*** TELL ABOUT YOUR PRECINCT CAUCUS Thread

[theredpen]

I'm trying to get these all into one thread. Let's see how it goes :)

[tammywammy]

1. Here's mine, Arlington 2319

They had 3 precincts at the same little church. We had 2 in the sanctuary and the third was in this other little building.

They had a hard time figuring out how to split them up to get them signed it. It took over an hour to get everyone signed in. It took time because they had to look up us that didn't have our cards to find our numbers. So I helped split up the line for my precinct, one line was people with their cards and the other people without. That sped up everything.

We had 99 people for my precinct caucus, 50 Clinton 49 Obama.

The temporary chair & secretary became the permanent. LOL. :) We got 14 delegates for our precinct, as did the other one that was on the other side of the sanctuary. So it got split 7 Obama, 7 Clinton.

The precinct chair said last time there was only 12 people at the caucus and he was so nice and they kept apologizing for the delay but that they just weren't used to this. :)

It was a good mix of white and blacks with a few hispanics.

And I'm a delegate from my precinct! :woohoo:

[theredpen]

4. Awesome job

And congrats for being a delegate. We had a lot of really excited people who wanted to be delegates.

[tammywammy]

6. We could have 7 delegates

And this one guy was like why don't the people that want it stand up and give a speech. Well me and this other lady just went, if you want to be one stand up and 7 of us stood up. So, thankfully no speeches. LOL.

Our precinct was on one side of the church and the Obama people sat in the front and the Clinton's in the back.

Everyone was just super nice and everyone was like "I didn't know there were so many democrats around here." LOL

[theredpen]

2. TX-3344 (Dallas) quick view

Largely African-American precinct with a lot of Latinos as well. They are largely working class, but there is a substantial merchant class as well. Our precinct also has a sizable contingent of whites who range from artists to small business owners.

61 attendees
44 Obama supporters (6 delegates)
17 Clinton supporters (2 delegates)

Everyone was fired up.

Edit: Oh yeah, we're in South/East Dallas right around Fair Park.

[GOPisEvil]

3. Too many people for the room. We met outside.

100 on the official count, although there were more people there eventually. 100 people for 13 delegates. We went 8 for Obama and 5 for Clinton.

It was rough for yours truly, the convention chair. But, we got through it mostly unscathed.

Oh, this is a precinct in North Austin.

[Melissa G]

13. Good job, Mr Chair!

At 301, we usually have under 8 folks show up. We had 81. Too many for the room. The delegates split 4 and 4.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

21. 13 delegates and 100 people.

That's an excellent turn out!

We had 73 and 18 delegates and I was pleased as punch with our turnout.

[tanyev]

5. Precincts 107,121,139 - Plano

We had 3 precincts at an elementary school. We waited outside in the cold for nearly two hours until all the voting was wrapped up and they let us in. I don't know the numbers, but once we were in we completely filled the basketball court in the gym, standing shoulder to shoulder. By the time I signed in it was after 10:00.

I think Obama people outnumbered the Hillary people 2 to 1. That's surprising enough, but I am more astounded that there are so many Democrats in this area.

[Richardo]

7. here's my cut and paste from GD:P - I'm in Pct 0688 in Harris County

"I don't belong to an organized political party - I'm a Democrat."
Thank you, Will Rogers. I heard that phrase a number of times tonight.

I voted in the Texas primary and stayed for the caucuses.

In 2004, Kerry was already nominated by the time Texas voted, and there were about a dozen people in our caucus.

Tonight, there were at least 700 activist Democrats, and this is a 90% GOP suburb in a very GOP state. The crowd was about evenly split between our two candidates, and, despite the fact that: 1) the caucus was 45 minutes late starting (big turnout!), 2) there was a severe shortage of sign in sheets, and 3) there was a distinct lack of any real centralized leadership, everyone remained calm, jovial, positive and polite. It was SO unlike GD-P that it restored my faith in my fellow Democrats and reminded me how UNlike real life DU can be. (As much fun as I have here, it's SO much better outside - outside the rancor, outside the vitriol, outside the circular firing squads.)

I love election days.

[theredpen]

8. Great post -- where is your precinct?

[Richardo]

9. 0688 - NW Harris county.

[sonias]

37. What was the delegate allocation split between O & C?

Was it exactly even?


Sonia

[Richardo]

54. Don't know - I couldn't stay for the count.

Looked like an edge to Hillary - she had the most peopleon the ground by far. A group of 4-5 for each precinct, and only a half dozen Obama people total.

Signage out front was 100% Hillary - no Obama signs at all.The Obama people I did talk to said they ran out. :shrug:

[theredpen]

10. Precincts 12, 131 & 149 -- McKinney (Collin County)

My friend, the precinct chair was one of two people at the 2004 caucus. This year he reports, "Holy cats we had 500 fucking people."

No word on how the delegate count panned out between the candidates, but the turnout was nothing short of astonishing.

[lavenderdiva]

11. Houston precinct number 304 reporting-

187 people at the caucus: 105 for Clinton, 82 for Obama. This resulted in 15 delegates for Clinton, and 12 for Obama.

[tammywammy]

12. Nevermind

:)

[lavenderdiva]

14. sorry tammywammy-

I edited my post when I realized I hadn't included my location- :hi:

[tammywammy]

16. You were fast

Or maybe I was fast. Oh well, it was a good night. :)

[Lisa0825]

15. 347 in Galveston County - I'm so proud! :-)

I don't know what the voting totals were, but the caucus was a smashing success!

My little precinct! I was so PROUD! 4 years ago I was the ONLY person
to show up. Tonight we had 118 sign in! 72% Obama 28% Clinton

[CoolOnion]

17. pct 4425 Dallas

123 attendees, Clinton 78, Obama 45

I'm the precinct chair, and this is the largest meeting I've ever been in charge of! We had one "precinct captain" from the Obama campaign, who lives in the precinct and was very knowledgeable about the rules. I put him in charge of sign-in, along with an "observer" from the Clinton campaign.

Everything went smoothly, except for a slight misunderstanding with the election judge, who didn't understand the Texas Democratic Party rule about allowing us access to the poll book. He came into the convention, grabbed the poll book and took it, saying he had to close up and take the book back to the county, yadda, yadda.

I tried to show him the rules, but he wasn't interested in sticking around to hear what I had to say.

People in line commented on how rude he was, and made disparaging comments about his intelligence, and I used the incident as an opportunity to educate people about the importance of getting involved in the Democratic Party, serving as election judges, taking ownership of the party, and so forth. (I'm unable to serve as election judge, and submitted the name of a really good person who was not available for this election, but will be able to work in November).

The rest went great. The longest part of the process was getting people signed in. I set up three sign in sheets at a time at one table, and put resolutions on another, explaining that we could vote all these in by acclimation at the end of the meeting (thank you Sonia for that suggestion!)

As the meeting wore on, I got more relaxed and less formal. When it came time to elect the permanent chair, someone asked me what that was. I explained, "You get to come up here and do all this stuff, and I get to sit down and watch!" A guy on the front row asked my name, I told him, and he nominated me! When it came time to elect a Delegate to the Convention, I described the job: "Delegate to the convention takes all this paperwork and delivers it to the Democratic Party office..." and everybody laughed and nominated me to do it.

It was great! Kudos to the precinct captains from the Obama and Clinton campaign for helping me!

[CoolOnion]

18. P.S. I totally forgot...

...about my plan to http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=180&topic_id=49684&mesg_id=49684">crash John McCain's party. Oh well. By the time we were done with out convention, we saw on the news that his party had already fizzled out.

[theredpen]

20. Isn't 4425 in Oak Cliff?

I'm surprised that it was such a Clinton stronghold, but that's "conventional wisdom" in primary season.

[CoolOnion]

23. Yep. Heavily Latino--could go either way

The young anglo, black, and Latino voters went for Obama. Their delegates stayed through the whole process and filled out their slate of delegates and alternates.

The Clinton voters were her typical "base," older Latino, older white, middle-aged gay. Most of them signed in and left the convention. They got enough delegates, but will have to call their lists for alternates to the Senatorial District Convention.

[theredpen]

29. Our Clinton supporters seemed a little deflated and low-energy

It sounds like it was a little like that at your caucus.

I wonder why. Clinton's doing well in Texas overall, and has won Ohio (a key state).

[Sailing]

19. Around 460 in S. Austin

69% Obama, 31% Clinton. Sign in was outside in the parking lot, but alot of the Obama folks left and in the meeting after, those of us in the Obama camp had a slim majority in the meeting after. The meeting after was an education. One individual in the Clinton camp got very vocal about procedure. The guy behind me apparently knew he was from Florida, of all places, and started asking why he was even in the room. The girl in front of me went and got a video camera. He kind of slunk out of the room after that.

Big cheers to the chairs, temporary or otherwise. They had their hand full but did a great job. People were generally patient and things went as smoothly as can be expected for such a high turnout.

I was out of there by about 9PM after the chair had been selected and I made sure enough delegates had been signed up.

[rainbow4321]

22. Precinct 54 ( in Collin County) ....130 people. Obama 90, HRC 40

Repuke red Collin County pretty much fucked over Dems tonight...not enough machines for Dems, tried to shove 130 of us in a single classroom while the SMALL group of repukes had the huge cafeteria to themselves...Dems waiting 2 hours in line to use "their" machines while the repukes' machine sat there unused. At noon today there were four Dem machines, at 5 pm there were TWO..yet there sat four repuke machines all day long. We did finally get to move to part of the cafeteria after about 2 hours of being in the hot overcrowded class and overflow in the hallway
The building was PACKED (3 precincts in one school). The last vote was cast at 9 pm and THEN the caucus got to start.

Oh...and the person running the show tried to say that each Obama and HRC would get eight delegates til the Obama crowd said WHAT THE FUCK WE HAVE TWICE AS MANY PEOPLE...only then did they do the CORRECT formula for figuring it out...we got 12, they got 8.


One lady had gotten there at 4:30 to vote..and just got to leave at 10:30 when the caucus ended.

Hang in there Texans!!!!!

[melissinha]

24. Precinct 179 Austin Arboretum

Don't know the total attendees, but we only had 8 delegates to apportion (guess because these are apartment complexes there aren't many permanent residents and lots of former Kinky voters lost us potential delegates)

Obama got 7 delegates and Clinton got 1. It was overwhelmingly pro-Obama.

I swear like always its like herding cats... and some crazy kooky people to boot!!! But it was fun and interesting...

You know if caucus really demonstrates the tactics of Obama suporters, he might get delegates through caucus even if she barely wins...

[sonias]

40. Austin and Travis votes overwhemingly for change

It was a great night in Austin and Travis. Now if the rest of the state would just catch up with us. We're moving for change!


Sonia

[last_texas_dem]

25. I talked to my sister and brother-in-law who caucused

in Orange County. Their precinct had over 100 people turn out, and ended up having 12 delegates for Obama to 3 for Clinton. Their precinct is heavily African-American; they told me only around one-fifth of the people there were white. (They are two white Obama supporters.) So Obama did pretty well in their precinct's caucus, despite Clinton overall doing much better in Orange County (66%-27%) overall.

[theredpen]

27. I bet you don't feel like the last_texas_dem anymore!

:D

[last_texas_dem]

50. Yeah

It's been great to see Democrats turning out in the primaries. Here's hoping this trend will hold for the general election!

[Lithos]

26. Pct 324 in Austin - about 750 Caucus

67% Obama, 33% Clinton (69 & 34 delegates respectively)

[sonias]

28. I posted this in the Central Texas thread too

The mighty PCT 342 big win for Obama. The bluest PCT in Travis delivers for Obama. 69 delegates for Obama and 34 for Clinton.

Travis County goes for Obama. Travis county voted solidly for change today! Congratulations to the Clinton campaign for the primary election day win in Texas.

RACE NAME EARLY VOTES PERCENT TOTAL VOTES PERCENT
President/Vice-President
Joe Biden 77 0.07% 131 0.07%
Hillary Clinton 33,401 34.36% 62,379 36.78%
Christopher J. Dodd 48 0.04% 75 0.04%
John Edwards 378 0.38% 678 0.39%
Barack Obama 63,154 64.97% 106,084 62.55%
Bill Richardson 141 0.14% 240 0.14%
----------- -----------
Total Votes Cast 97,199 169,587
Early Provisional Ballots Reported 100
Total Provisional Ballots Reported 100
Precincts Reported 177 of 211 Precincts 83.89%
* County Turnout 30.53% 555,424 Registered Voters

We did out best!

Sonia

[theredpen]

31. Clinton hasn't won Texas yet

The caucuses are part of our nomination process — anyone who says they "don't count" deserves a whuppin'.

The results won't be in for a day or so.

[sonias]

33. We'll we should win more delegates by virtue of winning the caucuses

We spit the primary vote pretty much in half and then Barack wins the caucuses maybe 60-40. Just my guess. I certainly don't consider this a loss for Barack Obama.

Sonia

[crispini]

30. Precinct 2228 in Dallas county

397 attendees

22 Obama delegates -- 59.45%
15 Clinton delegates -- 40.55%

We did so well! We got all of everyone signed in in 45 minutes. Only 4 ppl mad at me!

I am so happy! We did our best and had a very good convention.

Amazing!

[Justitia]

32. Houston precinct 569: 219 caucus goers, 115 - Obama, 104 - Clinton

Obama got 11 delegates, Clinton got 10

Caucus lasted FOUR HOURS!

[sonias]

34. You caucus lasted four hours?

Do you mean once it was called to order or since the time people started gathering at 7:15. Because ours didn't even open until almost 8:30 we had so many people still voting in our PCT.

If you count the wait time ours lasted four hours too.


:hi:


Sonia

[Justitia]

36. People started gathering before polls closed, called to order also about 8:30 due to voting going on

The sign in took forever, caucus activities took forever, bullet voting for delegates went on endlessly and we probably had 20 contested resolutions.

I arrived at 7pm, left at 11pm.

Officially braindead!

[sonias]

44. I was up at 6:30 this morning at the PCT by 6:45

And got home at 11:20. I'm brain and body dead. I should go to bed.

Thanks for all your hard work.

:hi:


Sonia

[Justitia]

49. Same to you, now get some rest! You worked your butt off! -eom

[derby378]

35. Dallas County - Nightmare at Precinct 1143

First off, it all started when I learned to my horror that a. we didn't have enough sign-in sheets, and b. the county elections office never gave our election judge the forms we needed to run the precinct convention for #1143, so this meant a trip to the photocopier while I had to put off starting the convention over and over. And that's when this one bossy woman started trying to take over the convention before it even started, threatening to call the state party office in order to override me, and I turned around and shouted in her face, "Who's running this precinct convention?" When she responded with "Well, obviously not you," I shouted "Step back!" Not the sort of start I wanted. Especially when she shot back that maybe I just needed a bathroom break.

So here I am, with 147 eager and motivated Democrats in one room, and we're trying to get people signed in using hastily copied Exhibit A forms, and I have all these people asking me about these little yellow slips of paper and does this mean I can sign in and what is the order of this convention and why don't you just let me step in and run things because I have all this experience in some Midwestern state and whatever. And then came the time we had to figure the percentages. There was a squabble over two people who apparently didn't fill in the form right. Then there was the endless handwringing over how to figure out the percentages, with our Secretary and our Sergeant-at-Arms trying to make heads or tails out of rounding rules for percentages. Then there were the delegates trying to bully the officers who were just trying to do their job, and me holding the gavel between them, and them saying "You better get that out of my face" while I countered with "The delegate is out of order." Ugh.

In the end, the Obama camp got to elect 14 delegates and 14 alternates, and the Clinton camp got to elect 11 delegates and 11 alternates. And those people telling me to get the gavel out of their face? They went with the same camp I did (Obama) and blocked me from becoming a delegate. So now I'm an alternate, despite the fact that I'm precinct chair. I still think there's something funny about how the self-appointed Obama caucus leader handled the delegate vote, but c'est la guerre.. I'm still going to Senatorial, and I can try to become an at-large delegate at State. So there.

Finally, the resolutions. First, an LGBT-rights resolution. Passed easily. Then the wheels got stuck in the mud, with resolution after resolution being tabled. But I'm rather pleased with the fact that a resolution that I wrote that will prevent the next Democratic President from pardoning Bush, Cheney, and/or Rumsfeld passed, and will now be considered at Senatorial. Not that there wasn't some serious debate on the matter, with some saying we need to trust our next President and others saying that Halliburton has already relocated to Dubai in order to escape punishment. My view? The lesson must be taught. And I'm glad that a majority of my fellow precinct delegates agreed with me on this one.

I'm slightly hoarse and somewhat dazed, and I think I'm going to down a shot of Jaegermeister and go to bed. It's been a long, long night.

[sonias]

42. Way to hang in there Derby

Glad you survived. Thanks for the report!


Sonia

[WolverineDG]

38. A complete total butt fuck county-wide

But then Henry Cuellar & Richard "KKK" Raymond are stealing South Texas for her, so what did we expect? I think at this point that anyone who still supports Hillary has serious moral issues. I will not vote for her ever. I don't care what is at stake; I have seen the kind of behavior she condones & encourages & I morally cannot & will not support her.

I showed up early at my precinct with my agenda in hand (based on the TDP rules) & some other stuff. Folks were lining up for the caucus. It was way past 7:15, but folks were still voting & the election judge refused to let us in. I stood at the front of the caucus line & some folks started to squawk. I told them I was the precinct chair (have been since 2004, so it should be no surprise to anyone). They got quiet & went off to tell their Hillbot leader, who then accosted me. "Are you really the precinct chair?" "You know I am, & have been since 2004. If you have a question about it, call X (party chair)."

I showed her my agenda, telling her it was based on the TDP rules. She went off to make a phone call & came back unhappy. "Well, we'll start off this way & then we'll see what happens." uh-huh.

So then some lady comes up & announces to me that she is the permanent secretary. Uh, no you're not. I haven't called the convention to order because we're still standing outside & people are still voting. She walked away unhappy.

Then Hillbot leader comes up & asks if I will let some lady sign in for Hillary because she has to leave. Note: we're still fucking outside, I don't have the fucking packet, the convention hasn't been called to order. So, I say no. No packet, folks are still voting, no one can sign in until the convention has been opened & that ain't happening until the last voter votes. They skulk off. I did feel bad for this lady, but take it up with the TDP.

We're finally let in. There are over 100 people there. (Aside: where the fuck were these people in 2004 & 2006?) We separate into Obama & Hillary people. We (Obama) make threshold barely. I announce that I'm the temporary chair, but no one listens to me because I am not their appointed leader, so Hillbot does it. Everyone is ok with that (well tough shit if they weren't, it's in the DAMN RULES). I look around for Mrs. I'm the Permanent Secretary, but she's nowhere to be found, so I ask for someone to be Temporary Secretary. Eventually, we get started signing folks in. It is a complete clusterfuck. I make a motion that the temp chair & secretary be permanent chair & secretary & Hillbot & her little hillbots can't agree fast enough. Who wants to do that paperwork? The Obama folks get their stuff done pretty quickly & they're off. I'm still there as permanent chair (thank god). The Hillaries finally get their crap together & we're out of there. Someone brings me a broken ballot box seal. WHAT THE FUCK? So, I call the party chair, the TDP (which doesn't know what to do) & the Obama hotline. Who knows if anything will come of this. The permanent secretary offers to "finish off the paperwork & turn it in." At this point, I'm all "oh fuck no" on the inside & "no, that's okay, I have to meet (party chair) tonight & I'll give it to him."

I then get a call from the party chair. Could I please come to this other precinct because there is going to be a riot. Cops are there, the media is there, it's a madhouse. :wtf: I get over there & things have calmed down a bit. I find another Hillary person from another precinct who is so pissed off at how the machine improperly ran her convention that she is calling the Obama hotline. Wonder who gave her that number? :evilgrin: Turns out there are several fires that need to be put out: there are 2 precincts having a convention in the same place & the Hillbot leader here tries to steal the convention packet out of the hands of that precinct's chair. (there is only 1 delegate in this precinct for crap's sake). An Obama volunteer grabs it back & says "No, that is illegal" & Hillbot leader stalks off mad. I help the 2 folks who show up run their convention & we get a delegate & alternate for Obama (now do you see why they tried to steal that packet?) The other fire involved the refusal of the convention chair to sign in any Obama people. :eyes: Eventually they get signed in & get 4 or 5 delegates. Unlike my convention, there was lots of shouting involved at even getting to that point, mostly because the Hillary people are pissed off that the mean Obama people are making them follow the rules. :eyes:

I hear from others at HQ & at a local bar about the complete & total disaster that the countywide precinct conventions have been. Someone overheard a Hillary person say "The only reason I'm still here is because the boss is paying us $25." The machine did their best to bully & steal their way into getting the most delegates; the problem was that they only taught their folks how to steal the election & cheat at the conventions, not how to control the large crowds.



dg

[Justitia]

39. Oh My Freaking God! See, I think we are a loooong way from "done" in TX! -eom

[crispini]

41. Dudette.

I haven't even read your whole post yet and I'm exhausted. :hi:

[sonias]

43. dg way to hold your ground

You did call that in to the Obama protection hotline didn't you? I mean their shifty little move to try to make you break party rules.

:hug:


Sonia

[WolverineDG]

45. no not on that

maybe i will tomorrow. i was more pissed off at the broken ballot box seal.

dg

[sonias]

55. That's why we need to win November dg

And we all have to go to the State Convention and keep working to take back the party too!

Thanks for trying to hold your ground dg. I know for you it's like you were the ignored lonely Democrat in a red Texas state. You are exactly where we all were in 1996, fighting the tide of republican guard. Only for you the old guard style politics are sitting in for the republicans in my analogy. I know I had it a lot easier in Austin/Travis.

But you hang in there dg, we're dragging this state forward with us, and we will not ignore any part of Texas. The way Howard Dean has instituted a 50 state strategy is like we're going to work all 254 Texas counties. Our next step is to take over the party. Si se puede!


Sonia

[crispini]

59. You are SO RIGHT!

Do we elect TDP chair again this year? I thought someone told me that last night, but I was kind of wasted.

[sonias]

68. Yes we do and I promise you there will be a challenge mounted

Word on the street is that Gary Mauro wants to run. I won't support him. So there will be a progressive candidate that will run. Who - I don't know but there will be someone - I guarantee it!

SD and State Convention here we come!!


Sonia

[crispini]

69. Yeeeeeeehaw!

:bounce:

[WolverineDG]

76. If she's the nominee I will not vote for her

Sorry, but I cannot morally vote for anyone who uses racism, lying, cheating, stealing, pandering to people's baser, bigoted instincts (ie: runs like a Republican) as a way to get what she wants. If it takes another 4 years under Republican rule to get people to wake the fuck up, so be it.

I will vote for ANY Democrat who supports Barack Obama. Anyone who supports Hillary Clinton can kiss my ass & go to hell now.

dg

[theredpen]

83. At my friend's Collin County caucus, it was the Obama people who were belligerent

The accosted him and tried to take over the caucus. They were paranoid that the Clinton camp was going to pull some sort of tricks. They demanded to know who my friend was supporting and he refused to tell them because he wanted to remain neutral.

In the end, the caucus went fine and the Obama people apologized profusely — at which point my friend rubbed it in saying, "And you know, I am Obama supporter, too, so you were really going after the wrong person."

[derby378]

84. I had ornery delegates from both caucuses last night

Part of it had to do with the chaos just prior to calling the convention to order. Part of it had to do with problems in figuring up the caucus percentages. But yes, I had some delegates trying to take over the floor, trying to bully our secretary and even our sergeant-at-arms, etc.

If you want to be a Precinct Chair, one piece of advice: Get yourself a gavel. You might think a gavel is overkill at first, but when you find yourself in a room with over a hundred cranky delegates, you'll quickly realize the wisdom of having a gavel at hand. Mallet gavel, palm gavel, Klingon flint gavel from Star Trek VI - the design is up to you. Just make it work.

[silverlib]

46. New precinct 463 - Austin - threatened with arrest....

Wow - democracy in the works. It's a long story and I'm dead tired. I ended up being the chair of this caucus - 290 signed in. 32 delegates for Obama and 21 for Clinton. The precinct judge gave me an "extra" list of voters in my sealed packet that should have been turned in with the machines. We were naturally using both lists to verify caucus attendees and some Republican judge got wind that I had the Republican list and called on a cell phone of someone in the crowd and asked to speak to me. He threatened to send a sheriff out and have me arrested. The crowd was hollering (both camps) to bring it on! Once he figured out that the extra book we had didn't belong to the Republican Party, he settled down and we did end up voting to return the book.

Democracy in action - and I thought I was so unprepared to do this. We had no precinct chair, being a new precinct, and no one on the ballot as I felt like I had done such a lousy job as prescient chair this last round in my really tee-tiny precinct. I worked the lines. No one with any physical disability stood in line. I explained the process straight down the lines wrapped around Williams Elementary and felt like my job was to make both camps feel part of a history making process. Not one person in line went away not knowing the rules, the process (including that rule about priority in space based on the last State election where Travis County Democrats voted for Chris Bell). I just hope that everyone had a wonderful experience. No ambulances called - although the alarm did go off at 9:00 pm and we had to call campus police. The school district employees were awesome. The people were awesome and this was the people's caucus. There was some bickering between the paid operatives in attendance, but we were able to reach consensus and, in the long haul, we are all Democrats.

It wasn't until the end that the people in the room knew I was for Obama - and I feel very good about that. The caucus was run democratically.

And the best thing that was said to me all night was from an Obama operative - He told me he would love to have me work in his home state - New York.

And that Republican judge was quite amazed when I explained that if I needed to go to jail because I represented the people in the room - then so be it!

Democracy is worth the fight.

And someone recently said to me -
A person must be as willing to die for peace as a soldier is to die for war.

Well, now to my bottle of wine and good night to all the fine Democrats in the State of
Texas

And by the way - I also found room for the 10 Republicans to meet.

[sonias]

57. Way to go silverlib!!

You go woman! That is an amazing story. Thank you for all your hard work keeping your pct together and above board.

You're going to hear all the whining today about how the caucus system should be eliminated in Texas because it's so unfair - blah, blah, blah. But you and I know why it is important to the party. Just think about it, these people that come to the caucus are heavily invested in the system now. If they hate it and want to make improvements, going to the state convention is the way to go. We educated about a million more people this primary about how things work in Texas. I hope they will just learn more about it and help us work to take back the party!

Ha we scared the crap out of our republicans. They finished their business pretty early and vanished.

I love your person willing to die for peace quote, lovely. You're right we were fighting for the core of our values and we will not surrender! And we do not concede!

:yourock:


Sonia

[twompy]

47. Travis #462

Our convention went very smooth. About 200 ppl. showed up with Obama getting 18 delegates and Clinton with 6. I went with 5 friends and we were all elected as delegates. Our chair was very efficient with no problems at all.

[sonias]

58. Awsome news twompy

We'll see you at the Senate District convention. Are you SD25 or SD14?

We need a DU caucus at the SD convention.

:hi:


Sonia

[twompy]

86. SD 25

I'm SD 25!

I am looking forward to it! Was your convention at BH Elementary?



:dem: :patriot:

[sonias]

91. Yes SD25 PCT342

BH Elementary - the biggest baddest win for Obama in Travis! 69 Delegates strong!

We rocked!

Sonia

[MrsBrady]

48. 12 delgates for 3507, tarrant county...7 to Clinton, 5 to Obama

I was totally freaked out worried and excited to do this in my precinct which has no standing Democratic precinct chair, election judge or alternate judge...eek...I ended up being convention chair...I've had this excited/sick feeling in my stomach that no democrat in my precinct would know what the f*** they would be doing, or me either for that matter....so I made sure to figure out what the hell needed to happen...
oh boy, we would have not known a damn thing if I hadn't done that. By the way, thanks to everyone at DU who had posted their info on how to caucus and their breakdown step by step of the rules, etc...
so...I had also had some training from my candidate's county office on running a convention and how to caucus, and I studied the official texas rules like mad for the last two days...
and thank God I did.

I was hoping someone else there know what they would be doing..uh....but no such luck. It was me.
One other lady had been politically active in another state, had been here a while..and thank god she was there to be secretary and help with roberts ruls of order

I ended up being convention chair....We had 80 people come to caucus, it took longer to sign in then expected, but we finally finished and
got the delegates chosen, etc....
thank goodness a math teacher was present and helped us with the math...it was simple enough, but you know what i mean

I had been told to bring extra sign in sheets just in case...and thank god i did, because we ended up using 9 of them and only had 3 in the packet.

other people helped me out, and we really didn't have any troubles. One guy knew the rules half way, and was sort of at one point giving wrong info on when to sign the sheet for hillary or obama, but I had my RULES!!!! and set it straight.

The election judge at first was wanting to be the temporary chair at first, but he wasn't from our precinct, and when I reminded him of that, all of a sudden i ended up with the packet...but he wouldn't give it up at 7...he made us wait around. Finally he gave it to me about 7:15
We had to wait about 7:30 to start, since the voters were finishing.

So I ended up as a delegate also.

We finished about 10, and finished up the minutes....i didn't want to hold onto the info when we were finished. (god, no...are you kidding...I had three days, I'm not holding onto that stuff for 3 days, i don't want it!!!)...I didn't want to mail the stuff in, so another lady and I (I wanted a witness and for security) drove the minutes and sign-in sheets to the Dem office in downtown Fort Worth.

I'm glad I was able to chair the convention, but man!!!!! I AM GLAD IT IS OVER!!!!!
I just got home after we drove to Fort Worth and back, had some problems with the copier at the party office, finally got our stuff turned in...and I've been home about 30/45 minutes now.

I know of some places who had lots of problems, but ours went ok. whew!!!!!

[NoPasaran]

51. Travis County 352

We had about 440 people sign in, 22 delegates for Clinton, 39 for Obama. Kudos to the assistant principal at Covington Middle School for letting us move into the auditorium, and kudos to the incredible training sessions put on by the TCDP.

[NoPasaran]

52. El Paso County Precinct 7

This was called into me by my brother, who was caucusing for the very first time. Clinton 10, Obama 5. In a precinct that had 225-239 votes for Chris Bell in 2006, they had 159 sign in!

[sonias]

67. Wonderful news

I hope your brother stays involved with the party too. Is he going to the SD convention as a delegate?


Sonia

[sonias]

60. Overall I think the trainings went very well

And yes the principal at our Barton Hills elementary school was very accommodating. Bless her heart.


Sonia

[blogslut]

53. Precincts 304, 305, 306 & 307

They all met in the same room. My rough guess is that the total attendance for all four was 125-150 people.

When it came to determining the temporary chair and secretary for my precinct (307) a young fellow held up his hand for Clinton and - god help me- I stuck mine up for Obama. The precinct captain took us around the corner and had us flip a coin and the young man called it and he chose to be temporary chair and I became temporary secretary.

Our packet had all the right stuff except for sign-in sheets. We confabulated some from copy paper. I looked people up in the voter rolls as they showed me voter cards/stubs/DLs. That was cool. After we got everybody signed in, we elected permanent chair and secretary. The young man and I both kept our seats, after they all promised me that I be would secretary for this caucus and that's it!

After that, he and I did the thing with lovely assists from the election officials and I think, at least, one judge.

There were 43 people total in our precinct (307) caucus. 29 for Clinton. 13 for Obama plus one undecided who named Obama as his second choice. 29-14

6 delegates for Clinton
4 delegates for Obama

No resolutions with my precinct. But two of the other precincts discussed and voted on resolutions and one was still in session as we left.

:hi:

[sonias]

61. No resolutions?

First of all thank you for your service. Way to go blogslut. Way to stick up that had and get empowered. You're now a pro, right? Next time you teach someone else. We did the splitting of duties in our PCT too. Our PCT chair and I both ran for permanent convention chair and she won, so I ran for secretary with their support and won. Man do I got me some paperwork to do today.

Good job!

We'll see you at the SD convention in March 29!

That's weird that you didn't have any resolutions - there were 50 maybe in ours. Those of us that were left quickly reviewed the stack, or I'll credit the Clinton camp for that, since they kept the packet and pointed out two bad ones on women's reproductive rights that failed. The rest we passed all in one motion. Yes!


Sonia

[blogslut]

65. What can I say?

The caucus attendees in my precinct were as new to this as I was. We gave them plenty opportunity to make resolutions but no luck. I'm just thrilled we had so many. 43 doesn't seem like much but trust me, where I live, that's a whole lot pf Democrats caucusing.

[crispini]

56. The whole story here, x-posted from GD P

In reference to the contest I had a few days ago here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4754859#4802683

THE NUMBER ATTENDING: 397.

THE WINNER: JimGinPA guessed 400. So, even though he went over by 3, he was closest. Bravo! :applause:

THE STORY:

My precinct has about 3000 on the voter books. About 400 voted early. On election day, we had 642 voters. I worked the polls all day. Things went pretty well. I was happy so many had voted early. It helped. At our precinct, the Republicans were situated outside in the hall and we were in the auditorium. People were passing them all day long to come in and vote for us. I could have asked for the hallway but I figured if we got a line, we would be more comfortable in the auditorium where we would be inside, as opposed to the hallway where the line would wind up outside and who knows what the weather would be like. Also I thought it would be slightly entertaining to annoy the Republicans with all our foot traffic. :evilgrin:

We had some crossover. This was simply based on conversations with the Republican judge, who has been her precinct chair for years and knows everyone in the precinct, and told me that she saw a lot of people who she knows as R coming in to vote with us.

Voting went well. Also we did not have a line at 7 and so were able to close the polls on time. Our poll tape showed:

Clinton 322
Obama 316
Edwards 3
Richardson 1

Of course this does not count early voting, so I am still not sure how my precinct went.

At 7:15 I left the auditorium and went into the gym. Ya'll, it was full. Standing room only. It was entirely insane how full it was. There was overflow in the cafeteria. I opened the convention and there was a great cheer! I was so glad at this point I had gotten the PA. I was also very glad I got a script as I was so nervous and exhausted it was a great relief to just read from my script.

Sign in went reasonably well. We did run out of sign in sheets and had to give people paper. This annoyed one woman, who came up and yelled at me. I don't know why, exactly, except that it didn't "look" as official, but officials of the TDP and of DCDP told me it was ok. I had gotten extra copies during the day and even then it wasn't enough. We had eight sign in tables, a Clinton supporter and an Obama supporter at each table. The sign in took about 45 minutes, which I think is amazing. I think everyone got a chance to sign in, as far as I can tell. After the sign in, people left in droves. Thankfully. I think there were about 50 to 80 folks who wanted to be delegates and alternates left.

We did the math as a group. There had been an Obama person from their delegation who they had designated to do the math on their behalf. The Clinton people had not done this, but someone stepped forward to follow along. I am so glad we have cellphones on calculators. We probably had five people in the crowd doing the math. We did it on a big flip chart and I read the math rules and we followed along. The Clinton people were getting annoyed at the Obama math guy because he was being kind of loud but I made sure that I saw that there were Clinton supporters doing the math as well.

It was roughly 60-40 Obama-Clinton. We wound up with 22 Obama delegates and 15 Clinton delegates from our precinct.

Delegate selection took awhile, but neither caucus had to hold a formal vote, thank goodness. Now, bear in mind that I was also the election judge for this precinct, so I kept popping in and out to check on my clerks. Bless them, neither had buttoned up a polling place on their own and we made a hash of it. Forms in the wrong envelopes and when I finally did get my clerk out of the door with the results he accidentally left both supply boxes behind. Nevertheless he got downtown with the card from the counter, and the ballots, and all of the forms, just not all in the right places, and we hopelessly screwed up one form, but the results got downtown around 9, which was pretty damn good, all things considered.

We have a rather messy looking list of the delegations, but I had asked for elections of secretaries from both delegations, and they're meeting at my house today to sort out the actual paperwork and do a nice proper delegation list. After that, resolutions. We did do about four, but when the discussion about one particular resolution threatened to go off into the weeds I told them to call the Senate District chair and see if they could get on the platform committee for the SD and they could go whole-hog for resolutions there if they wanted. I think we tossed that one out anyway. Somewhere along in there I gave the Senate District chair's phone number to the remaining group, which was like 50 people. I hope they don't ALL call her tomorrow. LOL.

And then it was over. All in all, I think it went pretty well. No blood. Not a lot of yelling. A few people were pissed, but I think there were only 4 or 5 of them, at least that I know of, so less than 2%. And then I was off to phone in the results. The TDP phone system was awful -- you'd enter something and then there would be this loooooooooooooong silence. Like 45 seconds. I hope nobody hung up. I just patiently waited for the system to churn through what it needed to do and I got my results in. And then I went to a party and had several drinks.

Sorry no pictures. I was a little too pressed for time. If someone else took pictures I'll find them and post. And somebody blogged my precinct, haha, so here's another view:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/03/a_view_from_precinct_2228_some.php

And next I think I'm going to eat breakfast and then I might very well go back to bed. :hi:

[sonias]

63. I love it crispini - you did fabulous

Damn I am so proud of you! I knew you could do it. You're smart, you were prepared and dammit we love you for it!

:bounce: :hug: :toast: :bounce: :yourock: :loveya: :woohoo:

Sonia

[cosmik debris]

62. I sat next to Dave Campbell (Texas Football) at my caucus

That was the highlight for me.

My former precinct chair tried to introduce a resolution endorsing "Lady Hillary" and I hit the ceiling. I dislike Sen. Clinton, but not nearly as much as I dislike the notion of a royal family. I still can't believe that he would try to anoint royalty at a precinct caucus.

The resolution was defeated.

[crispini]

64. SNORT.

That's pretty funny.

[sonias]

66. Roky Erickson - 13th Floor Elevators was at mine

He and his mom live a couple of blocks away from me. They voted last night and his mom stayed to sign in for Obama for us. I gave her one of our posters.

If you don't know who the 13th Floor Elevators are - you should.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Floor_Elevators

A resolution endorsing Hillary, man that is not cool. Way to defeat that.

So how did Dave Campbell caucus - i.e. who was he for?

:hi:

(edited to acknowledge that it's the next day after election day). I feel like it's been one super long day.


Sonia

[theredpen]

71. Roky Erickson!

OMG, I love Roky Erickson.

Well, at least I got to caucus with the front man for my favorite Dallas punk band (now defunct :(), Pumping Ethyl.

[sonias]

74. You see he have great Texas neighbors in our PCTs

For that reason alone we need to keep our caucus system. Just so that we can meet all the folks in our hood. I probably only knew 40 people in my huge pct convention, but I now I know more.

Hey I was a big punk fan too. Austin had a big punk scene way back in the day - The Skunks were one of my favorite bands here.

:hi:


Sonia

[cosmik debris]

72. I've still got "Bull of the Woods" on vinyl. (it's a little scratchy)

I believe Dave caucused for HRC, but I'm not certain. I got distracted by the "Lady Hillary" resolution. (in fact, I'm still fuming about that.)

[sonias]

75. We got them all on vinyl

Problem is we don't have a functioning turntable anymore. So we have a bunch of them on CD now too.

Roky is doing great these days you should now. He does a lot of shows and appearances. He has survived. He is still a highly revered icon in Austin, TX.

And Roky voted in the Democratic primary yesterday - how cool is that?

Sonia

[Gothmog]

70. 360 Caucus goers-23 delegates obama and 6 for clinton

I had worked voter protection at another caucus and then left in time to get my precinct. I had done voter protection in 2004 for Kerry Edwards and this was very easy in that I had a nice Democrat as election judge who did her job very well. When I left, that precinct had a line of democrats out of the door and no republicans in line.

We had 360 caucus goers and ended up with 23 delegates to Obama and 6 to Clinton. I was elected permanent caucus chair because I corrected the temporary chair on a couple of the rules and she admitted that she was a republican who had crossed over to support Senator Obama(she had an Obama shirt on and was committed to the cause). It took a while to count the votes. I had two cpas there and one from the clinton camp and one from the obama camp do the math with me checking.

We had one vote for ron paul but I told the caucus that (a) Paul was not viable under TDP rules (he needed 12 votes), (b) he was not on the Democratic ballot and (c) paul was crazy.

We had one resolution to abolish the caucus system that passed by a large margin. I did not get home until 10 last night

[sonias]

77. A vote for Paul?

Ron Paul? He's not even a Democrat. How the hell did that guy end up in the Democratic caucus at all. If he voted in the republican primary he wasn't even supposed to be allowed in your convention. He didn't sign in did he? If he did, you're going to have to correct your sheets to reflect that. Check with your county party chair on how to do that.

Way to take over your caucus! Ha, one resolution to abolish the caucus system. Bring it on. We'll kill that one at the convention quickly. But true for the sake of democracy you are absolutely entitled to pass it. That's what we do as a party.

Good job!


Sonia

[Gothmog]

85. His vote was excluded

According to the voter list, he voted in the democratic primary but put paul down as his preference. Since Paul was not viable as a candidate for a host of reasons, his vote did not really count except as uncommitted.

It was an interesting process

The Ft. Bend county democrats do not want me to physically drop off the package and instead wants me to mail part to the party in Austin and the rest to the PO Box for the local party.

[crispini]

73. Meltdown in 3549

Not my story, but from Frontburner blog

I’m elevating to the main blog the below report, which was made by Maggie in the comments section. This story has yet to be verified by FrontBurner election HQ. But it’s shocking stuff if this is truly what went down:

Major problems tonight at the Singing Hills Recreation Center, Precinct 3549. 23 of 23 delegates were going to be awarded to Obama. Chair announced herself a Clinton supporter and said she was “taking the sheets home to correct them.” She was screaming and yelling, and folks tried to physically restrain her and take the packet from her, but couldn’t. Someone was videotaping the whole thing.

Update: I sent Maggie a note. She reports more:

Wish I was kidding. I wasn’t there, but I’m hosting two poll-watchers for Obama from New Mexico, and they’ve been there all night. They’re both attorneys. When Mario called me, I could hear the woman screaming in the background. She sounded absolutely crazy. I’m not sure who was videotaping. They had to go back to headquarters. But I’ll get more details late tonight. The precinct he started in was all disqualified bc no one validated the votes. Kind of a mess over there. I think that was 3541. But 3549 is a nightmare.
http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2008/03/04/precinct-3549-indian-hills-a-rogue-precinct-chair/

With help from FBvian Maggie, we told you last night about the disaster at 3549, which is Singing Hills Rec Center. Now we have confirmation that it went down just as described. The precinct chair is Sandra Crenshaw, the former City Council member. The videotape does exist, and I expect we’ll soon enough be seeing it in one medium or another.
http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2008/03/05/precinct-3549-sandra-crenshaw-goes-berserk/

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

[sonias]

78. See these backroom dealings are exactly why we need more grassroots

Our caucus system insures transparency and exposes problems. This person should not be a PCT chair and people in this PCT should get her replaced.


Sonia

[CoolOnion]

80. Exactly.

I was able to keep people calm and happy as they waited in line, reminding them that this caucus exists to keep grassroots activists like them involved, and that whoever wins is making history.

I can't imagine why anyone would get all psychotic over it.

[CoolOnion]

79. Good lord.

This is why we Precinct Chairs can't get too wrapped up in any campaign. (But seriously, I have yet to meet a candidate who could inspire me to chuck the Democratic process and steal the votes).

[Laura PourMeADrink]

81. Precinct 28 - Waco - 75 people - O 4, C 5 - If we could do it

again -- I think we would have had a more organized effort to
get people to the caucus. We only need 2 more people and
it would have gone the other way.

[movie_girl99]

82. there were 105 who caucused

in my precinct in N. Carrollton. 22 Clinton and 83 Obama. It was total chaos but I enjoyed every minute of if....all 3 1/2 hours. My 21 year old daughter was the precinct cheerleader telling people not to leave after they signed their name. Sadly we only had 21 people left at he end of the night but it was an awesome experience to have shared with her.

[MagickMuffin]

87. Here's my Tale of the Texas Two Step, and the reluctant Precinct Chair

A lot of people showed up ready to dance and didn't know how to put their best foot forward, instead they ALL had two left feet. I'm glad I attended a few dance classes, to know what little I learned, I was able to dance better them some.

First off people were showing up who voted early and were told to come back to our location, which was incorrect, they should have been told to go to their precinct to caucus.

Secondly, my precinct chair didn't show up. I offered to step up to be the temporary chair and later the permanent secretary. The election judge did not hand out the packets, I tried to get the packet several times and she didn't understand the process. One of the people helping me got the precinct packet that only had the voter roll to check off names.

I saw another precinct where they were filling out their info, so I asked him if had his packet and he told me yes, I explained that the EJ wasn't giving it to me, he said to go get it. I tried again to get the packet and finally the Republican lady told me to look on the chair where there were several packets sitting there. The Republicans were actually very helpful to me, even though they didn't have to be, I was truly thankful for their help.

I finally got the packet and proceeded to try and conduct the convention. My hubby was a big help in getting people to form into the two groups. One group was very rude to him, one lady wanted deck him. He tried to explain that we were offering to fill in and run the caucus since no one there knew anything AT ALL. We did the best we could with what little training we had, even though people were rude. A lot of these caucus goers were pretty old and cranky. Hell, we just recently voted to allow alcohol to be sold here, even though the surrounding areas has been wet for years. So, that should tell ya something.

We got everyone signed in, after they signed in most left.


Now the other precinct that shared the gym with us evidently didn't have anyone who knew what they were doing. They did pick up their packets and was using the voter rolls as their official paper work, and only used the official paper work to use a the delegate sign in sheet.


I have such a caucus headache, after I got home I called the TCDP to inform them of the nightmare I experienced. I told them my story and asked him if I could bring in the paper work and if they would make sure I did everything right.

I will deliver everything tomorrow. Wish me luck.

I started to post this here last night, but instead posted in a separate thread which not many people went too, and I had a huge headache after all was said and done, so I am posting it here as well.

End of Transmission.

[theredpen]

88. Blog entry about Pct. 12 (McKinney/Collin County)

http://blog.deltos.com/texas/archives/2008/03/caucusmania.html

Tonight I chaired the Texas Democratic Party caucus for Precinct 12 (and hosted 131 and 149). I stood up in front of 500 voters and (at the top of my lungs) belted out the instructions for the evening's caucus vote. We ended up supporting Barack Obama 3:2 over Hillary Clinton on all three caucuses. It was sheer madness dealing with all these voters.

Two years ago, I was the election judge for Precinct 12, and the caucus consisted of myself and the clerk, who at the time was the Precinct Chair for 12. This was about as far from that as one could get. We didn't even get started until 8pm because it took that long to close the polls.

There was some weirdness going on between the Clinton and Obama camps, but after a while, I had convinced them to calm down and that neither side was going to get an unfair advantage. ("I'm the arbiter, my word is law!") Apparently the Obama camp had sent out folks to grab the Precinct Chair packets before the chairs had even come in; I had to hunt around for mine.

We managed to get through the nominal election of permanent chair (me) and secretary (Shelly Williams). Then the delegate process brought out the mathematician in a few of us, and the final tally for Pct. 12 was twelve delegates for Obama, and six for Clinton.

I went to the Elections Office to see if I could help Bill Baumbach there, but he was doing just fine without me, so I called a few friends with the info from the night, and went to the DPCC gathering in North Plano, where we watched the results come in until around 12:30am. It was a long, exhilarating day.

[TXDem24]

89. Southeast Denton County ...

was a tidal wave. Six precincts were consolidated in one voting location. The last voter went in after 8:30 pm while a crowd of over 600 people were stacked up for the caucus. We broke up the crowd into precincts and had to conduct the caucus outdoors in the parking lot. Once most of the caucus attendees were signed in and validated, the remainder of the caucus-goers moved indoors to performed the actual business of the caucus. Our precinct, 210, had 147 people and completed filled the delegate slots (we were not the largest). We finally completed the paperwork at 12:30 am. Unfortunately, our delegate count was screwed up on the State Democratic Delegate hotline, so we haven't actually posted our results (3 Clinton, 15 Obama).
In 2006, I was in the caucus at the same location with a TOTAL of 26 people for six precincts. It's amazing what can happen when a crowd is motivated. In reality, we needed more people who understood the process and helped manage the situation. Oh well, life is learning process.

Fight the Right. They only think they are.

[PDittie]

90. 244

in West U. With help from caucus-goers who brought sign-in sheets and clipboards, we got them all signed in by 8:20. Still lots of grumbling. I'm sure many left without signing in.

So as a result I was not elected permanent convention chair, but still had to assist by telling the woman who was how to do everything, what to say. Now I know how Denise Davis felt working for Tom Craddick.

Our caucus went 63-37 Obama, with 20 delegates to him and 11 to her.

And I also got thumped in my re-election bid for precinct chair, 70-28. Sheesh. It's a good thing I don't have much of an ego.

[Princess Buttercup]

92. 224, NE Travis County

There was a crowd waiting outside when we got there. I couldn't tell if it was people waiting to vote or people lining up to go in for the caucus. They opened the doors and started letting people in at 7:15, so I guess the voting was done. A guy at the door asked me and my husband if we were Republicans. We said no and followed the huge crowd of Democrats to the school gym. I don't know where they put the Republicans.

There were some loud people who were trying to take over, but the precinct chair did a good job taking control and saying he knew how to do it. The loud people were looking at stacks of paper they had and telling him "you're supposed to do this," etc. He kept explaining the process to them and they settled down. They started signing people in about 7:30 and at one point had to go get more sign-in sheets. The precinct chair used the time to stand up on a table at the front and explain the whole procedure to us. Once they had more sheets they got everyone signed in. We had 259 people sign in. A lot of people left after signing in, including my husband, because our kids had TAKS on Wednesday and they needed to go to bed. I stayed and talked to my next-door neighbor, who was there with her baby, who was wearing a T-shirt that said "Babies for Barack."

One of the loud people from the beginning was elected chair. She was an Obama supporter, and, once she figured out that the precinct chair (a Clinton supporter) was following the rules, she calmed down and cooperated with him and all went well. We had 197 for Obama and 62 for Clinton, which broke down to 19 delegates for Obama and 6 for Clinton. I stayed until they started voting for delegates and alternates (at this point it was 9:30) and then my neighbor and I decided to head for home as we didn't want to be delegates.

Anyway, I was happily surprised to see so many Democrats turn up in this area.

[sonias]

93. Babies for Barack

Cute! We had dogs for Barack during the day. They were sporting T-shirts walking around.

I say it's a good idea to reach out and work with your PCT chairs. Most of them are excellent and could always use the help.

Thank you for your report. Did you get elected as a delegate or alternate to the SD convention?


Sonia