Video of longest line I've ever seen in Portland Maine today for Dem caucus - WOW. Maine you rock!

[DiehardLiberal]

#caucus

[Qutzupalotl]

1. Incredible!

[noretreatnosurrender]

2. OMG

Hang in there Maine voters!

[PatrickforO]

3. That's intense.

Great reason to move away from the caucus and to a primary vote.

[noretreatnosurrender]

5. Absolutely

Or at the very least have more venues to caucus.

[noretreatnosurrender]

4. What's the Temp?

I wish I was there, I'd be running some water or hot drinks to those people.

[magical thyme]

30. fortunately it was a lovely, warmish day today

jacket and maybe a hat were plenty. parka would have been too much, lol!

[dchill]

6. That's really impressive!

I watched the whole thing. Mesmerizing, despite the fact that the dashcam perspective sort of gives me vertigo.

[madfloridian]

7. Wow! Seems to be no end to it

Impressive.

[kgnu_fan]

8. Amazing.... long line.... I never seen anything like this!

[noretreatnosurrender]

9. K&R

K&R

[pat_k]

10. Unofficial South Portland results -- Sanders 65%

https://twitter.com/TVTEDDY/status/706578048066387968

[AtomicKitten]

11. Good lord that is awe-inspiring!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. Wow!

[TBF]

13. That can't be possible

everyone knows Bernie Bros just hang out on Reddit and don't leave their houses.

[SheilaT]

14. OMG!

And they never did get to the end of the line!

We've seen so many videos like this, that I want to propose a new on-line series about people waiting to hear Bernie or to vote for him, and call it "Desperately Seeking the End of the Line."

Another genuine issue with such long lines is that people who can't stand that long or walk that far will not be able to vote.

[tblue37]

18. That is exactly what happened to me when I tried to caucus in Kansas yesterday.

I posted an OP about it when I got back from being disenfranchised because of being handicapped (I use cane but still have trouble):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511419890

Caucuses really do disenfranchise the handicapped--like ME.

I missed the caucus deadline by 4 minutes because I couldn't find nearby parking, had to park 4 blocks away, and then couldn't walk fast enough to get there on time. It took me nearly 45 minutes to get from my parking spot to the caucus site, because I couldn't walk fast, despite pushing hard past the excruciating pain in my back, hip, and thigh.

SNIP

(My OP is longish.)

[SheilaT]

24. At my son's caucus site in Lenexa

the 944 Bernie supporters had to go outside and line up in groups of ten to be counted properly.

Perhaps Kansas should caucus by precinct, rather than Senate district. It would be at least marginally more manageable.

[tblue37]

25. No--we should go back to the primary system. The caucus is a process that works only for small

communities.

[SheilaT]

26. Well, it's time to get involved in your Democratic Party politics.

Are you at all familiar with Second Saturday in Johnson County? These days it's being held at the Lucky Brewgrill on Johnson Drive in Mission. Starts at 8am. It's wonderful networking with local Dems there.

You are expected to pay $10 for what I believe is a buffet breakfast, or $3 just for coffee. Next one is this coming Saturday, March 12.

[tblue37]

31. I live in Lawrence. Unfortunately, I don't drive outside of Lawrence for various reasons--the most

important one of which is that I get lost really, really easily. It isn't just that I am bad with directions, but rather that I have one of those mental glitches that will suddenly mess with my ability to recognize places. I can get confused a few blocks from my own home because suddenly everything looks different and I think I have made a wrong turn, so I have to go all the way back home and start over again to find my way to wherever it was I was originally headed. I know it isn't Alzheimer's, thank goodness, because I have had this problem my whole life. I don’t want to go into detail here, but I will PM you about it.

The other reason is that I am 65 years old and no longer in very good health. I have to work full time and then some--full time job, plus side jobs to make ends meet. Since my full time job is teaching college English (as an adjunct), I have to spend many, many hours each week grading papers and meeting with students in conferences. During the semester I am lucky to get 6 hours of sleep a night.

The simple truth is that I no longer have the physical stamina or energy to juggle so many balls at a time. There was a time when I did, but now I am barely keeping my head above water.

These days I do what I can in face-to-face conversations to change people's minds about their political perceptions. My hundreds of online articles are quite popular, and more than a few of them are of a political nature. But I am no longer able to participate very actively (in much of anything), because of my deafness, my physical handicaps, and my need to use more energy than I really have to earn enough money to make ends meet. I am still far from paying off thousands of dollars in copays that I owe for two surgeries I underwent last April, so I have had to pick up extra tutoring and editing jobs that I don't really have time or energy for.

I am physically limited now, but I do make noise as I can where I can, in hopes that others will give some thought to what needs to be done to make our political system more equitable..

[SheilaT]

34. I get it.

I don't think there's anything similar happening in Lawrence like the Second Saturday, and it doesn't sound like you'd really be able to go even if there were.

[tblue37]

38. I would try to if there were something in Lawrence. It would be hard, but I would at least try. nt

[SheilaT]

42. I just took a quick look at the

Douglas Country, Kansas, Democratic Party website, and I don't see anything like that. I'd suggest you consider starting something like that, but I understand your plate is quite full already.

[Lorien]

15. Another one here:

https://www.facebook.com/916264421775483/videos/920131084722150/

[Qutzupalotl]

16. You televised the revolution!

Okay, self-published.

[Duval]

17. Amazing! K&R

[pdsimdars]

19. Don't let Bill Clinton see this or he'll get right on it and disrupt it

[Old Crow]

32. Exactly.

I'll bet The Big Dog was all annoyed that he wasn't able to get out there with a bullhorn and bring the line to a standstill for a couple hours, then enter the caucus room with a Hillary pin on his lapel and get into people's faces.

[Ed Suspicious]

20. Look at all those Hillary supporters! Damn she has the energy behind her campaign!

Right?

[ConsiderThis_2016]

21. TY ME

That's the will of the people right there! It should not have to be so hard. We can all file our tax returns on a PC... go figure.

[mountain grammy]

22. So are we seeing a connection between turnout and Sanders winning?

turnout, turnout, turnout!

[jpak]

23. Maine Tea Party, LePew and all things Maine GOP beware

Better update and submit your resumes...NOW

Feel the Bern

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

27. Doesn't that mean they need more caucus locations?

Nobody should have to wait in that kind of line. I'm so proud of the people that actually stuck that entire line out.

[royable]

28. A lot of people shown here who are not yet listed in the reported results

Not counting the people between the street and the building at the beginning of the video, in the video the vehicle doing the filming passes by almost exactly 100 cars or a few spaces where a car would fit. For each car length, there are 20 to 30 people. That comes to 2000 to 3000 people in the line, likely around 2500. Plus more near (and in?) the building and more at the end of the line not shown in the video.

In the spreadsheet that others have linked to, namely,

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_zUMNczSh1swhKXA68otMdFaRdl3xjBG4-91vv3ApIw/htmlview?sle=true#

about 17000 total voters are listed at this time. I see South Portland listed in the spreadsheet, but not Portland. The two communities with largest turnout listed are Brunswick and South Portland, and they both have around 1500 people listed as having voted. Perhaps Portland will be added to the spreadsheet later, and it will significantly boost the total number of Democratic voters for the state, by perhaps 3000 or more.

[oberliner]

29. Actually that shows how awful Maine is

One should not have to wait for in excess of five hours to be able to vote in this country.

The state of Maine really screwed the pooch on this one.

[SheilaT]

35. It's not just the state of Maine.

The caucus system works extremely well with a small number of participants. Not so well when hundreds or even thousands show up. And at least one location in Kansas yesterday had 4,000 voters. The one my son attended had 1500.

So think about getting involved with your local Democratic party and doing your best to convince them that a primary would be better than a caucus for next time.

[oberliner]

37. But Maine decided to go with a caucus

So they deserve to be chastised for making a poor decision, as well as for not being adequately prepared for said caucus.

Any state that chooses a caucus over a primary must be certain they have the resources in place to run it effectively.

[SheilaT]

39. You would think.

Every state that caucuses, with the possible exception of Iowa which has apparently been doing caucuses since 1692 or some such, chooses them over primaries. I pretty sure that Kansas has gone back and forth between caucuses and primaries.

In any case, many, many people are unhappy about the caucuses for many reasons, and those people should get sufficiently involved so that more states have primaries in the future.

[oberliner]

41. I think caucuses are ridiculously unfair

Including the one in Iowa.

People should be able to vote secretly and whenever is most convenient.

[SheilaT]

43. Agreed.

[cantbeserious]

33. Incredible

eom

[AzDar]

36. Go, Bernie GO!!