I'm hoping the Hawaii caucus doesn't turn into a circus. I'm concerned that voters in Hawaii are very confused in going to the polls today. From a conversation with a colleague, it seems that there is confusion ... about time, about polling places and about the caucus process itself.
I spoke earlier to a colleague who works in Honolulu. I long suspected that he was a staunch Republican. He mentioned that he was going out to vote in the primary at 10AM today. Since I know there is no Republican primary there, I asked him if he was going to vote in the Democratic primary. He confirmed that he was. One of his neighbors had called him to see if he wanted to drive to the polling place with her this morning. I told him it was a caucus rather than a normal primary and he was completely unaware of that. I also told him that as far as I knew he needed to be at the polling place at 6PM, rather than choosing a time convenient to him. Again he was unaware of that fact.
While we spoke he looked up some local TV web site and read the blurb that confirmed it was a caucus. Then he saw something about changing his voter registration and he baulked. Although he's always voted Republican, he's actually registered as an Independent. He sounded reluctant to change his registration. I tried to convince him that it would only be temporary, but I'm not even sure that's the case, is it?
He mentioned that his polling place was only a block and a half from his home. After getting off the phone, I thought I would do a search to confirm his polling place. According to the caucus site finder on the Obama site, the correct polling place is about two miles from him. Then the polling place finder on the City of County of Honolulu site brings me to a different polling site. Next I head over to Hillary's site and the HI headquarters page. That doesn't have a built-in polling place finder, but instead leads to the Hawaii Democrats site. This page WILL NOT LOAD for me. Is it so heavily trafficked by confused voters today, that the site won't lead. Or has someone thrown a spanner in the works? What makes me suspicious is that on one attempt a Republican site loaded instead.
I thought of directing my colleague to the video by Obama's sister Maya, but it is short on detail. It assures voters that they can switch registration at the caucus site, but nothing about whether this will be a permanent switch. This is likely something that would be of concern to more than this particular voter.