Utah Caucuses

"Utah Caucuses" --Probably the biggest joke in the political system right after how difficult it is to register.

Read that again for me please because I think 90% of people will double-take and question what I'm talking about.

Let me enlighten you:

I've lived in Utah my whole life--minus a brief 2 year stint in West Virginia for religious prison. I've sat back and watched the political ball field through the years in my state. First, I was a silent observer because I wasn't of voting age, then I gained my citizenship--actually, I just turned 18, that's it, but that year I didn't vote for anything. Probably because I was inbetween the important elections, or probably because of the real issue:

To register to vote, you have to have a physical address. --I moved away from my parent's house at 17, but I was kind of inbetween--half of the time I was at my parents; half of the time I was in another city. I was in limbo and my life was very emotionally driven in those years--probably it still is.

The one year I voted, I absentee voted by mail because it's easier--while I was living in WV. I was 19 at the time, go me. It was for the president. It was against Obama--I think for McCain (shudders). I really had no clue what I was voting for because I was preoccupied with my religion and merely voted with what my religion told me to and what my parents told me to.

Ever since then, I haven't been able to vote. 

...And if you think about it, that vote wasn't really a fair vote, it wasn't really reflective of me, it was reflective of my religion. So ya, I admit it: I don't vote. Not that I don't study the candidates, not that I don't talk politics. Not that I don't know who I Would vote for, but because of what I think most people call "disillusionment with the voting system"

After I got back from my religious stint, I lived in one house, then moved elsewhere in the county to another house, then moved back to Logan, then moved back to Plain City, then moved to North Ogden, Brigham city, Taylorsville, Slatterville, and now West Jordan.

When it comes time to vote, I've been "stuck at work"--well, to say that is kind of tricky: I've been at work all morning, afternoon and into the evening, then I guess things would pile up so I couldn't physically go down to where I needed to go to vote.

Furthermore, when I looked into voting by mail--Which is an option--I was told I had to register my new address with the county recorder--which is standard, sure, and it sounds simple enough, just print off this piece of paper and mail it to the recorder or go down there in person. --I don't even know where to go for that kind of thing....What's the address? What times of day can I go? Who is it?--Okay, maybe I'll choose option B) mail it in. But then I have to buy a stamp book, because I don't use stamps all that often. And envelops. Oh, and paper and ink for my printer--well, right now I don't even have a printer. So I guess I could go to the library?

Oh, and did I mention that I live in West Jordan but own a house in Taylorsville, and I won't be living in W. Jordan by the end of the year most likely? ...How many times do I have to change my address? how many stamps? How many pieces of paper printed? (I've moved 7 Times in the last 5 years.)

This is already looking like a lot of red tape, just to cast a vote.


Okay, let's add more red tape:
In Utah, the electoral college is still a little secretive in my mind. Who votes? Senators? House of Reps? I'm confused and it's all very blurry to me. No one taught this in my Citizenship course in High School, but what I do know is that it's all or nothing and it's always Republican here in Utah. [2012 it was 740,000 to 250,000 Rep- to Dem votes, so to make any leeway, 500,000 people or 1/6th of the state would have to vote strictly for democrats.--but did we award 1 collegate vote to Obama-Bidden? No. ]

So. I disagree with a lot of things the Republican party is saying these days. What options do I have here? Do I have any? --In light of past performance, 60-75% of the Utah popular vote goes to a republican candidate, I think the only thing to do is to appeal to the Republican party to hear my concerns.

Do I just send a letter to my senators (no, he'll throw it away along with all the rest of his junk mail).


How do you make any difference in Utah?
You caucus.

But that's silly. Not everyone goes or can go to the caucuses just the same as when they can't vote. They try to accommodate everyone, but how could they? It's just more red tape that people have to cross to get their voice heard here in the state.

Caucuses though--they sound so simple!

Here's how the republican caucus goes in the republican theocracy of Utah: They have a prayer. (which, I disagree with, because one can believe in God--one of the party's main beliefs--but that god could be the Buddhist God, or the Indian God, or the Scientology God, or the Muslim God or what have you, and they all pray very differently though they all tend to believe in that same god of the universe. How does one voice such a concern to their party?--it's not on the voting ballot).
Next, they elect caucus positions, and caucus delegates which are just another layer of separation between who has a voice and who doesn't in this state--the delegates vote on the positions in the state, such as senator or governor, not really the people; and sure, they are supposed to vote based on the people in their caucus--their neighbors, etc. but they don't always, and more often than not their neighbors don't say anything to them so they vote for who they themselves want to vote for.

All of this is very silly to me.
I get that we don't live in a Democracy, we live in a Republic, but this isn't even a Republic. The layer upon layer upon layer confuses things. So not only does the Utah vote come down to 6 people, it comes down to 6 people who are influenced by 40 people who are influenced by really just the 30 or 40 people who attend the republican caucus. Do the math, that's less than 10k people who influence 6/538 (1%) of the presidential campaign.

In order words, 10k people make up the 1% of political power here in Utah.  10K people are the 1%.



And even at the Republican Caucus I attended, 2 delegates represent me on the state level--they influence the Governor, the Senators, and I believe the house of reps--you know, that lowly position that is supposed to be an advocate for all the people in his or her jurisdiction but has very little power to do anything. Out of 40 people that were there, only 3 people ran for those 3 seats--I was one of them. To add to it, they allowed someone who was not even at the caucus to run --AND WIN--one of the seats. Is that fair? I wasn't aware that you could run for something and then not show up on the day of the election...?


This whole process seems to reinforce my belief about what is wrong with the republican party. People don't want to really be active--they don't want to run for delegate in the state, they would rather someone else do that. Then, they vote on delegates based not upon the lack of information--the guy who did the job previously but didn't show up somehow gets an exception and in fact may look better than other candidates. Lets vote for him.



I admit: I don't know the rules to delegates or to caucuses or even to the electoral college--or really anything. I just know that my voice is often disregarded, so why should I be anything other than disillusioned? I could take the time to figure it out, but in politics, time is everything and if you miss you shot it's a long time before you get another. Usually years.