Monday, February 11, 2008

Off to try to get more election workers


Remember, if you are truly committed to your candidate you have to vote twice. Once on the ballot, which decides the majority of delegates, and then during the caucus Tuesday March 4 at 7:15 PM. You can also leave a note with someone who attends if you can't make it but would like to be chosen as a delegate or alternate to the next level convention at the county or senate district.

For the first time in years this is a hotly contested Democratic presidential candidate race in Texas with Barack Obama surging and most of the Democratic political establishment trying to hold the line for Hillary. Scott Henson, my Texas blog expert on the law, suggests that Obama and Huckabee would be best for our broken justice system and I agree with him. Of course, you may think that may make their opponents more electable. When you go to the voting booth do you consider the candidates positions or their electability?

Received this false email again - Barack Obama is a Muslim. This is a hoax and doesn't make sense. It is more than a hoax, it is a deliberate false smear of the type that the Republican party specializes in. What is more I get this smear from active church going Christians. They are either ignorant or don't mind violating the Ninth Commandment about bearing false witness.

Final word - it is very possible that Hillary Clinton will take the primary and lose the Texas caucus and convention delegates to Obama. Obama has a higher percentage of devoted, enthusiastic supporters than Clinton does and that disparity is much more of a factor in caucuses than in primaries. It takes some enthusiasm to go out and vote. It takes more to go out and stand with your neighbors and be counted and then go to the next levels in the caucus process.

ADDED - Where Obama is winning and losing - Brendan does some quick graphs of conventional wisdom.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, what do you mean by voting twice? Why do you need to participate in the caucus? Can you provide some links to this? Is the caucus vote more important than regular voting?

Links, I need links! (I couldn't google this). The only thing I could find is here and here . Oh, and this .

So I need practical information. Where and when do I show up? Do I have the right credentials? And how many votes are up for play?

Gary said...

Here is the link again.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/8/95310/13683

228 delegates are up for grabs. Only 126 delegates will be assigned based on primary results. 67 are determined through a convention process. The rest are super delegates (too high) which are Democratic politicians.

You qualify by voting in the Democratic primary.

You can go to the caucus election night March 4 that is assigned to your precinct and vote again to choose delegates committed to particular candidate to the senate district convention. Most times everyone who shows up at the precinct can then go to the senate district level which will be nearby. The same thing happens there. Most times even all senate district level participants who want to can go on to the state convention in Austin. At the state convention the primary delegates based on the primary vote are chosen by senate district. Also chosen are the state delegates based on the number of supporters for each candidate who have shown up at the state convention. Four years ago the state convention was in Houston.

Gary said...

There is more here.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/11/10499/2994/116/454485