Yesterday was Texas’s Primary Elections for both the Republican and Democratic parties( as well as Texas Independence Day). I had already voted thanks to Early Voting, but both parties also hold precinct caucuses/conventions immediately after the polls closed on Tuesday to vote for county delegates and conduct other party business.
These meetings are always sparsely attended, because they are unknown, boring, and inconvenient. But they usually matter more than your vote. In a precint where nearly a thousand ballots were cast 20 people, who showed up for their precinct caucuses, will have the say for the rest of the voters.
County delegates conduct party business and round up support for candidates, ballot measures, and party platforms. County delegates also elect state delegates at their county conventions. Now this isn’t a complicated process. All I did was sign in, sit down and let someone else conduct the meeting (that was a first for me- I’m usually the one conducting these things). We elected a Precinct Chair and Secretary which no one wanted to do, and then elected county delegates. Our precinct was alloted 10 delegates, since only 8 people bothered to show up, we were all automatically elected unanimously. Simple. My wife didn’t even want to be a delegate, but now she is. And the meeting took all of 10 minutes.
Now, you’ve missed your chance to be involved in the precinct caucus, but you haven’t missed your chance to be involved. Since most precincts end up with extra delegates, like mine, you can go to the county convention and be appointed a delegate for your precinct or an at-large delegate if your precincts are already alloted.
If you’re tired of the way things are being run in your town, county, state, nation, world, universe et. al. GET INVOLVED. It will pay off, believe me.