Who says you can't vote twice?
Okay, this is a post I meant to write 2 weeks ago on. On March 4, Texas held its Republican and Democratic primaries. I never cared about these before because in my voting lifetime, it's never really mattered. Not in Texas, anyway. The nominees for both parties seemed to be pretty much set by the time it got to us, so our delegate selection never seemed to have any effect on the outcome.
Not so this year, at least as far as the Democrats were concerned. With a race this close, where every single delegate is crucial, suddenly Texas was showered with media attention. I'd never seen the national media cover the Texas primaries before. Not like this. Hell, even during presidential races, we don't get much coverage because we're not a swing state. So it was amazing to see so much time devoted to dissecting the potential Texas vote. And I wasn't just getting messages on my answering machine from local candidates ... I got a messages from Bill Clinton himself! AND Hillary! And both Barack AND Michelle Obama ... separately! They personally called me themselves!! ........ through proxies who recorded them and then set up some sort of robocalling machine.
I myself had paid so little attention to our primaries in the past that I didn't even know Texas has a caucus too. In fact, I only learned about it about 2 weeks before the primary -- er, primary/caucus.
But caucus or not, I knew I was going to vote in a primary for the first time ever. Turned out tons of people had the same idea. I tried early voting, but the lines were out into the parking lot. So I waited till the actual election day.
Though I voted in the Democratic primary, I looked at the sample ballot for the Republicans too. What surprised me was how many people were listed on the GOP presidential ballot. Not just some of the candidates from the very beginning of this race who lasted as long as a fruit fly, like Duncan Hunter, but people I'd never heard of. Hoa Tran? Hugh Cort? Rudy Giuliani? (okay, just kidding there; I ain't THAT dumb).
So I cast my electronic vote and went off to work, but that evening, I went back for the caucus. (I was even a good Austinite and walked to the elementary school in my neighborhood that serves as my polling place). It was supposed to start at 7:15 pm, but with the caveat that the caucus couldn't start until the last person in line at 7 pm finished voting in the primary. I arrived just after 7 and found a school cafeteria packed with people:
Just some of the precinct crowd
Click photo to enlarge
Not so this year, at least as far as the Democrats were concerned. With a race this close, where every single delegate is crucial, suddenly Texas was showered with media attention. I'd never seen the national media cover the Texas primaries before. Not like this. Hell, even during presidential races, we don't get much coverage because we're not a swing state. So it was amazing to see so much time devoted to dissecting the potential Texas vote. And I wasn't just getting messages on my answering machine from local candidates ... I got a messages from Bill Clinton himself! AND Hillary! And both Barack AND Michelle Obama ... separately! They personally called me themselves!! ........ through proxies who recorded them and then set up some sort of robocalling machine.
I myself had paid so little attention to our primaries in the past that I didn't even know Texas has a caucus too. In fact, I only learned about it about 2 weeks before the primary -- er, primary/caucus.
But caucus or not, I knew I was going to vote in a primary for the first time ever. Turned out tons of people had the same idea. I tried early voting, but the lines were out into the parking lot. So I waited till the actual election day.
Though I voted in the Democratic primary, I looked at the sample ballot for the Republicans too. What surprised me was how many people were listed on the GOP presidential ballot. Not just some of the candidates from the very beginning of this race who lasted as long as a fruit fly, like Duncan Hunter, but people I'd never heard of. Hoa Tran? Hugh Cort? Rudy Giuliani? (okay, just kidding there; I ain't THAT dumb).
So I cast my electronic vote and went off to work, but that evening, I went back for the caucus. (I was even a good Austinite and walked to the elementary school in my neighborhood that serves as my polling place). It was supposed to start at 7:15 pm, but with the caveat that the caucus couldn't start until the last person in line at 7 pm finished voting in the primary. I arrived just after 7 and found a school cafeteria packed with people:
Just some of the precinct crowd
Click photo to enlarge
And yet in that crowd, I ran into a friend of mine from my Daily Texan days back in college. Not only does he live in my neighborhood, but he also became a tech writer. We've worked in some of the same places or with the same professional organizations (namely, STC), but never at the same time, although we were aware of these near misses. But it took the Democratic primary for our paths to cross again for the first time in years.
By 7:45 pm, the level of disorganization was starting to wear on some people. Primary voting had run late, they had trouble getting the tables set up, and people were growing impatient. And like a stereotypical Democrat, our precinct captain was going a bit overboard in trying to accommodate people. Rather than just making a decision like, "Okay, we'll do this in order of last name," he had to gauge the mood of the crowd to make sure the will of the people was done. As many people as possible needed to be accommodated. No, this was not meeting protocol; the meeting hadn't even started yet. No minutes were being taken. This was simply while we were waiting to begin.
When we finally got three tables set up to start the caucus voting (one for Obama, one for Clinton, and one for uncommitted), of course, he was still very aware of being as sensitive as possible to the needs of everyone. So, the first in line were people with kids, the elderly, the disabled. Which is perfectly fine with me. But everything he said came out like a suggestion rather than a decision. So, lots of people weren't sure what we were supposed to do. Confusion reigned. Any Republicans in the room probably pointed at this and said, "See? Democrats can't govern!"
To be fair, they've probably never dealt with this many people voting in a caucus before, and it seems that no matter how high the turnout predictions were, the actual turnout was higher than anyone could've prepared for.
Some people started leaving. But I stuck it out to see the process unfold. Basically, you lined up at the table for Obama, Clinton, or uncommitted. Once you signed in, you could leave, and your signature would count toward your choice's caucus delegate count. Which is separate from the vote you cast in the primary, which would count toward your choice's delegate count from the primary. Geez.
The Obama line was twice as long as the Clinton line at first. Clinton's line then grew to almost match Obama's, but by the end, it was all Obama again. Still, everyone was very cordial. Our precinct captain, who expressed his preference for Hillary when someone asked him, said that regardless of his preference, he would support whichever candidate was the nominee in the fall, which got a big round of applause from both sides. I think most precincts were nice and peaceful like this, though Tom says his precinct had uncooperative Clintonites who were being stubborn in the hopes that Obama supporters would get tired and leave. But in mine, we were one big happy family.
After all the sign-ins were done, we elected a permanent precinct chair and secretary, whose terms were to last all the way to ... the end of that week. We elected the precinct captain to the precinct chair office, since although the process had been slow and disorganized, at least he was active in the party, was experienced, and knew the rules. Two Obamans and one Clintonite ran for secretary; one of the Obamans won. Meanwhile, the caucus sign-ins were tallied, and we ended up with a total of 333 valid caucus votes. Of those, Obama won 62% of the vote. That meant Obama got something like 25 delegates to the county convention from our precinct, and Clinton got 17. These aren't the delegates that go into the count for the nomination, though. In fact, I'm so confused now, I can't remember how that figures into the caucus delegate count.
And no, I didn't vote for the "cool kid," though I do expect that he'll be the one leading the ticket in November and I'll happily vote for him then. Like my precinct captain, I'm not gonna throw my party to the wolves like some have threatened to do just because my candidate probably won't be the nominee.
Then we broke into two groups to choose our county convention delegates. But you had to choose twice as many county delegates, because you need one alternate for each delegate. I knew I had to play tennis on the day of the county convention, so I ended up volunteering to be an alternate instead. (By this time, so many people had left that nearly everyone in the room had to volunteer to be either a delegate or an alternate).
After that came the reading/debating/passing/rejecting of about 42 resolutions, on topics ranging from the drug war to Iraq to health care. As that continued dragging on past 10:30 pm, I finally walked home.
So, I voted twice that day. Who knew that was legal? I won't be going to the county convention, though, because it's a week from Saturday ... the same day that Six Man, Texas will have its world premiere at the AFI Dallas film festival!! So, sorry democracy ... movie premieres come first...
By 7:45 pm, the level of disorganization was starting to wear on some people. Primary voting had run late, they had trouble getting the tables set up, and people were growing impatient. And like a stereotypical Democrat, our precinct captain was going a bit overboard in trying to accommodate people. Rather than just making a decision like, "Okay, we'll do this in order of last name," he had to gauge the mood of the crowd to make sure the will of the people was done. As many people as possible needed to be accommodated. No, this was not meeting protocol; the meeting hadn't even started yet. No minutes were being taken. This was simply while we were waiting to begin.
When we finally got three tables set up to start the caucus voting (one for Obama, one for Clinton, and one for uncommitted), of course, he was still very aware of being as sensitive as possible to the needs of everyone. So, the first in line were people with kids, the elderly, the disabled. Which is perfectly fine with me. But everything he said came out like a suggestion rather than a decision. So, lots of people weren't sure what we were supposed to do. Confusion reigned. Any Republicans in the room probably pointed at this and said, "See? Democrats can't govern!"
To be fair, they've probably never dealt with this many people voting in a caucus before, and it seems that no matter how high the turnout predictions were, the actual turnout was higher than anyone could've prepared for.
Some people started leaving. But I stuck it out to see the process unfold. Basically, you lined up at the table for Obama, Clinton, or uncommitted. Once you signed in, you could leave, and your signature would count toward your choice's caucus delegate count. Which is separate from the vote you cast in the primary, which would count toward your choice's delegate count from the primary. Geez.
The Obama line was twice as long as the Clinton line at first. Clinton's line then grew to almost match Obama's, but by the end, it was all Obama again. Still, everyone was very cordial. Our precinct captain, who expressed his preference for Hillary when someone asked him, said that regardless of his preference, he would support whichever candidate was the nominee in the fall, which got a big round of applause from both sides. I think most precincts were nice and peaceful like this, though Tom says his precinct had uncooperative Clintonites who were being stubborn in the hopes that Obama supporters would get tired and leave. But in mine, we were one big happy family.
After all the sign-ins were done, we elected a permanent precinct chair and secretary, whose terms were to last all the way to ... the end of that week. We elected the precinct captain to the precinct chair office, since although the process had been slow and disorganized, at least he was active in the party, was experienced, and knew the rules. Two Obamans and one Clintonite ran for secretary; one of the Obamans won. Meanwhile, the caucus sign-ins were tallied, and we ended up with a total of 333 valid caucus votes. Of those, Obama won 62% of the vote. That meant Obama got something like 25 delegates to the county convention from our precinct, and Clinton got 17. These aren't the delegates that go into the count for the nomination, though. In fact, I'm so confused now, I can't remember how that figures into the caucus delegate count.
And no, I didn't vote for the "cool kid," though I do expect that he'll be the one leading the ticket in November and I'll happily vote for him then. Like my precinct captain, I'm not gonna throw my party to the wolves like some have threatened to do just because my candidate probably won't be the nominee.
Then we broke into two groups to choose our county convention delegates. But you had to choose twice as many county delegates, because you need one alternate for each delegate. I knew I had to play tennis on the day of the county convention, so I ended up volunteering to be an alternate instead. (By this time, so many people had left that nearly everyone in the room had to volunteer to be either a delegate or an alternate).
After that came the reading/debating/passing/rejecting of about 42 resolutions, on topics ranging from the drug war to Iraq to health care. As that continued dragging on past 10:30 pm, I finally walked home.
So, I voted twice that day. Who knew that was legal? I won't be going to the county convention, though, because it's a week from Saturday ... the same day that Six Man, Texas will have its world premiere at the AFI Dallas film festival!! So, sorry democracy ... movie premieres come first...
posted by Dipu @ 11:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home