My Texas primary and caucus experience
Wednesday Mar 05, 2008
Yesterday I voted in the Texas primary at my polling place, Round Rock High School, in the morning. The Democratic side seemed busier than the Republican side (that's a switch!), but didn't have lines at that time, around 9:30 a.m.
In the evening, I attended the caucus, or precinct convention, at the same location. The caucus was supposed to start at 7:15 p.m. or shortly after the last voter voted, but we weren't let in the building until 7:55. We all had to sign in and give our presidential preference, and apparently had to have our credentials verified, but I don't know if everyone got the message on that. We had about 130 people show up, which is impressive in what's been a heavily Republican district. I recognized at least 4 of my neighbors there, and that was nice to see. Sometime we Democrats feel a bit lost amongst our conservative neighbors.
The Clinton campaign complained that at some precinct the Obama supporters controlled the caucus packets, which are apparently just the instructions and paperwork. In our case, the temporary chair was a Clinton supporter. The first order of business after calling the meeting to order and signing in was to elect a permanent precinct convention chair and secretary. Two candidates ran for chair, one an 18-year-old high school senior supporting Obama, and another a 30-something Clinton supporter. It was close, but the 18-year-old won 17-15. Someone then nominated the Clinton supporter for vice chair, and we approved that by acclamation.
After this, the chair announced the vote count. Obama won around 59% to 41% or something close to that. We had 16 delegates to send to the county convention in Georgetown on March 29, so Obama got 10 and Clinton got 6. I was in the Obama camp and we had 10 volunteers to be delegates, and 4 of us, including me, volunteered to be alternates.
I think the rules for all this are a bit weird. You can vote in just the primary and the caucus, but not just in the caucus. I suppose the idea is that the people who care about the party get a second shot at voting. But I think Clinton has a point about the caucuses excluding those who have to work that night or have other duties. We have 12 hours to vote but we have to be at the caucus at a specified time.
I enjoyed the experience, and kind of regret that I didn't raise my hand to be a delegate to the county convention. Maybe they'll call me as an alternate.
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Tags: barack caucus clinton democrat democratic democrats hillary obama politics president presidential primary roundrock texas
