Koenig is a 17-year-old senior at Grand Island Senior High. She is a member in good standing of my Modern Problems class and on pace to graduate from high school a year early.

Koenig is taking the ACT Saturday morning, a fill-in-the-bubble four hours of fun she thought might interfere with the first chance she has to exercise her civic duty.

"I was worried the ACT would be at the same time as the caucuses," she said.

That's right: Koenig's first vote will be personally and politically historic, she as a first-time voter and the state Democrats using a caucus to determine in part their party's nominee for president of the United States.

While hundreds of test takers spent from a morning of academic gymnastics will succumb to afternoon naps and leisurely text-messaging confabs, Koenig will head to Primrose Retirement Communities with others from Precinct 33 to caucus for her candidate, Barack Obama.

"I want my vote to count," she said, undaunted by who might be there or the nature of a caucus, which requires a literal standing to be counted rather than a secret ballot.

Caucuses are a new phenomenon for Nebraska Democrats, who will gather across the state Saturday to decide whether Obama or Hillary Clinton is the blue choice in a traditionally red state. By most counts, however, the race between Obama and Clinton and the attraction of the caucuses have recharged what has been a rather pedestrian primary process for Nebraska.

Following rules

Koenig's introduction to presidential politics was via her 20-year-old sister, Chelsie, whom she described as a "political nut." Chelsie lives in Oklahoma.

"Chelsie went to an Obama rally in Oklahoma City. After that, I became interested in Obama. Then I read his book ('The Audacity of Hope')," she said. "I like his character and that he stands for change."

After that, she registered, following the rules that allow someone who will be 18 in November (Koenig reaches it in July) to participate in a primary in this case, a caucus.

And now that the ACT will be out of the way, she can concentrate on her afternoon's work: persuading fellow Democrats that Obama is our best hope.

"I'm not worried about the caucus," she said, knowing that Clinton supporters will be making their face-to-face pitch as well.

Nor will she be hanging out at the caucus with her friends, most of whom, she said, have nowhere near the interest in what happens Saturday or in May and November that she does. It's a reality about which she simply shrugs.

"My friends don't really get involved. But that's up to them," she said.

So when she shows up Saturday, she'll be flying solo, one determined young woman, one vote.

Last a while

That suits the self-described independent Koenig, who sees the Democratic race for the nomination less about experience, race and gender and more about the quality of a candidate's character.

"I think it has more to do with who you are," she said while sipping a vanilla chia late Wednesday afternoon at Starbucks. She had come from work at Jimmy John's and was there studying for a Central Community College night class on nutrition. Koenig, who wants to be a nurse, is getting a head start on credits.

But in this week of political purpose in Nebraska, she has the political process on her mind.

Chances are, for Alysha Koenig, it may last a while, too.

"I got a call from an Obama worker in Omaha. They wanted me to do some campaigning. I told them I would," she said.

She can only hope none of it interferes with any future ACTs.

George Ayoub is senior writer at The Independent.