SEQUIM — Packed like sardines yet eager to participate in a civic tradition, nearly 500 Democrats assembled Saturday at Carrie Blake Park for the county convention.

Appropriately, the event took place at the park’s Guy Cole Convention Center — the largest venue in the county that party officials could find available for the day.

The convention got off to a difficult start with delegate registration problems.

Nerves were somewhat frayed and frustration was evident.

One precinct delegate summed it up: “Well, democracy is messy.”

But when it was over, the Clallam County Democratic Party came away with a party platform, a list of resolutions and a roster of 19 delegates who will represent Clallam at both the 6th Congressional District convention May 29 in Fife and the party’s state convention in Tacoma the following month.

“You’ve just got to have a nice warm feeling of being in a room full of Democrats,” said Clallam County Commissioner Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness, acting as emcee for the event.

Before launching into convention business, Tharinger introduced Kevin Van De Wege, a Clallam County Fire District No. 3 firefighter/paramedic who has announced his candidacy for the 24th District state House seat currently held by Jim Buck, R-Joyce.

Delegates and alternates selected at the Feb. 7 precinct caucuses around the county gathered at the Guy Cole center to elect delegates and finalize a county party platform that will be presented for consideration at the state level.

But colorful signs plastering the convention center’s walls made it clear that the day’s premiere function would be to nail down the name of one man to support in the Nov. 2 presidential election.

That man would end up to be Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumed Democratic nominee.

Kerry’s 10 delegates elected in Clallam put him ahead of Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, who received six, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who received three.