Super Tuesday!

It was 1:57am on February 5, and I had butterflies in my stomach because I could finally update my Facebook status to say, “Happy Super Tuesday Everyone!!!” I could hardly sleep that night I was so excited to caucus. It was finally Minnesota’s time to shine!
The sun was setting and I still didn’t know whether I was going to the democratic caucus or the republican caucus. Some republican members of my family even went to the democratic caucus to vote for Obama. Hillary is the last person they want to see in office, so they crossed sides for the night and voted against her.
I ended up going to the republican caucus with my mom at Richfield High School. We got there a little late and the caucus had already been called to order. We were in the French classroom, I remember because of the large Eiffel Tower on the wall. The room was packed and every desk was taken, so we had to sit on the floor. There were maybe four other students my age, but other wise it was mostly middle aged folks. A woman in front of me, sitting in a desk, was ripping up white pieces of paper. “Are those are voting ballots?” I wondered.
At first I had no idea what was going on. The caucus chairman had already been elected by the precinct before we got there. He was at the front of the classroom reading directions aloud. And before I knew it, we were voting for two tellers. If I would have known what was going on, I would have volunteered. Two people were nominated and elected to be the caucus tellers.
Then we were voted for delegates and alternates. I whispered to my mom, “Nominate me.” So she raised her hand and nominated me to be a delegate. It was quite exciting. (Turns out that those ripped up pieces of paper we used for voting ballots for the delegate/alternative election.)
The second the clock hit 8:00pm, the Presidential voting ballots were handed out. I put a little check by Mitt Romney’s name and folded my ballot. But then, a man came around and started collecting the ballots in his hand. This surprised me. I thought for sure there would be at least a box or an envelope to put our ballots in. (Later when I got home, I researched it, and according to caucus rules, there should have been a box or an envelope for us to put our ballots in.)
As our ballots we being counted, we discussed two resolutions. One was about the cost of drugs and medicine, which failed, and the other was concerning our judicial system, which passed. (If I would have known that we could bring up issues at our caucus, I would have suggested that Minnesota should be the first to caucus, not Iowa! ☺)
Finally, the moment I had been waiting for came. The chairman took the dry erase pen and wrote results of the Presidential caucus election. I saw the name Mitt Romney go up on the white board and then I saw the number 2. But before I could make a sigh from disappointment, I saw the number 1 written right next to it! Romney got 21 votes! He won! Here were the results.
Huckabee 5
McCain 6
Romney 21
Paul 10
Thompson 2
After the caucus was over, I rushed over to my Grandparents house to see how their caucus went. I was so excited about the night and about Romney winning, that I forgot to tell them I was a delegate! After they went to bed, I stayed up and watched the results of Super Tuesday. I wrote all of the states and their winners on a large poster board, so when Grandma and Grandpa woke up, they could see who won which states.
Over all it was a great night, and I can’t wait until the next caucus in 2012!