GreNME
03-04-2008, 10:54 PM
Since I live in Texas I went to vote in the primary after work tonight. We also went to go caucus for our precinct as well, because in Texas the voting process (for primaries, at least) consists of a regular vote that counts for 2/3rds of the vote and 1/3rd that consists of a caucus after the polls close. It seemed weird, but seeing as I prefer having my voice heard I went to the caucus.
At the polling station, we quickly got in, made our first votes, and then went to grab something to eat while waiting for the initial voting to end. We sat in the car and ate while the last of the people got in to get their votes counted. Painless and easy.
The caucusing, on the other hand, was a different story. The precinct voting judge overseeing the voting was frazzles, frustrated, and cranky as all get-out. Add to that the fact that this election is seeing huge numbers of people voting, mostly for the Democratic Party (even in Texas). After signing in for the caucus I kind of wanted to step outside for fresh air, but thought twice about asking him if it was okay because he was already being mouthy and a bit belligerent toward the other volunteers and it wasn't worth the trouble. Instead, I sat down with Jen and explained to a couple of ladies who were present exactly what a caucus was and how things were basically going to go. Oh, and I tried to climb the wall-- the polling place was a school gymnasium and it had a small faux rock climbing section with letters and numbers as the hand- and foot-holds (brilliant!).
After everyone was signed up the cranky dude was trying to explain the process to us, but unfortunately he didn't seem to have read the material ahead of time and was trying to go through it as we went along. The problem with this is that some simple math was involved in determining how many delegates are afforded to each candidate, and cranky-dude kept flubbing up the math even though people were correcting him. By the time the Obama and Clinton people split up to vote within each group who was going to be the delegates for their group, most of the people were highly annoyed with his rude behavior and his belligerent responses to them. Because the people were annoyed, they just wanted to get in and out and there weren't a lot of people volunteering to be delegates. Because others weren't feeling enthused about doing so, I volunteered to be a delegate along with a few other people who also decided to help get it over with so that people could get home. We also chose alternate delegates (for which Jen volunteered) and then went over to the precinct table to sign our names to be contacted on where to show up as delegates.
When he began explaining the process to everyone before the two groups split up, I recall Cranky McCrankerton saying something to the effect of "I am not automatically a delegate but I hope you vote for me." Once Jen pointed that out to me I was a bit annoyed that someone who had a responsibility to facilitate the election process was trying to wedge his way into the delegate list like that. Jen and I both hoped that the Clinton crowd (which was where he went, we went to the Obama group) would make it a point to not elect him as a delegate. Unfortunately, he managed to get into the group of Clinton delegates-- there were 3 Clinton delegates and 5 Obama delegates for our precinct.
By the time we (the delegates) were all signing our names and giving contact info, Cranky was reading the final parts of the list and trying to get the process finished. He asked everyone if anyone had a resolution to bring to the convention, which most of the people were unprepared for or didn't understand, and a couple people (including myself) interrupted him to explain it to people in a way that was more understandable. Clearly the annoyance with Mr. McCrankerton was high and a few of us thought it best to keep things smooth to get things done. It was at this point Cranky-head proposes the caucus as done, and I looked at the paper he was reading from to make sure he was really going "by the book" with all of his steps.
Interestingly enough, he wasn't.
Mr. McCrankerton actually skipped right over having the delegates voting for a delegate chair for the precinct. I suspected he was doing it for similar reasons to his earlier mention of being elected a delegate-- because he wanted it himself-- so I interrupted him and pointed that step out to everyone who was there. The delegate chair was supposed to be elected by a majority vote, and since I was already quite aware that everyone there was annoyed with him I knew he wouldn't get it.
And what do I get for opening my big mouth? Take a guess at who is the delegate chair for my precinct. :eek:
Now, I didn't intentionally mean for that to happen. First, a couple of other people raised their hands and said they would do it, but before the vote could begin one of the two people who volunteered said they'd back down (presumably to hurry the other person into the position). The lady who would have been the default seemed somewhat reluctant, and I asked her if she really wanted to do it. Actually, I said something more like, "If you're not enthused about doing it I'll volunteer and do it so you don't have to." I actually said it half-jokingly, just to ease the tension that was mounting because Cranky was being pushy (he seemed annoyed that he lost "control" of the delegate situation) and the lady who had voluteered (Kim) had already blown up on him once, yelling at him about acting like a jerk. No sooner than the words left my mouth at least one person pointed at me and said "He should be the chair," and apparently a few others repeated it. Mr. McCrankerton began taking a vote for which one of us (Kim or myself) would be the chair, and then Kim decided to bow out. Jen tells me that something like twelve people had chimed in to have me be the chair by this time.
At that point I began taking down everyone's names, getting phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and making sure to let everyone know I'll be contacting them soon and making sure we make it to the local convention when we need to. This is definitely more than I planned on doing walking into the place tonight, but what can you do? Considering how annoyed everyone was with and how dubious I was of Cranky McCrankerton, I wasn't about to let him just walk away with it-- opportunism, especially through counting on the ignorance of others, is annoying as hell and I'm happy to block. So now I'm the local precinct chair of the 8 delegates for the precinct I live in. I also now have to look up what responsibilities I might have and make sure I do everything I'm supposed to do correctly. The cool thing is that I'll be keeping contact with a few people in the neighborhood, and hopefully I'll be able to keep in contact with them later. :)
At the polling station, we quickly got in, made our first votes, and then went to grab something to eat while waiting for the initial voting to end. We sat in the car and ate while the last of the people got in to get their votes counted. Painless and easy.
The caucusing, on the other hand, was a different story. The precinct voting judge overseeing the voting was frazzles, frustrated, and cranky as all get-out. Add to that the fact that this election is seeing huge numbers of people voting, mostly for the Democratic Party (even in Texas). After signing in for the caucus I kind of wanted to step outside for fresh air, but thought twice about asking him if it was okay because he was already being mouthy and a bit belligerent toward the other volunteers and it wasn't worth the trouble. Instead, I sat down with Jen and explained to a couple of ladies who were present exactly what a caucus was and how things were basically going to go. Oh, and I tried to climb the wall-- the polling place was a school gymnasium and it had a small faux rock climbing section with letters and numbers as the hand- and foot-holds (brilliant!).
After everyone was signed up the cranky dude was trying to explain the process to us, but unfortunately he didn't seem to have read the material ahead of time and was trying to go through it as we went along. The problem with this is that some simple math was involved in determining how many delegates are afforded to each candidate, and cranky-dude kept flubbing up the math even though people were correcting him. By the time the Obama and Clinton people split up to vote within each group who was going to be the delegates for their group, most of the people were highly annoyed with his rude behavior and his belligerent responses to them. Because the people were annoyed, they just wanted to get in and out and there weren't a lot of people volunteering to be delegates. Because others weren't feeling enthused about doing so, I volunteered to be a delegate along with a few other people who also decided to help get it over with so that people could get home. We also chose alternate delegates (for which Jen volunteered) and then went over to the precinct table to sign our names to be contacted on where to show up as delegates.
When he began explaining the process to everyone before the two groups split up, I recall Cranky McCrankerton saying something to the effect of "I am not automatically a delegate but I hope you vote for me." Once Jen pointed that out to me I was a bit annoyed that someone who had a responsibility to facilitate the election process was trying to wedge his way into the delegate list like that. Jen and I both hoped that the Clinton crowd (which was where he went, we went to the Obama group) would make it a point to not elect him as a delegate. Unfortunately, he managed to get into the group of Clinton delegates-- there were 3 Clinton delegates and 5 Obama delegates for our precinct.
By the time we (the delegates) were all signing our names and giving contact info, Cranky was reading the final parts of the list and trying to get the process finished. He asked everyone if anyone had a resolution to bring to the convention, which most of the people were unprepared for or didn't understand, and a couple people (including myself) interrupted him to explain it to people in a way that was more understandable. Clearly the annoyance with Mr. McCrankerton was high and a few of us thought it best to keep things smooth to get things done. It was at this point Cranky-head proposes the caucus as done, and I looked at the paper he was reading from to make sure he was really going "by the book" with all of his steps.
Interestingly enough, he wasn't.
Mr. McCrankerton actually skipped right over having the delegates voting for a delegate chair for the precinct. I suspected he was doing it for similar reasons to his earlier mention of being elected a delegate-- because he wanted it himself-- so I interrupted him and pointed that step out to everyone who was there. The delegate chair was supposed to be elected by a majority vote, and since I was already quite aware that everyone there was annoyed with him I knew he wouldn't get it.
And what do I get for opening my big mouth? Take a guess at who is the delegate chair for my precinct. :eek:
Now, I didn't intentionally mean for that to happen. First, a couple of other people raised their hands and said they would do it, but before the vote could begin one of the two people who volunteered said they'd back down (presumably to hurry the other person into the position). The lady who would have been the default seemed somewhat reluctant, and I asked her if she really wanted to do it. Actually, I said something more like, "If you're not enthused about doing it I'll volunteer and do it so you don't have to." I actually said it half-jokingly, just to ease the tension that was mounting because Cranky was being pushy (he seemed annoyed that he lost "control" of the delegate situation) and the lady who had voluteered (Kim) had already blown up on him once, yelling at him about acting like a jerk. No sooner than the words left my mouth at least one person pointed at me and said "He should be the chair," and apparently a few others repeated it. Mr. McCrankerton began taking a vote for which one of us (Kim or myself) would be the chair, and then Kim decided to bow out. Jen tells me that something like twelve people had chimed in to have me be the chair by this time.
At that point I began taking down everyone's names, getting phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and making sure to let everyone know I'll be contacting them soon and making sure we make it to the local convention when we need to. This is definitely more than I planned on doing walking into the place tonight, but what can you do? Considering how annoyed everyone was with and how dubious I was of Cranky McCrankerton, I wasn't about to let him just walk away with it-- opportunism, especially through counting on the ignorance of others, is annoying as hell and I'm happy to block. So now I'm the local precinct chair of the 8 delegates for the precinct I live in. I also now have to look up what responsibilities I might have and make sure I do everything I'm supposed to do correctly. The cool thing is that I'll be keeping contact with a few people in the neighborhood, and hopefully I'll be able to keep in contact with them later. :)