Democrats, democrats, democrats. Hello, don't you read the paper? The media has been predicting a blow-out in numbers tonight; you have been fielding so many questions that your answering machine is sizzling hot. Yet what's the first thing you run out of in Palolo tonight? Ballots. That's right, ballots. Cheap little pre-printed pieces of paper about the size of a 3 x 5 card. Paper is cheap, laddies, but the cost of looking like amateurs is high.

As you *knew* you would be slammed with voters tonight, here's a thought: open up more than one sign-in table. I arrived at Palolo Elementary at 6:15 and had to wait half an hour in a line up the hill to the sidewalk to get in. As I did, I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that the line behind me was just as long as when I started (in other words, it would take everyone in line behind me half an hour to get in).

You did one thing right: after asking whether most people had come for vote their presidential preference (and receiving a resounding "YES!"), you let us vote and escape, doling out the ballots a handful at a time. When I escaped, I saw that the line to gety in ... was pretty much where it was when I first entered. And you still had one sign-in table.

Oh, Democrats!

I bet the poll workers were thinking longingly of Wisconsin and the 3 degrees that might help reducing some of the turnout! I hope people aren't too put out by the long lines, it'll at least be something to remember.

Kawananakoa was so bad, they asked all district 26 people to go to the auditorium. Upon entering the auditorium, it was chaos! People trying to figure out where to be, how to vote, what to do. Very disorganized. I was one unhappy democrat. With an island son running for president, what where you folks thinking?

The local party should have been prepared for this beforehand. I'm just waiting for CNN to finally call this one.

this is chaos at its finest! there would have been a truer vote count had the caucus been a little more organized. it's just too bad a lot of people turned around and went home after finding no parking. it's started off looking organized as we were standing in line at kawananakoa and they were passing out blue forms to fill out to join the democratic party and also had the time to walk the line and pass out goodies and snacks. they should have been more prepared by printing thousands of ballots as we also ran out and maybe have more polling sites with lots of parking. i'm sure they had ample time to prepare and organize the caucus. it wasn't like they just found out we were having a caucus just yesterday. what are caucuses like on the mainland? i bet way more organized. i'm just glad that i was able to find parking, made a lot of new friends in line and was able to get my vote in. i feel sorry for the people who are still standing in line at this very minute.

I am the district chair for the site in Palolo that is criticized above. I have posted a detailed response on the PDH blog here,
http://pd-hawaii.com/blog/2008/02/20/we-did-our-best/

I can only speak for myself and how things went at our site, but I imagine other VOLUNTEER organizers may feel the same way.