Politics Texas Style
March 4th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Plenty of reports of problems across the state. The Clinton campaign claimed, in an entertaining conference call, widespread skullduggery. In a follow-up memo they listed their charges: [sic] Prematurely Taking Precinct Convention Packets by Obama Campaign; Voter Intimidation: Lock-out of Clinton caucus goers by Obama Campaign; and Obama supporters filing out precinct convention sign-in sheets during the day and submitting them as completed vote totals at caucus. The Obama campaign earlier in the day sent its own memo about Clinton partisans filling out precinct sign-in sheets early.
In reality, it seems if there were any problems they were minor and practiced by both sides. The Clinton campaign’s claims of systematic shenanigans seems a little calculated and far-fetched. In truth the Texas Democratic Party was not up to this challenge. More lack of preparation than anything else. More on that later.
But I hope that when this is all said and done the confusion and disorganization doesn’t overshadow the fact that perhaps hundreds of thousands came out to caucus. At precinct 440 in Austin it was a sight to behold. Neighbors of all colors and ages standing together outside waiting. Some waited as long as two hours to sign in.
The process didn’t begin until 8:00 p.m. when the last primary voter had voted. Because the party failed to provide enough sign-in sheets, someone made a quick run to a place with a copy machine to run off more. The caucus participants filed single file into an apartment complex laundry room that served as a makeshift precinct. The usual precinct, a local elementary school, wouldn’t stay open. At one point a resident actually came in and started doing laundry amidst the caucus goers, who were by and large patient and cheerful. Clinton people respected Obama people and vice versa.
As they waited outside, those with wireless devices checked the results and shouted them out to the crowd. By 9:15 p.m. they had finished. An indeterminate number who couldn’t wait the whole time left before they had a chance to sign in. The final tally was 254 for Obama and 167 for Clinton. It worked out to a delegate split of 24 to 13.
It’s clear that the two camps will be fighting over the exact delegate count from the caucuses for some time to come. Meanwhile, Clinton’s strong showing in Ohio and Rhode Island have emboldened her to continue fighting despite her delegate deficit.
The circus will be leaving Texas tomorrow. Now Texas Democrats just need to figure out a way to keep the energy alive.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Precinct 126 on the East Side, roughly between I-35 and Springdale and Manor and E.12th had 591 people show up to caucus. Incredible. The line went all the way around David Chapel and across the parking lot. Final delegate count: 46 for Obama, 8 for Hillary.
There were bits of chaos but no serious errors all day. We voted in the David Chapel portable which was too small, had too few poll workers and not enough machines. People waited for up to 2 hours to vote.
The caucus just ended a few minutes ago, at around 11:30pm. It was a thrilling day and when all the numbers come in, we are sure to have broken the record for voter turnout, and caucus turnout. Though one old hand said she remembered more people caucusing for Jesse Jackson in 1988.
Now we are just trying to figure out how to call in the results. The recording system said it was overloaded –no wonder.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Things got a little contentious in 421 (Travis Heights). Of course, it was chaotic for a while, with 460 people lining up behind card tables in the parking lot to sign in. But there was clear mistrust and division from the beginning, when the vote for caucus chair immediately became a party-line contest between the two camps. Then a paid Clinton staffer from Florida (as he identified himself to me later) jumped up to demand a head count of folks actually in attendance — which is, of course, totally irrelevant, since delegates are apportioned according to the sign-ins. Then he started with allegations that people were allowed to sign in without proper identification, which may have been true given the chaos, but which was not an issue to be determined at the precinct convention. Finally he shut up and things progressed relatively smoothly, although there was a great deal of anger expressed within the Obama crowd about the obviously headquarters-directed challenges.
P.S. The precinct went 69% for Obama.