On this day of the Washington State caucuses — I find myself disenfranchised as an upwardly mobile white male. My legal residence is on Lopez Island in the lovely San Juan’s where I live on land with a charming ex-Episcopal Church (not bad for someone raised Unitarian). Much of my time I’m on the road earning a living and living the life of a bon vivant.
And herein lays the problem with the Democratic Primary process in Washington State. Here is the time and expense costs if I want to participate intoday’s caucus process:
- leave Olympia from yesterday’s meetings and overnight by 7:30am
- drive for 3.5 hours to Anacortes
- catch the 11am ferry ($27) so I can make the 12:30 sign-in at Lopez School for the caucus
- caucus from 1pm to maybe 3pm?
- catch the 4pm ferry back to Anacortes
- drive 2 hours to Seattle-stay overnight
- catch 11:10 ferry for Sunday brunch on Vashon
I thought the poll tax was outlawed! Call Congress,call the FEC, buta poll tax is what the Democratic caucuses feels like to me. Let’s add up the costs:
- 5.5 hours of driving time (usual billing rate = $60 an hour)
- 2.5 hours of caucus time (usual billing rate = $60 an hour)
- ferry ($26.60)
- mileage according to the federal reimbursement schedule (14-50.5 cents per mile and 240 miles)
Total to vote in the Democratic contest? $540.20 to $627.80 with my schedule. Even if it was just the lost business opportunity of 2.5 hours ($150), it amounts to a excessive poll tax. I will spend the 41 cents to mail my ballot — because I could also drop that by a polling place.
Now, if I was either Jewish or Seventh Day Adventist or in the military or hospitalized or any combination of the above (they can fax or mail their Surrogate Affidavit) I could avoid this poll tax for the price of a phone call or a stamp.
Instead? I mailed my vote-by-mail primary ballot claiming my allegiance to the Republican Party and Mike Huckabee (might as well be a spoiler while I’m at it). At least that way, half my vote for a presidential candidate counts. Background in the Washington State caucus is that in the primary (February 19th) your votes for Democrats are ignored by the state party, while your votes for Republicans count for 51% of the delegate count (the remaining 49% are decided at caucuses). On the plus side — I did vote for the Lopez School Levy, so I must not really be a Republican.
So, the bottom line? The Washington State Democrat Party has turned a life long (except for 1980 and a vote for Ed Clark, the Libertarian) Democrat into a Huckabee voting Republican. If you don’t think this system is fair to the Democrats in Washington State, you can email them HERE.
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