Jan

19

VoteI had never attended a caucus before.  States I had previously lived in had primary elections.  Nevada also has primary elections for state and local offices later in the year, but scheduled an early presidential nominating caucus in an effort to increase its influence in the nominating process.

Nevada's inexperience with caucuses showed.  There was conflicting information on where voters should go.  I went to McQueen High School , based on information from the Republican Party website.  A post card I got in the mail said that I should go to Reed High School .

I arrived at the designated start time of 9:00 am and found a line extending 100 feet outside the doors.  Inside was chaos.  Thousands of people were there.  Voters were supposed to gather with others from their precincts.  Many people had no idea what precinct they belonged to and had to wait in a long line to find out.  Ron Paul volunteers called out asking for Paul supporters to identify themselves.  The volunteers helped the Paul supporters find their precinct locations.

Fortunately, I had the aforementioned post card that identified my precinct as 5034.  At some point I faintly heard a shouted announcement that all precincts with numbers above 5000 were in the cafeteria.

I made my way to the cafeteria, which was jammed with people.  I found a man and a woman standing on a table holding up signs saying "5034", with about 40 people gathered around the table.  A seated woman with a registration list called out asking whether anybody else needed to sign in.  I signed in.

The precinct leaders standing on the table were difficult to hear as other precincts carried on their business at neighboring tables.  At some point I figured out they were asking for candidates to run for precinct 5034 delegate to the upcoming Washoe County convention.  There was a voice vote for delegate.  I couldn't hear the question and didn't care.  I noticed a man and woman who looked familiar — members of my church.  I went over and said hello.

The precinct leaders handed out paper ballots with the names of the presidential candidates.  I marked my ballot and handed it back.  One of the precinct leaders asked the woman from my church to count the votes.  The winner of the initial count of precinct 5034 was Duncan Hunter with 10 votes.  I had barely remembered Duncan Hunter was running.  After the count was complete, the precinct leader took the ballots and announced the number of votes for each candidate.

I say it was an initial count because, as I left, there were still people in the hallway trying to figure out where to go.  I overheard a man walking out in front of me making a call on his cell phone. Commenting on the chaos, he said, "If you think the Democrats are total idiots, the Republicans have them beat."  Even so, I was out the door at 9:40.


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  1. Linda Armstrong on January 20, 2008 12:41 pm

    Although we are in opposite parties I really enjoyed your experience and can also relate to the feeling of absolute frustration. I was inspired with Howard Dean-absolutely (and still am). However, when I went to my first caucus I could not believe the mass confusion. Our precinct was finally settled by a coin toss. I lost. Anyway, inspired I was and challenged, (I am usually for the underdog). I ran for precinct captain against an longtime holder of the position. It took so long to count the votes I did not know I won for 2 weeks, I think I won because my name was first on the ballot. Anyway, the next caucus in 2006 was coming, I was going to run it! Guess what-2 people came.

    So now it is popular again, our Washington State is in the struggle to decide whether we want a primary or a caucus? In the wisdom of our State Dem party-we will have both. Mail in ballots will be sent out two weeks before the caucus and it WILL NOT count for any delegates. The Repubs at least will have it count for 1/2 of their delegates. How many folks will come to my table this time after having sent in a ballot not knowing it will not count. Only idiots could think up this stuff.

    So I am going to ask only my friends to my table-we will be ready and waiting to vote for our candidate. We will get the delegates which is the MOST important thing in this whole caucus thing-it takes awhile to grasp what is happening-I really wonder if Democracy was supposed to have caucuses? I have to research that!

    Now if you really want to have your eyes opened-become a delegate, go on to your County Convention, watch the speeches and positioning. I went as a Dean delegate only to watch in horror as our time was monopolized by the Kucinich delegates, they would not budge on anything. So much for compromize, Kerry won out in the end, but it did not have to be that way. After all, this is a state that gave the votes to Pat Robertson way back when, an especially dark time in history. After that folks took the caucus more serious.

    I guess Democracy is messy, you have your Hunter and we have our Kucinich. They both play a role, unfortunately, the caucus voters don't seem to have a clue on how to make it work better.

    Don't give up-run for Precinct Captain! Have a good day. Linda

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