it's fabulous there were police directing traffic unbelievable i love it there is like a line of traffic coming all the way down highway twelve i said to the person i was driving at that this is history or you know it's exciting to see the is our first caucus yes and where very excited to be a part of this process my daughter has just turned eighteen i am a registered republican my daughter is going to register tonight for the democratic party and that's a fun fun race with a lot of strong candidate since definitely an issue out of education funding for schools like public schools and just off early i'm really excited to do it sound need to figure out where we're going and that's all it could be ending or not issues common concerns well it's very exciting it is a gathering of all your neighbors and then neighbors of neighbors and over all gathering to i think exercise our duty which is to be you know active citizens that's part of being a responsible citizen and down this is really where it starts feel like it is really good to come and see your neighbors and untack with them and be involved and get out of the house while this is my first time caucus thing just really excited to come out and i'm here for my kids we're hoping for a big change in our government i guess i decided because i just got really interested in the in the primaries maybe more interested that i have been for a long time and i'm interested in a particular candidate so we have had a political system here and caucus conventions for the more important statewide offices we go into convention the is it's kind of messy but it's still democracy i think at its finest because people get to get angry and they get to stand up and get previous governor who is strong on economics absolutely we've got yes and you know you'll find people that have they want to look at government in kind of a broad sense and then there are people that have maybe a single issue that is very very important to them and they want to come and try to have an influence on that particular issue well to be honest i think this is going to be very different i got here about a half an hour ago this is not a typical caucus there's just many more people and i think that with all due respect to the people planning at it they just weren't expect in this kind of number so i think they'll probably do well just to get the presidential voting the traditional historic system and it's a system by which we have of course direct participation of individuals in decision making on a face to face personal level which of course require some planning on doing and then there's really a business plan that you can do and some people say for that some don't and i'm going to try to stay as long as i can because i somewhere else i have to go this evening as a constitutional and it requires a certain number of delegate number of voters in order to get a certain number of delegates and so if you read on the margin there can sometimes be some arm twisting to get that extra delegate and i have seen situations or people distort the truth a little bit sometimes about candidates in order to try to pull you over into their camp but i don't know it's probably the way democracy should work it's gotten a little sterilized i think in our country to so it's a little bit more like the british parliament or something well my last experience with a caucus was in the one nine hundred seventy three that tells you anything about my age and it was just a lot of bickering and a lot of whining and and i think the system  changed a lot since then saying happen where people just get a little excited and sometimes they're excitement kind of goes all really and they try to power the their way through are have not changed and sometimes things just get a little crazy you don't have to be a life one party person you don't have to be an expert in politics i'm not a police a major i'm a state auditor but being in to doing this kind of work and participating like this is really important and i like that we're one of the few states that have a caucus where like i say anybody can walk around in and become you know worked their way up through the party through the delegate process it and become a national delegate i did it in two thousand and eight i was richly unknown and became a national delegate went to the xcel energy center and in fact the system is designed for those who have in fact a major interest and concern the participate another to take a stand on public issues or a candidate and when that happens they mobilize and go to the caucuses yes it's it's a system that we've had for one hundred fifty years the thing i like caucuses is that it gives people a chance to express themselves and it's not just up to party machines you know it's common people and it will disorganized and that's ok because you know we're we're who we are or were there to try to express our self and to fumble through it i think we did pretty darn well the pen's on of course whether the party represents the needs and interests and concerns of those people coming together but it's designed really to get like minded people together to work together a public you'd like and then people actually divide up into different parts of the room although this year as you know the d f l has decided to actually do a ballot for the presidential contest but there's another important  decision and many others but the one that comes to mind of course is the u s senate race too and i am afraid that that's not going to get the attention tonight that it may be deserved just because of the overwhelming numbers but ordinarily people have the opportunity to speak up for their i flashed my button at one woman and said oh i'm on the other side for someone else well meaning democrat but another democrat so we're all friendly here and people we have a lot of fun so in some people will ask you your opinion some people think that's one of the downsides of a caucus system it really doesn't favor shy people which is unfortunate but it for me it's just sort of my nature to still believe that each one of us can make a difference frankly are going someplace going to do something you don't know what's going to be expected of you is sure that's a little intimidating say i'm just very excited about the candidate that i'm excited about and that i just i think it's time to bring people together and st needless spading so i'm i just i'm fairly excited about somebody that i haven't been excited about before so that's why i want to get involved ah i just feel like it just feels historic to me i mean it for a lot of reasons confluence of things the times the fact that there's a war going on the candidates fabulous candidates i think we have to make a distinction between  people to come out and and put in their vote for who they want to be on the ballot people get to talk for their candidates and sometimes things get kind of crazy and kind of rock guests and people try to take things over and but it's fun you know it's a it's a it's kind of democracy at its most basic it's kinna dee and course i was eighteen it was the first time when i was going to get to vote and i was told not to vote for him by my church in springfield illinois where we had primaries and i it put my back up you know and i really liked him and i participated in the election and i voted for kennedy so i have been yeah illinois has a primary system and i really like it a lot better all the way don't know much about the caucus system but i prefer to just go and don't primaries are a assess things that came into existence fairly late in the political process primaries were a reform objective introduced at the end of the nineteenth the beginning of the twentieth century the try to get a kind of bright widespread participation of people in the process now out in a soda we started using the primary as a kind of check on the convention system thus they  if there's a contested convention then at the end at the beginning of the twentieth century in free introduce the concept of primary and we have that today we have primaries convention primary now the problem arises when we come to presidential elections that's when everybody starts getting interested they don't care about governors well it's not the nomination process is a party process not everybody is a member or a participant in the party the party selects the candidate and the way the party selects the candidate is determined by the party within the rules of the state now in some states they decided that the way to select a candidate night and give away part of their time if they can't afford to if they're working they don't have children then they come in have to spend a lot of time talking about in consequential things like resolutions but really i want to do with all i wanted to say i want to x the president i want wife to present well we've tried the farmer here in the state of minnesota we've had primaries in the one nine hundred fifty s and again then in the late eighty's early ninety's now why did we have primaries that went for the same reason that there was a great deal of interest and pushing for primaries because of theories to different kinds of discontents and and dissatisfactions unfortunately the primaries in the one nine hundred fifty s didn't go the way the political blocking of the nomination of robert taft so that someone like eisenhower can get the nomination but being a favorite son was very important the primary however upset that almost upset that when a group of dissident republicans put up a tent at a sea of white ice in the hour as a write in candidate and the write in candidate twice now almost defeated the democratic farmer labor party of minnesota were supporting the nomination for second nomination didn't win the first time of adlie stevenson the governor of illinois but a group of d among whom was congresswoman quiet knutson the first congresswoman we had in minnesota and a number of others supported the populist candidate  now or the second term should and once that's over then the party leaders are still party leaders well they did they were determined to make an example of her and  was leaked to the newspapers of course bill and and actually it was the republican leader that actually wrote a letter for a husband but it was of course they didn't d f l leadership that was kind of conspired with the republicans to do that and of course in one nine hundred fifty six fifty six was quite different and today the kind of paternalistic the kind of basis of the sort of society woman's place is in the kitchen obviously she had no real reason to be in congress so we'll come home everybody says well you got to take care of a husband first and time she bucked the party regulars so the issue of contention that always comes up has never been really with the statewide offices it's always been every four years when we have presidential candidates because that's when people start getting interested now presidential candidates a little bit more complex in the first year is the existence of minnesota they presidential candidates were selected really by state parties and state party conventions and who went to the state party conventions in the first years  minnesota the political leaders in the state self selected themselves to the national conventions but we already had a system of  conventions for statewide offices why not extend that to selection of presidential candidates as well so that system was continued and we had the caucus convention system select not only state white candidates for public office but also nominees for national office through the parties i guess i've been to maybe three or four over the years and generally a contested race the way we have now between obama and clinton it was no so why bother the cost the state a lot of money and nobody voted the primary isn't perfect caucus isn't perfect but the caucus is an instrument by which interested concerned committed  dedicated people get together to talk together about common issues common concerns but there's other things that you can address here that you can address in a primary such as party platform issues resolutions and stuff like that so you know it's kind of an idiosyncratic process but i like it you know the people who are just concerned about individual candidates and concerned about nothing else  the purpose of a caucus is to go beyond that is beyond candidate selection why i collect select this candidate against another one of the concerns that one has in the community in the neighborhood how these concerns to be reflected in the public policy that we ought to see who pursue as a society and finally let's not forget that this is a party selection process it's not a general election so people are selecting their candidate of choice to represent them in a political arrangement in a general context that's when elections take place well what drives me to be involved is the importance of participation if you believe in issues and causes i think you should participate and as messy as it is this is a way to do it and it's kind of fun to watch democracy at its very basic it's kind of messy but people are just common folks get to walk in here off the street and they may know a lot they may know nothing but they get to stand up if they want and tie a can let us know how they feel or vote so i just i just kind of feel an energy in a room  exam i believe that democracy means really informed decision making on the part of interested since going into a polling booth and voting for x or  y because you like x is smile or you don't like y use and calls doesn't make for informed citizenry and good democracy so it's going to be fun i'm looking forward to it it is just wonderful to see all the people as you know there is very difficult to find a place to park out there between here and the church so it's just great to see people participating and people are hungry for first something t happen and i've been to one of these before quite a few years ago there was like six or eight people some of the people said it was only seven last year in the caucus that i'm going and we had like sixty sixty seven or something the first time i went people were very helpful not give you a quick primer and so i again with people and where our son is going to come tonight my husband's coming and our twelve year old is coming and he went once and doesn't really remember we're going to have him come against me because he's now paying attention and maybe he'll learn at a younger age if you bring your children they get to learn they'll be more comfortable with it and again it's just really coming with neighbors talking about issues and being a good citizen i think that every vote does count he has every vote just makes a difference if you vote we've got a big group there are a lot of young kids here tonight and i think that's what makes it really exciting a lot of fervor a lot of energy a lot of people come and outfit to see it for the kids to see this part of the process we take of voting all the time so it's nice to have them come to see this part of the process and you state gets your neighbors you know i'm just really glad to see minnesota engaged i'm thrilled that our country is engaged and but i think it's worth doing and voice was heard and we are counted and i'm i'm excited and i think the turnout is just great all these people are coming together and going with their constitutional right it's it's exciting for a first caucus to see this many involved go this is an incredible election this is this is so exciting i'm excited to be involved this is really disagree opportunity that we have and listening to people talking to people and participating in the caucus itself is the fun and exciting part of the caucus we can all go into a little booth thing cast a ballot and that's important but the process that we g the candidates and issues use the polling place finder to see where you vote or avoid the polling place by voting early before election day request your absentee ballot on line  org hey minnesota it's election year so let's get ready to vote and votes dot org can help first check if you're registered if not register to vote on line  ok i just came across this web site you know i love it so much that i want to share it so you see that it's vote for one one and it gives you basically all the information you need to know what's going to be on your voting ballot and whatever the living and i just want to show you briefly how to kind of navigate it and so here is you can see where it says to enter your address i've obviously done that when they go ahead and press enter then you see ok give me all this state voter information and just really quickly they show me ok voting alert early voting has already started in my area as of today and you can get more information like here's a polling place a great link to go there to find out you know where i can go to cast my vote but one thing i want to concentrate on really and i find most valuable is on your ballot so when a click on that so here you see that it started populated my address again which is great so i'm just going to go over here show my races and then it's going to ask me ok do i want english so yes i do go to my races and click on that and up pops all of these races  that is going to be involved on your ballot and as you can see there's forty five forty five races or issues for me to vote on and my ballot in my precinct in my area and this kind gives you a little bit of information on each of these people and you could kind of do a mock vote on the show you just didn't like so for example i kind of already voted on john cornyn as you can see what what happened there is i clicked  on these two people and i went down the list you can say you can select the candidate and i went ahead selected that candidate but i'm going to go on to the next race what i really like up here is that she what the next race is next week's going to be the governor so here we see the governor's race and some going to go ahead and click on wendy davis and greg abbott and then gives you this side by side comparison gives you information for both website and email and for greg abbott he submitted a video gives you education experience then what i really love is the ask these questions so they have these questions and the answers to these positions so wendy davis and you can kind of have more of a true comparison of what they would do or how they would vote on some of these issues and so let's go down here and what i'll just do show you is all be like a chemist's like this candidate so now i've got to i've already selected two of the forty five issues or whatever is on the ballot so many go through because i just want one other thing to show you and those are the amendments that are on the ballot as well they also show these ok so after i click through several candidates i'm now at proposition one and right here shows you what is actually on the official ballot and this is the language so you read that gives you an idea of what proposition one is then well that is it gives you an explanation of what this means even better as you get kind of a brief bullet point of what is for and against this so again a gives you an idea of how you would want to vote maybe or more information because as you can see the about language doesn't quite explain things haswell as as maybe it could or maybe it shouldn't you know to save paper or whatever i guess so do is this is kind of just like a brief idea of how you could go through and use vote for one wind to look at all of the issues in candidates in your area i think this is a fantastic tool i love that the league of women voters education fine has sponsored this and put this together but this is a really great