To the editor:

I attended the Democrats’ caucus last week and witnessed democracy in action – Kansas style. The crowd from west Lawrence was to gather at Abe & Jake’s for their caucus at 7 p.m. I arrived at about 6:30 to find the two lines extending east about 150 yards. A cold wind, blowing snow and mass confusion reigned.

At about 7:30, we at the far reaches of the line noticed a crowd from the front part of our line making a mass departure to the south. Word soon spread that this venue was loaded past the fire inspector’s allowances. The caucus was sending the overflow to Liberty Hall. Our moving caucus soon arrived at Liberty Hall to find mass confusion, disorder and dismay.

Who was a registered voter and who was not? The nots had to form lines divided by alphabetic order and fill out their vital facts. Then we were told to be seated and await word for what our next move would be. Finally, at almost 9 p.m., I departed, not having enough patience to find out what else was holding up this process.

The really good part of this debacle was that such a large group of mostly young people cared enough to put up with such disorganized, unprepared and overloaded processes, just to register their opinion toward selecting a future leader of our country.

Next time, our state had better organize a real primary election instead of a caucus. Evidently, the people want to be involved.

Richard M Hassur,

Lawrence