newsminer.com

The Democratic caucus here in Juneau is packed. Literally. You can’t move through the room without “excuse me’s” and a few elbows, and the room in this case is the city’s convention center.

Kim Elton, a state senator from Juneau who is helping with the event, said at least 900 people have signed up already for the caucus, which covers two voting districts. (That’s already more than all the Democrats that took part statewide in 2004.)

“It’s six or eight times what we had last time, I think,” he just told me. “It’s pretty stunning.”

Elton credits the turnout to people believing they’ll actually have a say in which candidate wins the nomination with the caucus taking place earlier this time.

Registration was supposed to close at 6, but at 6:25, there are still long lines of people registering, and there’s some question about whether everyone will fit in the room.

The schedule calls for 3-minute speeches from candidate representatives, then an explanation of the process (much needed, from what I can tell), followed by the fan-out(s). Lots of people are caucusing for the first time.