Texas Caucus Report

Here is an actual blow-by-blow caucus report from Texas. Now YOU tell me if caucuses are democratic (small d).


What a Texan caucus actually looks like

You can only participate in a Texan caucus if you have already voted. You've already made your presidential pick. Spending an additional three hours at the polling station in the evening is deeply unfair to the elderly, disabled, and ill, as well as to parents of young children and everyone who works in the evening.

Six precincts vote at Harmony Hill Elementary School in San Antonio. As an out-of-state volunteer for the Clinton campaign, I've been asked to spend the day here informing voters about the evening caucus. An Obama volunteer is already there with a pick-up full of brochures, as are two local Republicans handing out flyers for a constable and a sheriff. The four of us stand the regulation 100 feet away. As voters emerge from the school, the Obama volunteer buttonholes African Americans and young white men, while I approach Hispanics, white women, and the elderly. With this simple formula we predict voter preference 90% of the time. The two Republicans start pointing out the Republican women to me so I won't waste time (their caucus doesn't add to the delegate total). "They'll vote for Hillary in the general election," one says, "although they won't tell their husbands that." We discuss energy and healthcare policy. An election official spends her cigarette breaks chatting with the Obama supporter. The hours crawl by.

At 6:00 pm, six external Obama supporters arrive, primarily young professionals. Local Hillary supporters are nervous because the newcomers are obviously practiced. A few white men in cowboy hats show up who turn out to be Hillary supporters, despite initial local suspicion that they're Obama moles. Hillary people get four of the six packets, largely because the Obama people are ineligible as they're not from local precincts. At other sites there must be considerable potential for outright conflict, even physical altercation. Intimidation is already playing a role.

The magic hour of 7:00 approaches but the line of voters still stretches out the door. The Republicans go home. Local Hillary supporters decide who will try to chair each of the six precinct caucuses. An Obama supporter sits at the front door wishing Hillary voters good night and persuading Obama voters to stay. I balance him out. Voting doesn't end until 7:45, after which the four election officials take forever to cross-check voter registration lists with the list of those who voted today. One admits this should have been done during the day but claims they hadn't had a free moment, while another snaps angrily at Hillary supporters who offer to expedite the process by reading one of the lists out loud. Is this stalling? And how would one prove it?

And here is the heart-rending part. It is dark, unseasonably cold, and windy. From my vantage point at the door I see elderly people arrive in wheelchairs and with walkers. Each is dependent on another person to drive them there. One pale and gaunt woman quietly says something about intestinal difficulties. Another woman has rushed there from work, hasn't eaten all day, and on realizing the lengthy process ahead anguishes over whether to stay or go home. Shift workers have to leave. Many young parents have children with them. One or two young couples aside, all of these people end up on the Hillary side of the caucus rooms – or don't end up anywhere, because they have to go. The election officials refuse to accelerate their snail-like pace in stamping the voter lists. It's 8:15. There is talk of mutiny in the caucus rooms. A man in a wheelchair and his attendant leave. Young women leave, mainly Hillary supporters say the locals. The woman with stomach pains leaves. Another old fellow leaves. And on and on.

This is deeply unfair. You can't caucus unless you've already voted – but if you've already voted then you've already indicated your presidential preference, so why do you have to go through physical hardship or neglect other responsibilities to express it again? This system favors voters who are physically fit and have flexible schedules – Obama supporters, in other words, given the clean break in this primary election along age, gender, and income lines.

The election officials finally cough up the voting rolls. In the largest caucus room there is uncertainty as to whether a simple signature will suffice or whether a hand count must be taken afterwards for the signature to be valid. Stalling is not the issue here; the Hillary supporters are genuinely uncertain and want to do everything correctly. Several more people leave in exasperation. And the signature procedure itself is far from simple. Name, address, three phone numbers (home, work, and cell), voter registration number, and presidential preference are painstakingly entered into little squares. Then you check whether you want to be a delegate, as well as columns for gender, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. No one knows why this information is required, and several insist it is illegal. A deaf/mute man is put at the front of the signing line in one caucus because his elderly interpreter, also a voter, is ill and needs to go home. This means that debate over the legality of these questions has to be filtered back and forth through sign language, not to mention the interpreter's evident unfamiliarity with such issues in general coupled with her increasing physical distress. She graciously perseveres but it is painful to watch. Meanwhile the temporary chair of this caucus – a Hillary supporter – insists on having everyone sign only one sheet at a time. Whether she's following procedural rules or is afraid that Obama supporters might sneak in additional sheets as reported on MSNBC, you can imagine how long this takes. More people leave, or rather more Hillary supporters leave according to locals. And this is supposed to be democratic?

One caucus has the bright idea of giving one sheet to the Obama line and another to the Hillary line, each monitored by one Obama and one Hillary observer. This speeds things up, but it is 9:45 before the last person signs, so some of them have been waiting for three hours. But finally the crucial part – namely the recording of votes – is over. The hard core is left to discuss the correct treatment of provisional voters, such as those who had driver's licenses instead of voter registration cards. And only then do we start with the thresholds and percentages and rounding up and rounding down. The Obama people whip out their calculators and their "EZ" math sheets. Alternate calculations have to be done for provisional supporters, while everyone watches each precious fraction of a delegate like vultures. Although distinctly in the minority here, the Obama supporters try to get themselves appointed the permanent chair of each caucus – who call in the final tallies. They're not successful although it's very close because most of the Hillary supporters have gone home. In Obama strongholds, however, his supporters' physical stamina, organizational discipline, English as a native language, and apparent will to exploit everything technically legal will almost certainly give them undue procedural advantage.

But the main point is this: is Obama really proud to take away the votes of people who want Clinton in the White House but were too old, tired, or ill to stick around for hours, who were at home putting their kids to bed, or were keeping community services running in the evening?

Hi, world

I am messenger M, messenger Mom, messenger messy, messenger non-malicious. I need a place to compile my opinions which is not Facebook. Maybe you'll read this. Maybe you won't.

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