Comments | omahas: Caucus-Crazy!

omahas

Caucus-Crazy!

Feb 09, 2008 17:14

Just finished the caucus. As PCO (that's Precinct Committee Officer for you yahoos ;) I was in charge of my precinct. I hadn't realized how big my precinct was...or rather, that my precinct was the biggest in my area. Nine delegates...compared to every other precinct in that area being 3, 4, or 5. I had 53 people show up...we had our own room ( Read more... )

Comments 11

technoshaman February 10 2008, 01:19:14 UTC

Wow, that's a lot closer than either lerryn or I got, running about 5:1 Obama.... I didn't see a single Clinton sticker anywhere. Fair number of kids where we were, too, but none out of control really....

omahas February 10 2008, 01:27:36 UTC

Yeah, we had not a few kids show up, and I think that they were well-behaved. I couldn't know for sure, because our door was closed. Heh.

shaterri February 10 2008, 01:26:15 UTC

Our precinct went 3:1 for Obama (16 to 5, out of 21 people); and the legislative district as a whole seemed to go pretty strongly for Obama. I suspect he'll wind up carrying the state by about a 2:1 margin in the end (I suspect Clinton will do much better in the more conservative-D rural areas).

One of the things that surprised me a little was the lack of anyone checking party registration; I've heard reports of the same from other legislative districts too. Much more convenient, certainly, but it's a potential issue...

omahas February 10 2008, 01:31:21 UTC

One of the things that surprised me a little was the lack of anyone checking party registration; I've heard reports of the same from other legislative districts too. Much more convenient, certainly, but it's a potential issue...

Yeah, there's no real "checking at the door" as it were. On the other hand, it allows Republicans to decide to "be a Democrat for a day" and vote for Obama...and quite a few of them are.

shaterri February 10 2008, 01:35:58 UTC

True, but given that the point behind using the caucuses as a selection mechanism rather than the primary was to limit it to party members (a decision I agree with, incidentally, for reasons I won't get into here -- I'm not a blanket-primary fan), it still seems a bit odd to me...

codeamazon February 10 2008, 07:36:58 UTC

You don't even have to be registered to vote -- so how could you use voter affiliation as a check?

As I understand it, you have to be 18 by election day, and sign the Dem affadavit. Since both the D and R caucus rolls are public, and double-voting is a felony, you have a pretty strong incentive not to do so forcing you to choose, at least for this cycle, which process to participate in.

Thread 8

kendaer February 10 2008, 07:24:02 UTC

Over here, the caucus for my precinct is sending 4 delegates (including moi) to the legislative district caucus for Obama. 2 for Clinton. We had 46 people show, 26 for Obama, 18 for Clinton. We had 1 undecided and 1 for Edwards. Noone changed their votes. Had the undecided and the Edwards gone with Clinton we'd have sent 3 and 3 which shows how close this area is ( ... )