I had debated about whether to attend until just about the last minute. However, the junkie in me realized that I was really curious to see who'd attend a Republican caucus in such an overwhelmingly Democratic area. Moreover, the average voter age from what I gather is probably under 30. There are no pictures, as I was concerned about drawing attention myself as an outsider.
They say the Brits are masters of irony, but I think the King County Republicans gave them a run for their money, selecting a labor hall for their mass meeting site, where voters had to pass under a neon UNION: YES sign at the entrance to the room, while the coordinator gave welcome and instructions with a large AFL-CIO mural behind him.
Outside the building the only evidence of activity consisted of a Ron Paul-mobile, with some sort of Paul command post in the vestibule. When I arrived at around 9:15 (officiual start time 10:00), there was a line of around 30 voters waiting to show their I. D. and voter card to the first person. Then, one went to the next table, where the first person to check in at a precinct that had no PCO (Precinct Committee Officer) was given the official packet, and made coordinator of events. Mine was one of the few that actually had a PCO, but I was given a makeshift sign with my precinct number and told to find a seat at one of the trestle tables. The PCO came along shortly.
Meanwhile, the line was snaking along the walls, eventually almost back to the door again. Crowd seemed a mix of old-line regular Republicans, mostly with Romney stickers, versus the mostly younger Paul-ites; latter seemed more numerous, but there were enough without either stickers that one couldn't really tell. A couple of more folks joined our group until we were a total of six. The rest of the table seemed to be one precinct of two, and two precincts of one each.
We had no sooner gotten underway when a kerfuffle at the front stopped the action - the Paul coordinator made what I took to be a pompous, heavy-handed move to have the room's votes tallied there first, before being forward to county HQ. The coordinator didn't seem to satisfy him, no matter how he tried, but there was a determination that candidate representatives could jointly verify each precinct's totals before the mass meeting was packed up and paperwork taken to HQ. Anyway ... back to our group.
Each of us had to sign the triplicate attendee list, including presidential straw poll choice. The PCO, and I, as self-appointed secretary, then filled out the separate Presidential form (Paul 5, Santorum 1). We then went on to the "who wants to be delegates/alternates?" part, that took about two minutes as the Santorum fellow wasn't interested, and neither was I (PCO's are local "superdelegates"). Then we went home around 11:15 (state rules said caucuses were to end by 11:30), after filling in a survey on issues, where I said that I was in favor of same sex marriage and government-run health care (they asked!).
If I have forgotten a detail, please let me know.