Nevada Caucus Stories
January 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm | posted by Weldon KennedyThis past weekend Nevada held its first ever early caucus. Like any political event, ONE was there. When I turned on CNN on Saturday I couldn’t miss seeing ONE shirts. But that was just one caucus, and with tens of thousands of members around Nevada and hundreds of caucus sites there are many more stories to be told than what was on the news.
A couple of volunteers have already sent in their stories of both easy successes and some frustrations:
It was a very successful day. In a 90-minute period I was given two separate opportunities to talk voters in my precinct about ONE and why it should be included in our party’s platform. It was well accepted both times and I had several people express their support for ONE after the meeting.
- Jack Winslow, Las Vegas Republican
Our Caucus went great–great experience! I had no problem submitting the plank. I was the only one to submit something that I wanted to include to the parties plank. Nobody objected and they all (32 people ) thought that it was a great idea. There was a great turn out at Bonanza High School. Several Thousand people.
- Rory K. Riley, Las Vegas Democrat
I talked up ONE to all my neighbors, explained the campaign, wrote down the internet source for members who seemed genuinely interested, distributed info and bracelets, delivered the resolution, and got myself elected to the county convention.
- Judy Michaels, Las Vegas Democrat
The caucus was a frustrating experience…but my frustrations were over issues other than my submission of the ONE platform. In fact, that was about the only thing that went much as I expected.
- David Entler
If you are a Nevadan ONE member, please take a moment to share your reflections from last weekend’s caucus by posting a comment below. It is important that we all have a chance to learn and find inspiration from your efforts.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I participated in the caucus process for the first time last Saturday and submitted the plank to the county party. Some of the participants were verbally nasty to people supporting different candidates - I was disappointed because I thought/think many of the candidates goals are similar. I was elected to be a delegate, which is exciting, and I look forward to representing Las Vegas.
January 24th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Unfortunately, I did not have a very good experience with the caucus. I was able to vote, after 45 minutes of being sent from room to room trying to find my precinct. I do admit that I forgot my precinct number, but I was also told it was not necessary, and that the trained volunteers would be able to assist me. Hopefully, the next caucus will be more organized.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Hi all,
Its been about 3 years since I came to my own personal conclusion that I did not have a voice in our nation’s politics. The Nevada caucus process brought an end to that thinkinng! It was like the sun shining through the clouds on a snowy day here in Reno; the event was smoothly run, despite the shortages of forms, precinct maps.
Is it true O’bama is only 41 years young?
Paul
January 24th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
My caucus experience, like so many others in Clark County, was frustrating on several levels. On the level of procedure, it badly colored by the ways in which the instructions given by the Clinton campaign to their supporters contrevened the rules set out by the state party. The result was that I had to engage in a bit of a hostile standoff with several of my neighbors and to call the state party to get them to follow the rules. That could have been avoided by more leadership from the party and from that campaign.
In terms of the ONE campaign and its agenda, I’m still unclear how wearing T-shirts and wristbands is a serious engagement with poverty issues. I’m all for raising awareness, but these sort of feel-good measures only encourage everyone who wears a band or t-shirt to feel that whomever they vote for and whatever they say or do, they are fighting poverty.
Why did the ONE campaign, and other issue-oriented campaigns that supported a variety of worthy goals from health care, to environmental policy, to greater attention to children’s issues, not provide voters with clear guidance about which candidates’ positions were the most favorable to those causes?
In other words, only one candidate made poverty a center-piece of his campaign, but the ONE campaign didn’t let anyone know about that. As a result, anyone who really wanted to make poverty their priorty in casting a vote had no idea for whom to vote. So they could have gone ahead and voted for someone like, say, Ron Paul, whose appraoch to the problem is to abolish government agencies that address poverty. Thats one solution, but does it really help the cause? On the other hand, does the ONE campaign feel any regret that it didn’t do more to publicize the very specific anti-poverty agenda that John Edwards put forth as the centerpiece of his candidacy?
January 24th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
The caucus was nothing more than a “three ring circus nightmare.” I was told I was not counted for the entire precinct count because I was the only one there for my candidate They only wanted to do the count as to who was there for which candidate instead of a complete count and then the candidate count. When I told them I was NOT the only one there for my candidate in my precinct they just shrugged and “smiled.” When the count was done over it was for 131 but they called it at 149. People were raising BOTH hands and BOTH hands were counted. People were harrassing and trying to intimidate people to cross over to their side. When someone wanted to cross over to a side that was not theirs they blocked their way until the vote was over. So much for democracy in action. On top of that what about the rights of those who had to work or were house bound, handicapped or out of town? WHERE WERE THE ABSENTEE BALLOTS? There were none. I WILL WORK AS HARD AS IS NECESSARY TO BRING BACK THE PRIMARY. With a primary people have from 7 AM till 7 PM to vote. That means EVERYONE has a chance to get to the polls. This nightmare called a caucus must end.!
January 24th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I was very dissapointed in the caucus. There was no accountability. Temporary Chairs should not also be Precinct Captains. I was a Precinct Captain and was so busy counting my people. The other Precinct Captain and Temp. Chair gave her number, and I have no idea where she got that number. At best, I felt we had a 50/50 split. Her people were gone before I could ask to see where she got that number from.
Also, doors closed at 11:30 instead of 12:00. There were at least 3 other Precincts in our room, which made it confusing….and easy to switch from one line to another. People did not know what room they were to be in. It was very disorganized. We need to b e a primary state.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Last Labor Day I posted the 123-page fourth version of my compilation of energy invention suppression cases - available near the bottom of green-salon.com/presentations.htm and also at energysuppression.com. At the caucus I submitted a platform resolution to “Stop energy invention suppression now!”
While my particular caucus seems to have been handled properly, the opportunity for fraudulent or inaccurate vote counting appears very real.
My preference for Dennis Kucinich was marginalized out. So a couple of neighbors persuaded me to not waste my vote by switching to the group voting for, according to a guy who came over from the Obama group to lecture us, Monica Lewinsky’s ex-boyfriend’s wife!
Now that I have personally participated in a caucus, I wonder who thought the caucus was such a great idea. Those that have to work can’t vote like they normally could vote during a 12-hour voting period. Minority candidates like Kucinich and Mike Gravel are put at a severe disadvantage when obtaining any votes at all.
Those that otherwise could vote with absentee ballots are also disenfranchised.
BTW, whatever happened to secret balloting in a true democracy?
January 25th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I know that some people were frustrated by the disorganization at some of the caucus sites, but I had a fantastic time! I handed out all of the bracelets in my precinct and the other one sharing the gymnasium at Orr Middle School. Some people that I talked with replied that they knew what it is like to be poor, but I gently tried to inform them that even the homeless in the United States have better access to healthcare than the 1 billion people the One Campaign is working to help. In countries like Niger where there is one physician for every 50,000 people, most people never, ever see a healthcare professional their entire lives. A brand new citizen, a nurse from Kenya, voting for the first time, expressed dismay that malaria is still a problem when treatment and prevention are so inexpensive. In the end, I went out for breakfast with five people, previously strangers, at the suggestion another man in my precinct. The whole experience made me feel more connected to my community than I have in the two years I have lived in Las Vegas!
January 26th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Hello Everyone!!,
My first caucus and it was more than I could have ever expected. I was very happy to be part of a group in my area that came out in order to effect change. I think more than ever that the situation the U.S. finds itself is in part due to the fact that we as AMERICANS have sat down way to long. The last couple of years has been a wake up call to many of us AND on this day in Nevada…I was glad to have had the chance to find my voice again.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I did not get to attend the caucus, but I did appreciate the delegates coming and sharing their interest in college students because our vote does count!!!!!