Nevada Caucus

Okay... I went and did my duty. I arrived for the caucus at 10:50 am... was rushed inside the door asked what precint... crazy me I didn't know. Come on... for elections you have to take your ballot with you and your precint is listed. I truly did not know, although now I will never forget... 4037. Since I didn't know I pushed all over the place... each table asked for my address and said I was in theirs... finally at one point, I told a lady that if I couldn't get help I was going to leave. A nice gentleman finally looked me up on his list (instead of asking where I lived) and of couse I was on his for 4037. I was then shuffled into a very long line to wait. Why they put us by the front door is beyond me... but our line finally started to move. I am almost to the table to register and a gal from Clinton's campaign is trying to tell me and the guy behind me that we need to go to the back of the line, because our line at this point placed us right in front of the door. It took a bit of energy to finally tell her that we have been in line and were just moving forward. I register, am handed my card, walk into our room, am handed a survey, fill it out, return it, and find a spot to sit in the "Uncommited" area.

By this time, it is about 11:30 am. I am sitting next to a very nice gentleman, Ben. We are laughing and talking... are approached from a Clinton supporter whom he called "killer." I had to laugh because he told me she offered him cookies and he is a diabetic. His story and the way he told it made me think of my Uncle Larry. It was exactly the reaction he would have had.
At 11:40 am, our "temporary" (who would be come our permanent) precint chair walks in and says they still have people registering and would we mind waiting a bit to get them all in. There seemed to be no objection. Finally, at 12:05 pm our chair, Wendy, says she needs to read a couple of letters... one from Harry Reid and one from Jill Derby. BORING... I think most of the people in the room zoned out.

Our first order of business was to elect a permanent chair... then on to counting the participants... holy moly... our chair asked if their were any ideas on how to accomplish this. I would have thought that there was a formal process but guess what... there isn't. It is decided that two women will go around the room counting and compare notes at the end. Of course one is done in 5 minutes and the other in 20.... geez... Do they have the smae number??? Heck no... one is 153 and one is 141. Then came the what now... after much discussion, it is decided that everyone in the room will stand, count off, and sit when counted off... after another 15 minutes... 146 people are in attendance.

From here out precint chair, says they were expecting only 100 people. They ran out of cards and had to improvise. She also states that as they were registering some new voters they forgot to check and make sure that they were not registering as Republicans and asks if anyone registered as Republican. Thank goodness no one stands up.

It is about 12:40 pm at this time... finally we are told that we will be getting into out first alignment. But first they have to do some math to come up with our viable number... it is 22. Since most everyone sat in their canidits spot when they came in, this first alignment was fairly easy... except for the 4 of us in uncommited. "Killer" from the Clinton campaign came over and started yelling at Ben and myself. First is was just pick someone, you can change your mind tomorrow. I kept telling her that we couldn't change our minds tomorrow and she said of course you can at the primaries... WOW, a volunteer that doesn't know the process. At this point a nice gentleman from the Obama side came over and asked us if we had any questions, I said no... and then Killer started again. This time yelling at us "Do you want to vote what is popular by the young & students or do we want experience?" I asked what experience... in my opinion Clinton has no more experience than Obama. After that comment, I also told her that she lost my vote for Clinton.... and she lost Ben's too. He went to Obama. I was asked by our chair if I was staying put... and of course I was. I had made up my mind to go to Obama, but since this was Nevada's first caucus, I wanted to see what happens and I stayed as uncommitted for the 1st alignment.

At this point, the group totals are counted. Clinton 75, Obama 55, Edwards 15, and uncommitted 1. We are told that uncommitted and Edwards were unviable groups. Our chair comes over to me and tells me that I have to pick Obama or Clinton... I said no I don't. Little old me starts an arguement. For about 10 minutes it is back and forth, I finally tell her that if she forces me to choose I will formally protest our caucus because she is taking my rights away. She finally refers to her rule book and of course, I cannot be forced to choose, my group is unviable and will just not be able to get delegates.

Next comes some group arguement... our chair wanted to start the 2nd alignment, but wanted to check with the people as to how to do it. Someone in the Edwards camp asked if they could just go to the side they wanted with out the campaigning from the sides. This brought on much discussion. Our chair said that each side has a right to campaign so they should be allowed to campaign... then she brought up time... instead of allowing 15 minutes, maybe just 6 minutes instead. Of course she had to ask for objections... at this point everyone is saying just do it already... it is 1:10 pm now. But before we could start another question came up... from Edwards if they go to uncommitted can they just leave. Another 5 minutes of reading the rule book... yes, just fill out sude two of the form, give it to the chair and you can leave.

Again, before we finally start it is stated that we still need to stay to elect delegates. And just before we get to move, a chair from another precint comes in and addresses us... we are getting a bit frustrated and find out that the other 3 precints at Silver Lake finished by 12:40 pm. It is now 1:20 pm.

Okay... move. Turns out that of the 16 who could change their vote... 2 went to uncommitted, 4 to Clinton, and 10 to Obama. Our chair goes around the room to try to collect the last of the cards... people start leaving in droves...

The math is done... Clinton gets 6 delegates, Obama gets 5. People are leaving so rapidly that the discussion of delegates gets squashed. I go to the front of the room to see how to become a delegate. I hear it costs $55 and decide to leave. I truly have no idea who was choosen or how they were choosen. Got into my car and the time was 1:25 pm.

My biggest complaints... it was very disorganized and the volunteers (who have been training since February according to our chair) should have known the rules inside and out. I understand it was the first time for this process and Lessons Learned is going to be a big list and hopefully next time will be much much better... if there is a next time.

Do the results match what would have happened in a primary election... who knows. I saw the totals for attendance... Republicans had 46,000 and Democrats had 119,000. I am sure the total for the Dems was 50 % - 150% more than expected... did everyone have the chance to have their voice heard? That is the ultimate question...