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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

TDP Reports That More May Have Caucused Than Voted for McCain

The TDP just sent out a statement that, because 35% of precinct conventions included just under 400,000 voters, it is conceivable that the caucus turnout could both exceed John McCain's total Texas vote from yesterday and exceed total 2004 primary turnout, which was 839,000.

Isn't it true that caucus numbers aren't verified yet?

Being that there were so many reported "irregularities" with the Texas caususing, I was told by one of the local people involved that the #'s are pretty much erroneous at this point and we will not have solid caucus numbers until all voters are verified?

Scores and totals

I can't speak to scores and delegate apportionment, but I would imagine that the totals at least represent solid numbers.

reported v. actual

And one also has to keep in mind that many of those "irregularities" reported will stem from the mass of first-time caucusgoers that don't know the process.

It's still the Democratic Party leader's responsibility

George - I understand your comment but disagree if I am understanding your point as "irregularities (unlawful happenings) that occured in the Texas caucuses were caused by first-time caucusgoers." My disagreement would be on the basis of: It is the responsibility of the Texas Democratic Party to make sure that caucuses are conducted by lawful & fair procedures regardless of the history or habits of the voters. We have all been keeping up with the news, the Texas Democratic Party Leaders and our State and local government leaders knew that there was going to be a record turn out in the Primaries and the Caucuses, so for them to not be prepared is intolerable, IMO. No excuses. It's appalling and disgusting and someone should have to answer to what went down.

illegal

Well, if laws are broken, that's a different matter. Those are assuredly the most severe of "irregularities," but they are by far the minority. I put them in quotes when I said it because I was referring to the potential of those reports being due to a complaint of something that happened that wasn't against the law (which the police should care about) or state party rules (which the party should care about), but just something that the person reporting was upset about and didn't realize was part of the process.

Examples of problems

In my precinct (Travis #214), the chair (me) and secretary (Nancy Williams) were experienced caucus-goers and had both been trained thoroughly. Heck, Nancy did the training for much of the local Clinton campaign! Even so, we were caught flat-footed by the turnout. We were prepared for 10 times 2004 levels. We weren't prepared for 40 times 2004 levels, and changed our procedures several times before we got something that actually worked efficiently.

We had two check-in lines, one for Obama and one for Clinton. Each led to a half-dozen sign-in stations and a host of volunteers checking proof of voting. Clinton people checked Obama voters, Obama people checked Clinton voters, observers watched both, and Nancy and I handled disputes. This generated a few loud complaints from the Obama side, who outnumbered the Clintonites 2-1, since they had to wait in the longer line and so may have lost some frustrated caucus-goers. I let the complainers bend my ear, and then went back to signing people in.

I'm an Obama supporter, so I could get away with ignoring the Obama complaints. But imagine if the situation were reversed, as I'm sure it was in other precincts. Would I now be threatened with a lawsuit for voter suppression?!

The fact is, the caucuses were run by thousands of precinct volunteers, struggling with a situation we had never seen before. Sure, we made rookie mistakes, but give us credit for doing everything possible to promote representative democracy. By all means address the few genuine cases of voter suppression or intimidation (by both sides), and leave the innocent errors alone.

I say throw the caucuses out completely in the State of Texas

"The fact is, the caucuses were run by thousands of precinct volunteers, struggling with a situation we had never seen before. Sure, we made rookie mistakes, but give us credit for doing everything possible to promote representative democracy. By all means address the few genuine cases of voter suppression or intimidation (by both sides), and leave the innocent errors alone."

Lorenzo - No, there are no excuses. The Party Leaders saw this coming. We've known about the extremely large records turn outs coming for what......six months or more?! This is America. We should be better than holding precinct conventions in alley ways of Fort Worth! We are suppose to be so great and powerful, ethical and good. I didn't see it in the caucusing and I have spoken with people from Houston to Ft. Worth to deep East Texas and stories are the same...unorganized, unlawful, chaotic.. especially in areas of uneducated, minority populations...there is NO excuse for this. "Few genuine cases" I think not! Each and every single sign in voter should be verified; otherwise the caucuses should not count -- we are suppose to be about integrity and anything short of that shall not be tolerated, IMO!

Democratic Party integrity still a dream unfulfilled

CenTexDem

Thanks to cooperation from the Obama leadership - particularly Patrick and Cynthia Hansen and Kristi Couvillion - our Precinct 135 caucus went smoothly. No fistfights, no divorces, no yelling and screaming. We selected 40 delegates for Barack and 17 for HC. I was in and out of the polling place all day long and did not see a single person that I knew to be a Republican voting as a Democrat. And I know my precinct pretty well.

The Hillary team was led by some remarkable young professional women and some old war horses like me. We had 396 people sign in at the caucus. Thanks to preparation by Nancy Walker and David Mauro, the Clinton people were well prepared at the caucus.

Democratic Integrity: As long as the unions endorse Democrats like Dawnna Dukes and the people re-elect 'em, it's kind of hard to talk about "Democratic integrity" with a straight face. Dukes and her lobby friends threw everything they had at Brian Thompson. He never wavered and ran a good, clean race in a completely hostile environment. Hopefully, he exposed her shortcomings to thousands of new voters. District 46 is changing faster than any other district in Texas and it is just a matter of time until we elect a real Democrat that isn't in the pocket of Craddick and the lobby.

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