pudge's Journal: I Won

OK, maybe that is premature since voting won't begin for a few hours, but I am on the primary ballot in Washington, as the Republican precinct committee officer for my local voting precinct, and I am unopposed. (If I were opposed, I likely wouldn't run at all ... if someone else wanted the job more than me, they could have it, and I could do other things.)

The organization of the state party works like this: the state party consists of committeepeople from each county, elected by the county central committee. The county central committee consists of the PCOs, which are elected by the voters of that precinct on the primary ballot. So the PCO is the basic unit of the state party. The party is comprised of them, and their function is, beyond that, to support the party at the precinct level: getting the vote out, supporting candidates, etc.

I'm PCO right now, because I was appointed to fill the vacancy. At least, I think I am. I was told I was, and I filled out all the paperwork, though I never saw anything that proved it, and I saw some list of PCOs as of August 2004 and I wasn't on it. Not that I really care either way.

In Massachusetts, I was also on the primary ballot, in 2000. Instead of per-precinct PCOs and county committees, we had town committees for each party, with the towns getting a number seats by population. There were 35 people on the ballot for that position, which made coming in 35th place seem not so bad. From there I was chosen as a delegate to the state convention in 2002, though I was not able to attend.

Some have asked how I got involved. Basically, I just showed up. I went to the caucuses and conventions and met people and eventually paid a $1 filing fee to get on the ballot. Don't be discouraged from getting involved: like much of life, most of it is just showing up.

vote

[eglamkowski]

Just be sure you go out and vote for yourself :)

True story: there was one guy here in Georgia who was running for an elected office unopposed, and because he was unopposed, nobody bothered to vote. Even the guy running for office didn't vote, so he literally got zero votes.

Presumably they still gave him the position anyways, since he was unopposed, but how embarrassing :-p

Cool

[On Lawn]

I wish us non-partisan's were just as organized!

ermmm... uh.. dang.

Early Congrats...

[cascadefx]

Congratulations, Pudge.

I think you'll make a good party official.

Congratulations

[Degrees]

My dad did some of that kind of stuff. He really enjoyed it. It was interesting for him, and he got to be a part of the process. For may Dad, it was the California Young Republicans Association.

A few times on /. I've posted the story about how some of my dad's snail mail was being read because of his involvement in CYRA. It certainly helped form* my view of the world. Lets hope you don't get bugged for your involvement, too.

*"impacted" might fit better. ;-)