The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Clinton campaign training materials regarding Tuesday night's caucuses ominously advise supporters to take control of caucus sign-in sheets and vote tallies especially "if our supporters are outnumbered."
[Clinton caucus training material] goes on to say, "If our supporters are outnumbered, ask the Temporary Chair if one of our supporters can serves as the Secretary, in the interest of fairness.
"The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Hillary supporters hold these positions."
Now there can be only one purpose in trying to control the tally of votes under circumstances in which a campaign knows it's outnumbered, that it will lose an honest counting of the votes: to alter the true vote. To cheat. To steal. To suppress the votes of Texas caucus attendees and subvert the caucus process.
The phrase, "if our supporters are outnumbered," means, in simpler language, "If we lose the vote, take control of the vote tally and change the numbers."
Place this alongside the Clinton campaign threats to challenge the Texas caucuses and you get a full picture of what Clinton is up to: disrupt the caucuses at all costs. Steal votes, delay the reporting of honest vote totals, throw the process into chaos, do whatever it takes.
UPDATE -- There are other reactions, and links to perspectives on the Nevada caucus controversies involving Clinton campaign shenanigans, at DailyKos and Politico.
With all the attention that Tuesday night's precinct convention (or caucus, or "Texas Two-Step" part 2) is getting, there's going to be an enormous turnout at polling places at 7:15 pm on March 4, because so much is at stake.
It is crucial that each convention be conducted properly, because 67 national convention delegates will be elected through the process that begins with the precinct conventions in Texas. Every precinct throughout the state is in need of a precinct convention chair who understands the rules and can run the convention properly.
This precinct convention chair doesn't have to be the "precinct chair" who was elected in 2006, or a candidate for precinct chair whose term, if elected, will begin this year on April 28. Any Democrat who participates in the precinct convention can be elected as the permanent convention chair. And, if you know what needs to be done, that could be you.
The Rules Committee of the Bexar County Democratic Party has created an online training session on precinct convention procedures. Check it out here.
(While I contributed to this training module, the principal creators were Zada True-Courage, Ian Straus, Larry Meads, Dick Waits, and Nancy Timmer-Froment. My congratulations to them on a job well done!)
(Volunteer if you can -- take a day off from work or school, let us know about your experience, and we'll feature your story on BOR after the election is over! - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Passed along from The Travis County Democratic Party (512) 477-7500 (info@traviscountydemocrats.org):
Here's the deal, if we don't get enough folks to work these precinct polling locations, THEY WILL HAVE TO BE COMBINED!! This will lead to much confusion, turning first-time voters off, and possible voter disenfranchisement for both the primary and caucus!
If you are an Election Judge worried about missing your own caucus, you can hand off the post-poll closing paperwork delivery to an alternate judge or clerk.
If you can work basically 7am-7pm on election day, please read more below...
(Interesting and good to know... - promoted by Matt Glazer)
You have a right to take part in the precinct convention of your party if you voted in the 2008 primary for that same party. Your work schedule cannot interfere with that right. Here's what the Texas Election Code says:
ยง 161.007. UNLAWFULLY PROHIBITING EMPLOYEE FROM ATTENDING POLITICAL CONVENTION.
(a) A person commits an offense if, with respect to another over whom the person has authority in the scope of employment, the person knowingly:
(1) refuses to permit the other person to be absent from work for the purpose of attending a precinct convention in which the other person is eligible to participate or attending a county, district, or state convention to which the other person is a delegate; or
(2) subjects or threatens to subject the other person to a penalty for the purpose of preventing or retaliating for the other person's attendance at a precinct convention in which the other person is eligible to participate or for the other person's attendance at a county, district, or state convention to which the other person is a delegate.
(b) In this section, "penalty" means a loss or reduction of wages or other benefit of employment other than a deduction for the actual time of absence from work.
(c) An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
I am a precinct chair. I am trying to guess this right now. Your guess is as good as mine. Join the fun! Let's all guess! I will post the results on the day after the election because I'm sure as heck going to a party and get drunk after my caucus. The person who gets the closest to the actual number of voters that show up, without going over the number, is the winner!
Winner gets .... A NEW CAR! .... um no... a PONY.... no ... a lollipop. No. A lock of my hair which I am tearing out. o.O
If you got the e-mail "How to win your Precinct Caucus today with a link to a DFT's "handy guide", I hope you were as upset as I was.
There are some fundamental statements in this document that totally WRONG. I hope no one shows up with this document in hand and expects to take over a precinct convention as this "handy" piece of paper implies.
Though I find myself tonight in Mexicali, Mexico, a place where American politics lies only miles away and over a border fence, the sense that it is a "history-in-the-making" night is palpable. As I flipped to the local evening news here I saw that the top story was Obama's win. To think that the events that occured in Iowa, a state so distant to Mexico that it might as well be in Canada for most Mexicans, made the headlines across the green, white, and red speaks volumes to the history that was written on this January night.
I enjoyed my family's reaction to my newfound involvement in politics, they could plainly see my enthusiasm and most came to support Obama simply due to the passion they saw on my face and heard in my voice. Some of course shrugged off my wishful thinking by saying, "esos gringos will never vote a negrito into the Oval Office." As harsh as that may sound, many people up until a few weeks ago also believed in the notion that the US will elect a woman before they elect a black man. Now, with a decisive win under his belt, in no thanks to some overwhelming minority community--Iowa, a state that is 95% white voted for change. The face on newsstands tomorrow all across the country will be one of a man about as opposite as President Bush as they come...and no, I'm not talking about Mike Huckabee, I'm talking about Barack Obama!
An earthquake has begun, not near the Pacific's "ring-of-fire" or by the San Andrea fault line, but in landlocked Iowa. What began as a small rumble months ago when Obama was just believe to another "flavor-of-the-month" political celebrity, turned into a shaking of the polls, and now his movement has registered on the Richter scale. Waves will run through the hearts and minds of once disillusioned Americans and soon a movement will begin as the hope for change becomes a reality and consumes everyone in its path. Those who were once apprehensive, and shyed away from following their hearts, will now have reason to believe. Reason to believe that change can come about, that a new politics is possible, that universal health care which was once a privilge for the few can be a right to the many. That people will stop talking about the global climate crisis and begin to take action.
We began with HOPE, then we BELIEVED, and now we must take ACTION!
