FIREBORN

The Texas Two-Step is actually the name of a dance, and boy howdy did the democrats do some steppin.?  

First we had to go to the polls and vote, and for ten days before our  Texas Tuesday (March 4,2008), we could cast that vote almost everywhere.  A couple of days after early voting started  I chose a nearby United Supermarket and stepped up to the plate.  There were no crowds and the people who manned the tables seemed very friendly and competent.  But since I?d never participated in a democratic primary before, I asked them, ?So what?s next?? 

?You?re done,? they told me.

?No second vote or return visits or anything?? 

?Nope, that?s it.?

And I walked away with my red white and blue ?I voted? sticker feeling that I had done my best for my candidate.

The day before Texas Tuesday I was all ready to sit back and watch the fireworks on TV when I got a call from one of the candidates? offices reminding me of the upcoming vote.

?Worry not,? I told them,  ?I have already cast my vote for our fearless leader.?

?That?s great,? the cheerful volunteer told me, ?but don?t forget to make it to the caucus by 7:00 pm to vote again.?

?Huh????

?Yes, in Texas you get to vote twice.  If you need to find out more about it call this number....?

?Do you know how this is done or how long it will take??

?I know you have to sign in for the candidate of your choice, but I don?t know much about it.  If you?ll call that number?.?

I called the number?several times.  The lines were busy, so I assumed that I wasn?t the only one wondering why the news ( who had so very vividly told me how caucuses were held on the east coast) gave not the least clue about what was going on here.  I do remember some woman who was being interviewed about the upcoming election managing to throw in ?be sure to vote twice.  In Texas we get to vote two times.? before she was cut off.   Hmmmm.   The city also released a phone number that would open Tuesday and answer any questions or deal with voting problems. 

I kept dialing and around 10:00 pm I finally reached someone.  They kindly confirmed the second vote, calling it a district caucus. They were nice and patient but not very forthcoming with details other than the name and address of my polling place and, of course, a warning that I should be there by 7:15 pm.    Okaaay.

I took my quest to my trusty computer.  A Google search for ?Texas Democratic Caucus? found lots of general info, but no specifics so I finally fell back on my tried and true political aficionados: The League of women voters website: http://www.txdemocrats.org/page/-/Convention08/howto08.pdf .

 ( I now wish that I had taken the time to read the voters guide that my husband brought back from the United when he had voted, but I thought  I was done with it and had other things on my mind.)   Their voters? guides always provide both the unbiased basics and they site their sources.  They had a whole page telling about how the Texas precinct conventions work (yeah that?s what our ?caucuses? are really called). 

In a nutshell, the main vote pledges 2/3 of the Texas democratic delegates for nomination by the party.  The other 1/3 is awarded by precinct conventions.  Precincts are each allotted delegates according to their size, area, and who knows what else, but after the polls have ended, it?s members (consisting of anyone from that area who has voted) gather at their designated voting site and the fun begins. 

The start time was posted at 7:15 pm, but in reality, nothing could begin until the polls closed and the paperwork was checked.  So we sat and waited until near 8pm.  Our school cafeteria hosted voting for 4 precincts.  Four nice pink signs with precinct numbers were placed in four corners of the room.  As people entered the room, they eventually figured this out and gravitated toward their own.   Then we all waited to be told what to do.

A nice young man offered us stickers for one of the candidates.  We accepted, and so it became apparent what side we were on.  As I looked around, I realized we had pretty much all been labeled this way.  Nice touch.

As it turned out, our precinct was allotted 5 delegates.  A quick impromptu election of a presiding officer was held.  In fact, anyone could have asked for the job and gotten it if the official rep was not there (saw that in the LOWV site too).  We were instructed to sign our names, addresses, phone numbers, emails(optional), as well as gender, ethnicity, if we were disabled, if we were gay or lesbian, and whether or not we were interested in being a delegate or alternate to carry the precinct?s votes to the city convention.   

I knew from the LOWV site that each precinct had the right to hold their meeting however they wanted as long as they ran it by the Robert?s Rules of Order and Texas

Democratic Party Rules. Our precinct placed a couple of sign up sheets on a couple of tables and let people sign them of their own accord.  Nobody asked to see any ID or cards in our group.  I didn?t see any lists or anything to prove that I had previously voted, either.  Everybody filled out their information on the honor system, I guess. 

When the voting started, we were told that after we filled out our lines of the carbon copied form we could leave, and most people did. 

Our group was painfully disorganized and whenever I asked questions I had to pursue the answers or they walked away.  It was explained to me at one point that there had to be six votes met for a delegate to be acquired by a candidate, but that turned out to be the tie breaking process if an uneven number of votes were left over (all odd numbers would be rounded up to the number six, if it is not reached the delegate goes to the other candidate.) 

In the end, we had 48 people show up.  Obama got 26 votes, Clinton got 21, and there was 1 undecided vote.  That means Obama got 3 delegates and Clinton got 2  from our precinct.  But before this was announced, those of us who were still present had to vote on who would be our group chairman, our secretary, our spokesman. 

Then a great deal of trouble was spent determining what percentage of each candidate?s voters were men and how many were women, as well as the ethnicity of the men and women?s votes.  It seemed like a big waste of time to me, since the actual vote was all that should have mattered, but this had to be done to make the precinct delegates more representative of the voters they would carry to the city convention on the 29th.

I went ahead and volunteered to be a local delegate for my candidate and my husband offered to be an alternate.  On the 29th we will have to go to the city?s big to-do and cast the votes that have been pledged from our district.  I guess this is another one of those checks and balances to involve all striata of the population in the political process and to keep votes safe since there are no delete buttons involved.

I might also mention that right after we had closed the poll, chosen our officers for the meeting and were preparing to tally the votes a lady walked in and wanted to vote.  By the rules, the vote had already ended but she could have stayed and joined us for what we were currently doing.  She was upset that the notices did not specify what time the polls would close and opted not to stay.  Another gentleman followed her but his precinct had not closed their vote yet so he was in.

As for results, of the other three precincts one was allotted 2 delegates, and since two people from that district voted for the same candidate, Obama got both of them.

Another of the precincts had no one show up so their single delegate was taken by no one.  If a single person had shown, their candidate would have won that delegate. I asked if that would make it an undecided and was told that nobody knew.

The last precinct had 43 people show up. Obama got 22 votes to Clinton?s 21 so they each got 2 delegates. 

Overall, though it was frustrating to see the lack of organization, it was also interesting to see how the democratic party proportionally allows the interests of each precinct to be represented by 1/3 of their state delegates.  Not such a bad concept after all, huh?

Live and learn.