Discussion for article #238076
no mo’ Texas Two Step?
I’m glad about this. Showing up to the polls twice is a royal pain in the arse. The caucus doesn’t start until after the polls close at 7:00 and in 2008, the caucus at my precinct wasn’t released until almost 9:00 PM. Real pain for those of us who have small children. Your choice is pay someone $30 to watch your kid for two hours, or not caucus. What is more, if you didn’t vote in the primary, you couldn’t participate in the caucus anyway. While I am happy that Obama was able to utilize his more motivated supporters to split the Texas delegates despite the shellacking he took in the primary, the process was confusing, difficult, and disenfranchising. I accidentally caucused for Pat Buchanan /jk.
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Having been a precinct captain for Obama in 2008- I’ll just say I’m glad the system is gone, though we did work the system effectively in 2008, delivering more delegates for Obama.
The system is confusing for voters. No one will miss it.
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No one knew what the hell was going on in the caucus I attended. Someone finally shouted a suggestion to the young kid, a poll watcher with a clip board I believe, that everyone split into groups according to who they supported and sign a sheet stating their support.
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We were organized and informed - and we made sure the voters in our precinct were informed as well. 2008 wasn’t a normal primary though - emotions were running high and it was fairly easy to get people to turn out. I don’t think that will be true in other years.
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Caucuses are an anachronism. They mandate a meeting (which many voters can’t attend) and spend hours doing something that could be accomplished in a few minutes for most participants if it were a simple vote. Even worse, have the meeting on top of the voting, to waste even more time.
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neither are scheduled to hold “Super Tuesday” primaries
Aaaargh!
Neither is scheduled to hold a … primary.
They are not scheduled to hold … primaries.
Take your choice, or reword the whole shmeer, but don’t print nonsense.
That it comes from AP does not let you off the hook. In fact, that’s a separate offense.
It is. And in 1976 I got stuck with representing my precinct at the county convention to boot. I may have been the only uncommitted caucus goer in the precinct who refused to commit to ABC. (For those too young to remember: Anyone But Carter)
That’s a great idea. I always vote and attend the precinct caucuses,but the second phase of the primary was district and state conventions held weeks later on a Saturday. As another commenter said above,it was a pain in the ass to have have to show up 2-3 times on separate days to fully participate in the process. I can tell you this too,the precinct and district chairpersons were overwhelmed in 2008
I agree. 2008 was fun,but the precinct caucuses,district convention and state conventions were clusterf**ks in a lotta places. You’re right. It was confusing and the election officials were overwhelmed.
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In 2008,where I live,3 precincts caucused in the same school cafeteria. There were Obama supporters in one precinct that knew more about the rules than any of the three Precinct Chairpersons. Even though I was a Hillary supporter,I thanked one of the Obama supporters for making the process a little less confusing. Not sure how experienced the precinct chairs were. I know the attendance of so many supporters for both candidates overwhelmed them. All-in-all it was still fun stuff. Unforgettable.