Last night, March 1, this election cycle’s Super Tuesday, many Edina students actively took part in the democratic process for the very first time.

There was a huge turnout for both the Republican and the Democratic caucuses (held at South View Middle School and Valley View Middle School, respectively). Voters weren’t the only ones present though, many Edina Public Schools 9th graders were present as volunteers as well. Both caucus locations were bustling with people. “It was hard to park but I was pleased to see how busy it was because it shows how many Edina residents care about representing,” said Will Hoff, a senior who caucused at SVMS.

“It took me a pretty long time to figure out where in the building I was voting, since it was so busy and the map was difficult to read,” said senior Devan Hunt, a proud Marco Rubio supporter. There were large groups of voters coagulating around maps of Edina in the entryways, which were sectioned off by neighborhood and thus precincts. Various classrooms were dedicated to be the voting precincts and also caucus locations for each neighborhood in Edina.

Many students were surprised to see how casual, and even archaic, the voting was. “It was a lot less formal and more sketchy than I was expecting. It seemed like it would be easy to vote twice or in the wrong precinct,” said Cole Harris, a senior who caucused at SVMS. One only had to write down their name, email, address,and phone number to vote, no ID necessary. One precinct had so many voters that they ran out of ballots. “The woman who was helping with the voting had to tear out pages of a notebook to create more ballots,” said senior Regina Fricton, who caucused at VVMS.

Students were also surprised by the fact that the bulk of the time was spent on voting proposed legislation. “I sat in on the caucus expecting more talk of Presidential candidates, but instead it consisted of people in my neighborhood suggesting policies for the DFL to adopt,” said Kjell Redpath, a senior who caucused at VVMS .

Various candidates and incumbents for local office gave campaign speeches in the precinct-classrooms, including State Representative Ron Erhardt and Minnesota Senator Melisa Franzen.

Minnesota is one of the few states that still caucuses instead of holding a primary. The main difference between the two is that caucusing involves more discussion (and thus takes longer) whereas primaries are basically statewide elections, with no precinct meetings. “In my precinct, people proposed resolutions that people voted on. One of the propositions was changing the caucus to a primary in Minnesota,” said Redpath.

During the Democratic caucuses, the chair asked for delegates that would go to the Senate Convention in Hennepin County in two weeks, and junior Blake Olson volunteered to be one. “[There were] 19 volunteers and I was easily the youngest of all of them,” said Olson. At the convention, these delegates will endorse candidates for the State House and Senate, debate and pass possible platform resolutions, and conduct other party business.

“[Caucusing] is a great opportunity to get involved with members of your community. It also provides a great opening to getting involved in the political process, which I think is very important for students to do [since] politics will directly influence their lives. Many others in the world don’t get this chance,” said Olson.

While some students found caucusing a wonderful first chance at political action, others found it also held potential conflict. “It was pretty awkward that my mom went to Valley View and I went to South View to [caucus],” said Harris.

Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders won Minnesota, and many EHS students contributed to their victories. “In my precinct, out of 148 votes, Bernie got 86 and Hillary got 62,” said Redpath.