Tonight I went to the “super caucus site” at the Boulder, Colorado, public high school, where something like 15 precincts were scheduled to gather and decide which of the Democratic candidates they would support at the Democratic convention in August. Four years ago roughly 200 people turned out to caucus. Tonight authorities presumed that number would at least double, so they were prepared for roughly 500 neighborhood Boulder Democrats to show up. They opened up the auditorium balconies and spread out five tables in the school lobby to register the crowd. At 7:00 pm, though, an hour after the doors opened, the full auditorium was standing room only, people were crushed into the lobby and lines were streaming out of the open doors down the sidewalks. Police were reportedly redirecting traffic on the street.

“We’re estimating about 2000 people are here tonight to caucus,” said a bearded emcee on the stage, but he was immediately drown out by clapping and foot stomping. “There are more than 2000 people here. It’s really something. It’s really emotional for those of us who have been doing this a while—”

Three Boulder High kids meanwhile were working the auditorium sound-board in the middle of the room, providing a low-level Bob Marley background thrum for the pre-event. I remember when we used to sit / In a government yard in Trenchtown… / No, woman, no cry / No, woman, no cry.

There were a lot of Hillary signs outside along the school sidewalks but the Obama team was giving out warm coffee and cookies. Caucusers were gulping it down and making jokes and smiling. Inside there were a few women holding Hillary signs that said “Turn up the Heat” but everyone else in the place was wearing Obama stickers, tee-shirts, pins.

Finally representatives of the candidates got up on the stage to speak—representatives of the local candidates as well as of Clinton and Obama. Most of the talks ended in a breaking voice. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” says the representative for local politician Joan Fitzgerald. “All these young faces. I’m just so glad I lived long enough to see this.”

Hillary’s representative came last and seemed oddly embarrassed to be speaking of her, apologetic even. “I’m so glad we’re all here. I just want to say that I know we Hillary supporters are well outnumbered here tonight but that’s not the case across the country… I mean, I know we don’t like to go there, but if you look at her record as a senator, it’s just really amazing… I guess I just want to say that she has really inspired me as a woman.”

It was the shortest of the speeches. People clapped politely. This was an auditorium crammed with an historic number of caucusing Democrats and the representative of the frontrunner was embarrassed to speak. It made for a genuine group awkwardness that was echoed later when it came time for the voting to begin.

After the speeches, the crowd broke up into precinct groups. I followed Precinct 99 into a classroom, which overflowed immediately, people sitting and standing everywhere possible and a lot of them waiting in the hall. The situation is clearly untenable so Precinct 99 holds a vote to move back into the auditorium. We file back out. It’s now 8:15 and not a vote has been cast. Once seated in the auditorium, though, things get serious fast. There is a body count—there are 110 Precinct 99 voters—and then there is a straw poll.

“This is unofficial… but how many of you might vote for Hillary?” shouts the precinct leader, a thin gray-haired woman. A few hands go up holding white registration cards, all women and a man in a tight sweater who had given a short talk on the auditorium stage for one of the local candidates. There is consultation among the precinct leaders. “We need at least 17 votes for Hillary to be viable.” Without 17 votes, which is 15 percent of the total Precinct 99 voters, Hillary would be disqualified and all of Precinct 99’s six delegates would go to someone else, ie, Obama.

In the end, Hillary gets 17 straw poll votes exactly. Edwards gets one. There is one undecided. Obama gets all the rest. That was the unofficial vote, just to see which of the candidates were viable. Now the official vote is called. Voters stand up and hold their registration cards aloft. Hillary gets 18; Obama 92. Translation: Hillary gets one delegate and Obama gets five of Precinct 99’s six delegates.

It’s the same rough count in Precincts throughout the building. In fact, the outcome seemed predetermined: the big public high school, the photos of the multicultural student faces lining the hallways, the lockers, the smell of a high school. It all seemed to scream “Obama!”

Clusters of people in the lobby are looking at their laptops and iPhones, calling out polling results from around the country. The rest of us trickle out into the cold.