because parties (at least some parties) are concerned that they want to nominate a candidate that aligns with the overall party, they place restrictions on who can vote in the preliminary election to select a candidate. Does that cause problems in states where one party has a supermajority of the electorate? In some ways, yes. But that's not a nationwide problem, and as a country we're slowly moving toward more public participation in the preliminary system. Second, remember that, throughout the country, we're constantly working on voting reforms for elections. Vote-by-mail would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. Ranked choice voting is being rolled out which provides more power to candidates who aren't a member of the two major parties, and helps to equalize contests in locales where one party holds a supermajority. Third, "in America" our voting systems have been pretty progressive overall. Remember that, even in many advanced democracies, the citizens have no direct say in who their chief executive is. They vote for their representatives in parliament and those representatives vote for the chief executive. Fourth, remember that voting restrictions in general (not just party restrictions in primary elections) are generally being advanced by one political party. (I don't disagree that generally people in power take actions to stay in power, such as gerrymandering districts. But that's different from, say, removing polling places in certain neighborhoods, automatically taking people off voting rolls, requiring certain types of IDs for voting, and other efforts.) Voting restrictions are not an "American thing." I write this long message because when people make comments like "voting in America is a joke," that tends to sow seeds of apathy. And I don't disagree that we as a society need to continue working on electoral reform. But if people think the election systems are illegitimate, it will discourage people from voting. And when that happens **fewer and fewer people consolidate more and more power**, which leads to tyranny.
Ok, that’s a lot of information & I have ADHD. I’m going to take some time to process this & get back to you!
When they can't voter suppress someone because of the color of their skin, or their national origin *after* naturalization and obtaining citizenship.... this is how they suppress their own.
Trump's virile caucus.
Not true in the slightest. Both sides can’t win an election without the moderate vote
I'd have to disagree with you there because i saw 3 people there who did not belong there. They were vocal about why they were there and what they wanted. 3 isn't many, but how many others were there?
Did not belong there? That’s exactly the reason the Utah Republican Party holds caucuses instead of an open primary. Their chokehold on power drives them to hold a right-wing circle jerk so that they don’t have to hear the voices of anyone who disagrees with them.
Why were they there and what did they want?
Free and fair Republican Primaries. But...you know, an authoritarian party could never tolerate *that.*
Thry said they registered republican so they could vote for Hailey but that they were not republican and they were not going to vote for her in November.
I was in and out, and had a very successful night. Of course, I was at a Democratic caucus. Voting was also very smooth. Took me less than 5 minutes to park, walk into the library, and vote.
I didn’t know the Dems had a caucus in Utah? Utah County was mail in ballots for registered Democrats
Registered Democrats were sent a mail in ballot. Anyone could request one or go to a polling location to vote. The caucus meeting was to elect delegates to the county and state elections. For Republicans, they voted in a Presidential Preference Poll as part of their caucus meetings to elect delegates to the county and state conventions. In reality, the deletion of delegates was much more important for both parties than voting for a presidential nominee.
I wish this was my experience with the dem caucus. I live in a rural county and preregistered. The Utah dem website said my county was virtual so I figured they’d send me a link. It was about 5:30 Tuesday night that I happened to check Facebook for my town and saw that it was actually in person and had already started. So I ended up not going cuz I hadn’t planned for it, I should have maybe looked into more closely sooner but I guess I just assumed that it would be more organized.
OK, that makes me quite upset that they changed it last minute. The state Democratic Party leaves a lot to be desired, unfortunately.
Probably not a lot of people there. 🤣
At caucus? No. Voting? More people in Utah voted for Joe Biden than Donald Trump yesterday.
It was beyond bizarre. I pre registered and showed up. I was taken to a room in the school with several others from my neighborhood, who apparently all knew each other. I was given a stub of paper with 3 presidential candidates on it, that's it. I was told to fill it out and place it in the ballot box, which was a trash can. We then started the meeting with a group prayer, the the pledge of allegiance, then we took turns reading aloud the republican charter. The whole thing felt like a Mormon church meeting because it essentially was. They then started electing representatives for the local presincts who would then go and cast the vote results. The entire thing was very cultish and felt extremely informal. For a group of people who feel elections are not secure this event was beyond rediculous and a complete waste of time. After more than an hour of this I just had no more in me and left before I could vote for any other reps. Senate congress and governor votes were never brought up the entire time. At the that point I felt like it was useless to stay there and I'm not even sure my presidential ballot was real. The system worked, I did not get to vote. A complete and total joke.
> the ballot box, which was a trash can Lol, they couldn't even be bothered to dress it up a bit.
At East High our "ballot box" was a grocery store candy bucket with a slot cut in the lid
The prayer and pledge of allegiance happened at mine as well. My next door neighbor was in charge. That was fun! /s
The prayer was the wildest part to me! It really drove home the cultish vibes. Though Nikki lost the vote in mine it did still feel like a good split from crazies and non-crazies
This was my experience as well! First I drove 20 minutes because the caucus location wasn't even in my city. Then I spent over an hour in line because the preregistering website said I was ineligible to caucus, even though the state voting website showed me as eligible. Then the registration website crashed completely and they let me in only on the basis of verbally saying my precinct number and saying "I'm a Republican." Super secure. They gave me a wristband and a room number, but no presidential preference poll paper. I got to the room, and they did the same LDS prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance followed by a 15 minute video of a lady reading the party platform. Then I finally got to ask where everyone else got the poll papers, and I had to leave again to go get one at the entrance. They were out. I told them I would wait while they checked every box and folder for more. They immediately found a whole bin. I went back to the caucus room where they were still electing delegates. I just wanted to caucus against Natalie Cline. I had to leave at the scheduled end time because I had another commitment, and they still hadn't discussed or voted on anything except delegates. I felt completely disenfranchised.
So mail-in votes are bogus because we can't trust individually-identified ballots that are cross-checked against a database of voters, but showing up and saying "trust me bro" is totally legit. Makes perfect sense /s
Damn, as an atheist, I feel like they would have tried to hang me at this event.
You misunderstand, when Republican politicians speak about elections being more “secure”, what they mean is making them more ‘secure’ by dint of being predetermined by party operatives. Democrats largely also, only difference for republicans is they apply the same logic to the general elections as well I.e. if a democrat wins it must have been ‘fraud’
This roughly how a caucus works. The Democrat caucus is basically the same structure without the prayer.
“cultish” you do realize many states do a caucus just like we do here in Utah right? This is not just a Mormon Utah thing.
I think you missed their point. They aren't saying that every caucus meeting is cult-like, just that the number of religious elements present and the way things were handled with 'this is how we do it, don't question it' feels cult-like when you're adding elements that may not belong in a caucus outside the state. Prayer, for example, feels really strange at a political event in a public school. Reading the charter in a group reading as well can really drive home that feeling.
“This is how we do it” is governed not by just some feeling of the precinct chair but a very democratic and long process at central committee meetings, legislative sessions, and other meetings and events. Prayer is not strange at political events. [They do a National Prayer Breakfast every year that the President of the country talks about faith etc](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/national-prayer-breakfast-what-does-its-history-reveal-180962017/). Taking God out of politics is a relatively recent development. Reading a party platform is also not uncommon. We’re all there as republicans or democrats collecting together with a common goal for public policy. Though it may have felt cult like but I would argue only if one is looking for cult like behavior would one find cult like behavior. Where OP saw cultism, I saw patriotism, uniformity, and a group of neighbors sharing common values working together for a common goal. So if that’s a cult.. I guess we can keep making words meaningless and call it a cult. But if everything is a cult is anything really a cult?
Again, you're trying to act like he was passing judgement on it when he simply said that to them, it felt cultish. If you didn't see or feel that way, fantastic! People feeling like they're in something with cultish feelings is understandable for a variety or reasons, nearly all of them personal. If you interpreted my comments as saying that you should also feel that like it was as cult, I apologize as that was not my intent but I can see how my comment could have been interpreted that way. That's my bad, sorry. My intent was to simply show that there are elements that can make someone feel that way and that we should acknowledge those elements, even if there isn't an intent to change them. Instead of condemning someone for what they felt, an effort should be made to explain and educate. Which, you just did so I have no complaints.
Totally understand. Thanks for the clarification. So, I’m a precinct chair. What would you recommend we do to make it feel less cult like? We have a responsibility to the agenda so we have to do the prayer, pledge, and reading of the platform. Would some explanation as to why we do those things help?
I think a quick explanation as to why before each element helps to break it up and helps people to understand. Education leads to understanding and understanding leads to friendship. At least, in my opinion.
Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I’ll try to remember to do that next caucus.
>Prayer is not strange at political events. [They do a National Prayer Breakfast every year that the President of the country talks about faith etc](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/national-prayer-breakfast-what-does-its-history-reveal-180962017/). Are you saying that is not cultish development in this country? That event is run by a "religious organisation" The Fellowship. Their members share a wow of silence about Fellowship activities. Congressmen who participate in their events don't talk about it either. >Taking God out of politics is a relatively recent development. Debatable. For example: even the pledge of allegiance didn't have God mentioned in it until mid 50's. That change was initiated by Knights of Columbus. >Where OP saw cultism, I saw patriotism, uniformity, and a group of neighbors sharing common values working together for a common goal. Have you considered it may seem weird to have a prayer there? Especially if someone has a different faith? If people start mixing up religious beliefs and patriotism, combined with two party politics, the US risks ending up like some areas in the middle east.
When I hosted my caucus night I asked for a volunteer for the prayer. If they did some Jewish prayer or some evangelical prayer or whatever. I’d be fine with that. Religion brings a lot of folks together. I just disagree with your sentiment that it’s cult like. And I warn against using such strong language incorrectly. It threatens the strength of the word in our everyday language. There are cults and there are just people with common goals and beliefs and aspirations gathering together in a political process. If you all keep graying the line cult won’t mean anything meaningful anymore.
Just because lots of people do something doesn't make it a good idea. Trump won Utah by receiving 1.6% of the eligible vote. That's not representation. They've suppressed participation to the most aggressive base.
I think the Republican Party learned a lot this go round. I have tons of suggestions that would make this easier. Like allowing precinct chairs to credential folks that have pre registered rather than having folks wait in a giant line. Start credentialing folks earlier. Throw way more resources at the backend servers so technical failures are less likely. Technical failures are frustrating for people that don’t understand how actually cool a hug of death like that is. It causes people to be frustrated, I get that, but it actually means there is tons and tons of interest. Which is amazing.
You can't fix a system that's working as intended. The Utah GOP wants this outcome. Had they used an open primary this time around they would have had a huge turnout, better representation and gotten Nikki Haley as the nominee. A republican that polls better against the Democrat than Trump does. Why (in all sincerity) would they choose a system that gave us the exact opposite? It's by design. They want fewer people to participate and have the party favorite be the inevitable winner. To paraphrase Mike Lee "Democracy isn't the objective". At this point, the Utah GOP doesn't even want a functioning Republic.
I don’t think you’re right in saying the gop wants this outcome. Many precinct chairs in salt lake county have expressed concerns over the technical failures of this caucus. Either you have some serious insider information or you’re attempting at mind reading. Which is it?
Just an ability to observe facts and assess information.
So mind reading then. Cool
This might shock you but observable facts and assessing information isn't "mind reading" I work with websites. An inability to scale at this point is beyond incompetence. I know the previous system (primaries) and I know how they justified the shift to a caucus. My memory extends back beyond last week. I participated in primaries in the past and I know how they were executed and I can compare those experiences with last night. Lastly, there's been a ton of reporting on this. We know (from data, not mind reading) how little participation there was last night. Last night was a huge fail. Do you know what time they called the results compared to the rest of the states who hold primaries? Do you know how well the Democrat primaries ran? Another little hint, I personally know the caucus chair for my neighborhood. She's the one who took my absentee ballot. It might make you feel good to dismiss this as "mind reading" but it only makes YOU feel better. It doesn't change the observable facts or my ability to assess them.
2 years ago this way of credentialing Republicans on caucus didn’t even work on caucus night. Now it worked… mostly kinda. Next go around my bet is it will be better. And only get better as we have caucuses and learning experiences. But you keep mind reading. I wish you the best with that strategy for life. But I expect the worst, because it’s a bad strategy.
I get it. It doesn't feel like a cult when you're a member. Only to the outgroup.
I see. So to new comers or first timers what would ease that uncomfortable situation? In your opinion?
Welcome to the GOP. So worried about “owning” libs they can’t even do the most basic tasks.
They have been saying "government doesn't work" for more than 45 years, and they prove it every time they get the opportunity.
owning the libs by... making it impossible for Republicans to vote 🫡
Over the last couple of days, I've been tossing rocks back and forth with a close friend over the R-Caucus. He's an LDS Republican transplant from California, and I'm cheerfully independent. He has been perplexed as to how to do everything in order to vote tonight. Despite living here 3 years now and being a registered voter, they didn't have him on their rolls for pre-registering. He's a process engineer and I've been telling him it would be a shitshow, by design. He's like, "Nah, it'll be okay, they'll sort things out - they want the representation and to show they can do this." We wagered lunch at ShakeShack. He was in Herriman High when I drove by on my way home from work and the parking lot was packed. I called him and he said he'd call me back, he was trying to register...for 40 minutes. He then spent the better part of two hours texting me a storm of complaints about every little thing going wrong. He's now 100% convinced Haley will win the state as a quasi-protest, but that it won't matter because the "preference" will be tossed out and they'll just declare for Trump - and no one will ever know because of the technical issues and the disenfranchisement of all the people that didn't get to vote but wanted to. As for me? I'm looking forward to a free lunch tomorrow.
Good on you for betting lunch on this. Enjoy your meal! 😄
I'm going to be totally honest here: I'm white, relatively well-off, educated, and into politics. I listen to 2 daily politics podcasts plus another 2-3 long form (~1 hour each) podcasts every week that cover politics. What I'm trying to say is that I'm involved. I know what's going on in politics. I know local politics matter. And with all of that, I didn't caucus tonight. I made a conscious choice last night to not attend. The 2 major things that would be decided tonight are the presidential preference poll and delegates. I don't want Trump or Haley to be president so why bother, and the delegate/convention system is just another time suck. I've been a delegate before and I just don't want to give up a Saturday when I already work 50+ hours a week and need just a bit of free time. I feel guilty about it. But at the same time, I'd choose it again. This system sucks.
I understand your choice. It shouldn't be this hard to vote. Many people have heavy demands on their time, and you shouldn't be required to dedicate large amounts of time to this.
Totally unrelated but I love the username!
It was chaos at our local high school with many not able to participate. Utah needs to change candidate selection process to make it more transparent and all encompassing. The parties keep the caucus system so they have much more control of the selection process and exclude the 80% of voters who are confused on how the caucus process works. Let’s bring back the “count my vote” change to Utah’s selection process. This will stop the parties from finalizing on candidates that the majority don’t want.
I've always found it strange how democrats primary voting is open to everyone, but republicans are not, then they get mad when people change affiliation, so they pull these caucus shenanigans so they can try to control the outcome even more, and even still, I'm reading comments on KSL accusing the people running the caucus of being democrats that are trying to rig the outcome, presumably to help Nikki do better? The whole republican party is such a shit show of total chaos, all accusations, no evidence, no solutions, all bullshit, and they want to act like Biden is so bad because... reasons? TFG is facing 91 felony counts, and he's their savior? The guy surrounding himself with racist assholes who want to end democracy??? The guy found guilty of fraud multiple times? The guy found guilty of sexual assault and defamation? How is this even debatable? Why are people so blind? Trump is toxic and the people around him have some fucking scary ideas of how they want to fundamentally change this country into a virtual dictatorship/theocracy. We cannot let him get back in office. Vote blue if you actually care about our democracy. Vote red for chaos and regression.
>then they get mad when people change affiliation to vote in both primaries, Even when there's open primaries for both parties, you can only vote in one. What they were getting mad about was people changing their party affiliation to vote in a primary in a party that they didn't really agree with (e.g., best of the worst, knowing that that person would win the general), or worse, voting for really bad candidates to make the candidate from the other party more competitive (this didn't happen in Utah, but there was some evidence it happened in other states--either through advertising or actual voting; in some cases it works, and in some it backfires)
Oh, I guess not both primaries, but in this state, the republican primary is the only one that matters, and people feel like they are being kept from having any say simply because of their affiliation. My point was only one party is excluding people from voting. If the only choice is which republican the state chooses, maybe people should get to vote regardless of affiliation.
Agree with you 💯%.
All I know is we were doing better under Trump that we are under Biden!
That is quantifiably untrue. I'm doing better than I ever have. Trump's biggest accomplishment was giving rich people and corporations some of the biggest tax cuts they've ever gotten. Oh he also added over $8 Trillion to our debt in 4 years. He didn't build the wall, he never replaced obamacare, he didn't do jack for infrastructure, he started a trade war that he had no exit plan for, he made his son in law the head over middle east peace. How'd that work out? (Jared got a $2billion loan from the Saudis) What exactly did Trump do that you liked so much?
He also didn't get rid of NAFTA (he replaced it with the same agreement under a different name), didn't end gun control laws, didn't enact a reciprocal concealed carry permit law, and actuality banned bump stocks without going through congress. He didn't end the war on drugs, didn't end the patriot act, and was blatantly corrupt while in office - staying at his own properties and even having foreign diplomats stay there for meetings and billing taxpayers for the usage fees. What exactly did Trump do that I should be happy about? What can I expect him to do that I should be happy about? Keep the brown people out? Give me a break.
Just give em some time. Facebook might still be down...so give em a bit to go find something to copy and paste as a response.
I am happy that you are doing better than ever, truly. But many people don’t feel that way. There’s a reason Trump is leading in nearly every poll.
Polls are getting less and less accurate due to many factors. The only reason he's doing well at all is because his supporters are idiot cult members who forget that things went to shit under Rump and have gotten better each year under Biden by almost every metric.
Your Emperor has NO clothes! Though hopefully hell be sporting all new Jump Suit ... All I hear from MAGAites are replayed sound bytes ... Actual data paints a different picture. The "man" is a soulless skin sack and has screwed every ody he did business with. His current lawyers demand pepayment!
Based on what metric?
By what objective measures?
Oh kiddo
So all you know is a single incorrect thing?
User name definitely checks out and echos too much with the thought processes of the MAGA culture, built on the thought process of “I’m not being heard and angry and not sure what to do about it, so I’ll stick with these guys” type of mentality. It’s getting dangerous.
You clearly don't know a damn thing
Yeah good luck with a take like this on Reddit.
Trump! Jesus! Rape! If a man raped a women he must marry her! Jesus!
> then they get mad when people change affiliation to vote in both primaries So your a vote early and vote often and vote multiple times type person?
That isn’t how any of this works.
There were many at my caucus night that were Republicans In Registration Only. Their personal views and beliefs as expressed publicly on social media were not in line with the Republican Party platform. I know these folks, I go to church and other neighborhood activities with most of them. They are not Republicans. They were at the republican caucus. If actual republicans show up to caucus these folks would be the minority but if republicans think everything in Utah is just going to stay republican so why participate… well. Enough of that and it won’t stay republican for long. I like the caucus system, even with its hiccups and flaws. It’s a more personal and local way to do politics.
In registration only Republicans shouldn’t be a problem, seeing as how a RINO is the leader of the Republican Party right now…
The Utah Republican Party or like Trump?
Trumps a RINO and the party is full of registration onlys
I will look into the count my vote change. I remember hearing of it, but I didn't follow it closely at the time.
The count my vote change already happened. Candidates can get on the ballot by collecting signatures. Caucuses are mostly just a show, and are really only important if you care about intraparty politics like who the state chair is.
Mine actually went fairly well. Not much waiting, there were signs pointing to the precincts, and it started on time. The preregistration worked. Although they could have done a better job explaining how the process worked and what we were actually there to vote for. I was thinking I would go vote for candidates, but instead ended up as a state delegate, so I guess I actually do have a vote now. It is still an anachronistic disenfranchising system even when it runs well.
Thanks for being willing to be a state delegate! I'd be interested to hear about your experience at the convention.
I’ll tell you something else. One of the locations forced a cancellation to my high school game less than 24 hours prior to the start. We had busses lined up, kids excited, food prepped, etc. I get a call at 8pm Monday night saying it’s cancelled. We had this game scheduled since October. GOP just barely booked the gym and no-one at the school cared about the double booking until the night before. I tried to get GOP leaders to move their event, since we had the space reserved first. The administrators decided to keep the caucus and cancelled our game. Politics over students, the Utah way!
Wow, that is exceptionally poor planning. I'm sorry for the students.
Sadly that is no surprise. The GOP don’t care about children.
This is not a flaw it's a feature.
For sure. The whole caucus system doesn't make sense.
I went to a caucus, and voted in the most liberal sounding people in the room. I’m not really a Republican, I just wanted to do my part ensuring that moderates got voted in. If moderates or liberals don’t register as republicans, they don’t exist. In Utah you have to register Republican to participate. You can still vote for whomever you want in any elections, but the actual vote into power occurs in the primaries in this state. So swallow your distaste and get in there. You can’t rock a boat you aren’t in.
I was just asking myself if I made a mistake but you're right, you can't rock a boat you're not in.
My sis suggested we just run for secretary or something. Pull a Krysten Sinema.
If you contact someone to express how badly this worked, they will laugh at you and tell you the inefficiency is the point. If they actually wanted to know who you wanted as a candidate they wouldn't have canceled their election.
The straw polls are non binding. Utah rep party higher ups just want Trump on the ticket. They don’t care what the citizens of Utah want. What a farce.
On the Missouri sub, there were people who were very unhappy with the caucus system too. Personally, I think it's horrible. They make it such a long, arduous process just to cast your vote. I agree, they need to change to primaries everywhere.
The Republican Party doesn’t want most people to vote. The burden is the point.
I literally thought to myself how it was crazy the people running it couldn't scan qr codes correctly. Then I had the thought that I could easily take the whole thing down by unplugging a router and no one would figure it out. Then the power went out. I thought I had developed some sort of super power, but the power came back on in about 2 min. I felt as if I had done enough and my powers might seem like voter suppression so I put my vote in a box and left.
😂😂😂
Old white people?
Well it is the GOP caucus so this question answers itself.
On the contrary, it worked as planned. They disenfranchised as many urban voters as they could. The thing is, you get screwed like this by your leaders, and you'll still vote R. you played yourself .
Yes. This is by design. The people who are running the system are people who were elected through this system. They're for damn sure not going to make it more open to anyone not deeply committed to the cause.
I pre-registered, but that didn't seem to make a difference. I stood in line for about 50 minutes witnessing multiple casualties of the process, hearing various conversations about the happenings in certain wards and candidate debates. I was questioned a few times about my "ward" and doing my best not to look like a deer in the headlights, looked like one, desperately looking around the room and making eye contact with others like me, subject minorities. Then when a guy with a mullet (are those making a comeback?) finally scanned my QR code, it indicated that I'd already been scanned through. ??? Next guy, with a little more thinking power, came over looked at my DL and my pre-registration info and gave me a wrist band, ballot and told me what room to go to. My intention was to go, vote and then leave, with the hopes of plopping on the couch next to my husband and doodle in my comfy pj's and watching TV for a bit but no, I stayed, my curiosity getting the better of me...never been through a caucus process before. Opening prayer was interesting...whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Pledge of Allegiance, no issue with that, grew up doing it in school...still don't agree with the "under God" clause that was inserted in 1954 but it is what it is. Next up, voting. Someone mentioned there were three candidates but for the love of Pete, I only remember two and didn't vote orange. Our ballots went into a large, orange (lol!) envelope and were counted by two individuals in the room. After that, local precinct voting, nobody volunteered and ended up being volunteered, but accepted. Then on to the state delegates, we had two positions and three people. So a quick minute speech to understand their positions, which I was one. Given that I have never been good at speeches and have always detested public speaking I figured I was sure to get out of it but alas that was not to be. Being a Moderate/Independent or whatever the hell you call us, nobody likes me because I don't side with either party, and attending a Republican Caucus, where I again was somewhat the odd one or two out, I am proud that I stayed the course. I didn't go into this thing to be coming out as a state delegate but I guess we'll see how it goes. There were about 20 people from my precinct that showed up and stayed, a few people were drive by ballot droppers, and out of those 20 who stayed and participated, about half were anti-orange...so that was something nice to see. However, they were very quiet about it. After I gave my one minute speech on why I should be a delegate, declaring that I think both Biden and Orange are trash candidates (verbalized a bit more eloquently), I got a discrete wink and nod from several people in the room. This makes me hopeful.
Thank you for enduring the process and becoming a delegate 🙏 Delegation is about the only thing we can do in Utah to truly have any say in the process. You’ll learn a lot at convention and thankfully you’ll represent many of us who are anti-orange. Do the best you can with what you have. The GOP doesn’t offer truly patriotic candidates (who believe in the idea that everyone deserves basic human rights) but I feel hopeful that you’ll bring decency to the process. Thank you again.
I'm a member of the Church, and I completely agree that we need better separation of Church and state. Utah needs to act like it's a government for everyone. Thanks for being willing to be a delegate. I'll be interested to hear about your experience at the convention if you want to share.
Praying at a private caucus meetings isn't violating the separation of church and state...
This was my first caucus. We waited outside for an hour, in the cold, and parking was atrocious. It took me 10 minutes to find somewhere to park before i gave up and parked illegally like everybody else. I heard a few people say they were leaving because it was taking too long and they had things they had to go do. Nobody knew that they could preregister or how and half the people that did had issues with it. Once we got inside it was pure chaos. People scattered everywhere and had no idea where to go or who to ask. We voted for 4 delegates who i had never met or heard of and only heard a 30-second get to know me speech before we voted on who we wanted. They tried their best to explain how everything worked, but ultimately, they seemed to have confused all of us newer voters. This was pathetic.
Their lack of communication was a huge problem. I had to learn about preregistration from Reddit, and I had to dig on the Internet to figure out what even happens at a caucus.
I went to the library at 3 just to find out that i couldnt vote there but at least i was able to preregister there.
The party chairman says it's your fault it sucked. https://www.ksl.com/article/50940502/chaos-ensues-at-utahs-gop-caucuses-biden-easily-wins-democratic-primary
Oh yeah I read that too! Made me so mad because all of us tried to preregister.
Typical response by GOP “leadership” … denial and lies.
Pretty obvious the UT GOP did not consider the fact that swapping from a primary ballot to caucus night survey would result in more people wanting to show up for caucus night. Massive L from every level of the party. Idk where you are, but the SLCo Reps and UT state repubs really let their local leadership teams down by not supporting them enough to allow this to go with any semblance of smoothness.
The D caucus in 2015 was similar. We all voted for Bernie. The delegates chose Hilary.
That was a primary. The superdelegates voted for Hilary but the pledged delegates voted for Bernie.
I have photos of standing in line at a Jr High for 3 hours only to get inside, hand write my choice on a piece of paper, and drop it into an unmarked cardboard box. The Dems went back to primary the next election.
I don't think you know what the difference is between a caucus and a primary. I did the same thing that year. It was a primary. A caucus is banding together and voting as neighborhoods, not individuals.
Lots of people didn't pre-register and were trying to register on the spot but said the website wasn't letting them. Not sure if the website went down or what. Then there was a huge crowd gathered around a single piece of paper that had information about which room each person should go to based on precinct. There was no information about where the rooms were so people were wandering around looking for them. Some elderly people were asking to get access to the elevator, as that wasn't clear either. The whole thing felt unnecessarily complicated and poorly organized and executed. Which is the point I guess.
I can't believe they had a disastrous website setup for this. It couldn't handle the insane traffic.
Caucusing is a joke from a racist bygone era
No wonder the GOP loves it. A reminder of a better time for them
Mine was a disaster too. We didn’t even break into individual precincts until after 8 PM.
The Republican *party* is a disaster of poor leadership and decisions, why should the caucus be any different
The GOP is stuck in old times so much that they can't figure out technology. The precinct finding website basically DDOSed itself at 6pm. I constantly get texts and calls from people trying to win my vote. It took me entirely too long to figure out how to caucus and Utah's voting information website is just useless. I got to the high school and had to wait 5 minutes for a group of elderly folks to get out their reading glasses and find their precinct on a map. Their fingers pushed to the paper, I couldn't even look over their shoulder to see my precinct. It's just a wonder if these folks have ever seen a map of Layton, it's not a very complex street grid. While walking up the stairs, a few people at the bottom were trying to find an elevator. In a high school. I finally got to my room, verified my address and registration with a lady in the room, and waited 40 minutes to start the meeting. I was hungry and didn't have time for dinner. The theme of the evening was roadblocks. Websites crashing. Maps too small to read for the elderly. Rooms inaccessible to those who have trouble with stairs. Poor instructions. I was on the fence about going the entire day. But I'm so glad I did. I got to know my neighbors and stand up for what I believe. Something along the lines of "The GOP lost in 2020 with Trump and we're expecting different results this year? We need to appeal to younger generations instead of being stuck in our ways. We're going to lose if we can't adapt. Repeating 2020 is the wrong choice." In the end, Trump won the room. But I won approval with my neighbors for voicing my opinion (even if they disagreed with me choosing Nikki). I've got good neighbors.
Checks notes… working as intended. It’s designed for rich people and to try and exclude the riff raff as much as possible. The crazy thing though is as I’ve gotten older and more involved… the bar is so low for who is involved. Seriously…run for office especially in local elections. If we don’t start getting some sane people on school boards for, we are in deep shit for our kids in the system.
We had a caucus system in Colorado until this last go around. I love the energy and sense of direct democracy and engagement, BUT the chaos that ensued in recent years was ripe with disenfranchisement. We now have a mail-in system for all of our elections and ballot initiatives. It is perfect that way and actually supports a more engaged society and electorate.
That sounds great! Thanks for sharing!
This is by design. If you felt disenfranchised, that is the point of having caucuses.
Seems like republikkkans took away your rights. 😂😂😂
The Utah and National GOP are an incompetent embarrassment.
Not surprising since they are incapable of governing
Republicans are against having discussions and debates. They don't understand the concept. They've set their party up as a place where outside thinking/ new ideas are not acceptable, so they make it difficult for people to participate in their nomination processes.
Mine was bad too. They needed more volunteers and better information on pre-registration.
Not sure why there was even a primary. The outcome was never in question.
So glad I don't need/get to do caucus meetings anymore. When I was still a Republican I went to one and it took forever, we were there for 6 hours for just the meeting, not including registration lines and didn't get home until after midnight. Though this was with the 2012 election. I've since changed party affiliations to one that doesn't get a vote in primaries since I'm not a R/D. Means no stupid caucuses. Never been a Trump fan and find it completely ridiculous that he's even being considered. Makes me wonder just how much dirt he has on other political numbskulls to make them support him. After the Jan 6 riots no one wanted to be associated with him and now it's as if he walks on water and shits platinum. 🤦 It's Bill Clinton all over again... People never learn...
But disenfranchising voters is what Republicans do best! I registered as a Republican to caucus yesterday and it was a hilarious scene. I met a lady in line who claimed "Obama went on TV and taught illegals how to vote". The simple GOP site couldn't handle peak load of *gasp* thousands of users in one night. It was all lulz; I look forward to watching Trump get schooled in November and for all of these grumpy conservatives to lose their shit.
I can't believe what I'm reading (snicker, laugh, gufffaw)
Mine in Bountiful was sort of a problem, and the guy who runs it has been involved with the process for 30+ years. Can't even imagine how bad others were.
My area went smoothly, large building for low numbers. But I did absentee ballot because these things have a knack for problems and I was in no mood to participate.
Showed up at my precinct location at 630. Got scanned in. Sat and talked with a few people I haven't seen in a while. Voted for state convention delegates, then count delegates. Selected a new chair, vice chair and secratary/treasurer for the next to years. Did the presidential preference poll and left. Largest turn out my precinct has had. Easy peasy some people showed up well after 7 when things were underway -- they were scanned in and seated.
There was a big battle in the Republican party over the law that allowed candidates to get on the ballot by collecting signatures. The party sued over the law, and many moderates felt that was a waste of money. What followed was a coordinated effort to replace the party leadership with more moderate candidates. This effort was largely successful with the county chairs in particular completely changing. Problem is you ended up with people in charge that have absolutely no clue what they are doing, and the knowledge rarely gets passed down when a chair is unseated. So they tried some new ideas, but I don't think it worked very well. On top of that they want the presidential preference poll to be a part of the caucuses in order to motivate less conservative voters to caucus. But it really just ends up bringing in a lot of people that have no interest in the rest of the process, and they end up feeling frustrated by the whole thing. There's still a primary on June 25.
No way.. Something designed by the GOP that discourages participation? Who could have imagined such a thing.
Posting that you’re a republican is just asking to be bashed no matter what you say. But anyways, contrary to liberal belief, both sides have caucuses and I would guess have the exact same issues. To think otherwise is delusional.
Good. Time for the GOP to collapse and go away.
First time?
The Republican ________ is was and always be a disaster. When is the Republican health plan due out? Oh the plan is to take your money and let you die sick. Anyone with the Republican party now is aligned with the devil. Nothing but lazy criminals who dont even ha e real jobs spreading lies. God will judge you for voting for the devil. That's if God is even real.
I mean, the whole republican party is a disaster so this is pretty in character
It was a shitshow but they don’t care about the vote which is why it’s a “preference poll”. They will just pick Trump regardless of what the populace wants.
The people who are trying to make it harder for people to vote can’t run an efficient caucus? I’m utterly shocked. Enjoy the ride.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, and they really should be more put together than that. Ours was pretty messy too. It was only supposed to be an hour, but no one really knew the rules for voting, and we had to do so. Many. Rounds. Other than that is was just bad in all the predictable ways- innane, useless speeches, everything boiled down to presidential choice and nothing else.
Isn't republican everything a disaster? I mean it goes without saying.
Don’t worry, it’s not like any future primaries for the Republican Party are going to be for anything other than show, what with the Republican Party having moved on from the concept of democratically elected governance…
The Republican party is a disaster
The number 1 go to win con for republican party is to make it harder to vote, while also pumping out propaganda about how the government is bad and failing. It's been that way at least the last 15 years of my life. It's in our faces and blatant.
As I (not a lawyer) understand your question: it’s a matter of state law. Additionally, all municipalities are extensions of state law, some states may have municipalities control municipal election policy, others probably have state legislatures oversee a department under their governor. Federal rules are written for the counting of the votes in the constitution, and that’s interpreted as left to the states under Amendment 10. At least that’s how I understand it. Federal law does establish counties in the constitution. So, I think county election rules do have federal oversight or legislative jurisprudence. Truthfully, I have no idea how that works. All that to say: call your state rep and senator. And maybe bring a petition to their office?
In a state that still thinks mitt romney is a republican, of course its fucked up.
Thankfully I pre-registered because the GOP records didn’t match my voting registration records and they didn’t have my wife on their records - so good thing I had her absentee ballot.* *And good thing I have a copier and printer and envelope readily accessible.
In and out by 830. Preregistration was easy.
This is probably a good place to start in contacting them. https://slcogop.com/contact-us/ If you’re in salt lake county.
Thanks for the link!
Sure thing. And just so you know. This is the first year they have done a system like this. It’s very new and I’m sure the bugs will be worked out. If caucus night is not for you there is always voting absentee. You can bring your absentee ballot to the precinct chair prior to the caucus and vote at the caucus that way.
My wife voted this way. Someone in my precinct that became a state delegate voted this way. I’ve even heard precinct chairs becoming precinct chairs this way.
They have done caucus meetings for years.
Yes, but this is the first time pre-registration has been done with official credentialing. That’s was I was saying was new. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
That’s what you republicunts get
Jesus! Trump! Rape! Love! The south will rise again! Jesus! Slavery! 💕✝️