Web posted
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Large turnout overwhelms Democrat caucuses in state
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas Democrats were stunned on Super Tuesday when three times as many voters as expected showed up for presidential caucuses, overwhelming organizers and forcing them to open secondary sites to handle the overflow.
Party officials had predicted between 10,000 and 11,000 people would participate. But an intense national race between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton brought more than 33,000 participants to 50 caucus sites across the state.
At one Lawrence site, a large restaurant, organizers shunted several hundred people into a nearby theater because the crowd was so large. In Wichita, the line outside the Sedgwick County Courthouse stretched more than two blocks, and a few voters stood in line for two hours in rain and blowing snow.
Organizers of a caucus at a Topeka middle school set up chairs for about 350 people, only to see 900 show up.
At the Franklin Community Center, north of Pittsburg, party officials had expected about 300 people and about 800 showed up. Voters from three counties showed up 45 minutes early, and organizers began processing them immediately, in shifts.
''I've never seen anything like this,'' said former state Rep. Ed McKechnie, a short-line railroad executive. ''It's pretty incredible.''
Democratic Party leaders immediately faced questions about whether they had prepared well enough for the event. Past caucuses hadn't been competitive, occurring after one candidate had sewn up the nomination; in 2004, only 1,300 people participated.
''In hindsight I would love to have had large auditoriums or gymnasiums, but we got the best we could get at the time,'' said state Chairman Larry Gates. ''In Kansas City, schools had their venues committed. We relied a great deal on churches, and some of them were not as big as we would have liked.''
Many Democrats, like McKechnie, took the crush of people in stride. At the Topeka middle school caucus, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius drew loud cheers when she told participants about the large turnout in other sites.
''I knew people were excited,'' Sebelius said before the caucus began. ''It's the first time that I can remember in my political life in Kansas that we've had any say in who the nominee might be in a realistic way.''
At the Sedgwick County Courthouse, Democratic officials were so overwhelmed by hundreds of Republican and Independent voters wanting to change their party affiliations that they ran out of forms.
They had to use blank sheets of paper to register them so they could vote in the caucus, said Claudette Freeman, a precinct committee worker.
''I was surprised at the number of people who changed their registration,'' Freeman said. ''I think people were more interested in this election than at any other time.''
Gates said: ''We were having a lot of people changing their registration right there on the spot, and that was part of the logistical problem. Most of those waiting stayed with us and the mood was upbeat.''
In Wichita, Kathy Knee, a 66-year-old retired schoolteacher, waited 90 minutes outside the courthouse in the blowing snow to get into the caucus.
Asked if she objected to the wait, she said: ''Heck no, it was wonderful to be with all these strangers. ... It was a very exciting time.''
Party spokeswoman Jenny Davidson said that at the First Christian Church in Olathe, the crowd filled the site and had to move outside. At another site, a Methodist church, the overflow crowd went to a nearby synagogue.
In Butler County, she said, the fire marshal was called to the El Dorado Civic Center because of the size of the crowd, but voters were allowed to stay.
''I'll take this problem any day of the week,'' Gates said.
McKechnie attributed the large turnouts to voters' dissatisfaction with President Bush and their desire for a change.
''The most inspiring thing is the number of first-time people, lots of young people and lots of professionals,'' he said. ''You can tell that it's time for something different.''
On the Net:
Kansas Democratic Party: http://www.ksdp.org
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