The Friends of Bernie Sanders hosted an event at the Martha Sawyer Community Library - Lebanon, Maine on Wednesday night, January 20.
Marybeth Stocking, the coordinator for the event did a wonderful job of introducing the reasons why she was personally supporting Bernie Sanders and why she had asked for people to come to this meeting, to "Learn how to Caucus".....
The Chair of the Lebanon Democrats, Ellen Harris-Howard was in attendance to speak on what happens at a town caucus and why they were so important in the process of electing a president.
Many people were amazed at the importance of local caucus goers in the greater scheme of things.
The 23 or so people in attendance were not only from Lebanon, but came to our library from several other nearby towns as well.
In order to participate in the Democratic Caucus, attendees must be registered Democrats or have changed their party affiliation to Democrat at least 15 day prior to the Caucus. The Town Clerk is also in attendance for people who are not registered at all to vote, or who are registered as "Unenrolled" who are able to enter their party affiliation as Democrat on the day of the Caucus.
The day of the Caucus, Lebanon residents will gather at the Lebanon Fire and EMS Station 1 on Depot Road on Sunday, March 6th, 2016 beginning at 1:00 pm
In some caucus situations, residents are sent to separate corners to hear from each candidate's representatives, however in Lebanon we are not blessed with a meeting room quite large enough to do that. So registered Democrats will gather and hear from their candidates representatives all in one room, seated in small groups.
Because, according to Ms. Harris-Howard, Maine is not a "winner take all" state, the delegates for each town are chosen based on that town's voting preferences at the end of the caucus. In 2012, for example, Lebanon had 6 delegates, although I am still unsure of the candidates that were chosen by the Caucus.
Those delegates are chosen by the caucus group as a whole, to attend the York County Caucus, where the whole procedure is repeated, and delegates chosen from the County to attend the State Caucus, and from there, delegates chosen to attend the National Democratic Convention.
Bettie Harris-Howard, who serves as the Secretary for the Lebanon group, said that there are usually 5 or 6 delegates from Lebanon who attend at the county level, but reminds residents interested in this process that they are responsible for their own transportation and expenses for all of these events.
Ms. Stocking, Ms. Ellen Harris-Howard and Ms. Bettie Harris-Howard all reminded the event goers that the point of the caucus is to help define which Democratic candidate(s) the State would be supporting at the National Convention, asking each person present to bring 5 friends along with them to the town's Caucus
"We are all Democrats at the Caucus," said Bettie Harris-Howard, "and we all want a Democratic Candidate to win, so there's no animosity at the Caucus. It's a pretty friendly place to go and be part of the process." Ellen Harris Howard added that the group was also planning to have light refreshments available for the afternoon event.
The group also noted that you can caucus via absentee ballot by filling out the following form and requesting an absentee ballot be sent to you via mail or e mail
You can request an absentee Democratic Caucus ballot via the Maine Dems website by clicking HERE:
