The cutting-edge technology used to tally the caucus votes

On Tuesday I attended my first Democratic caucus. I live in a conservative neighborhood at the north end of a liberal city, and as I was driving to the caucus I imagined that it would be me, three old ladies, and the sound of crickets.

Wrong.

As I approached the crowd, I asked someone on the outer edges which caucus it was and was gratified to see her smile and say, “The Republicans don’t caucus ’til 8. These are all Dems.”

What? In my neighborhood?!

I wasn’t the only one who was surprised. A local somewhat well-known (to our group) Republican character running for some office or another looked downright appalled as he walked past the group. I wish I’d had the reaction time required to snap a picture of the expression on his face.

The shell-shocked caucus chairwoman managed to keep it together with grace, and the general mood was lighthearted and happy. After we’d all shown our voter registration cards or IDs and proof that we’d voted in the primary, we were directed to write down all of our information, including which candidate we supported.

After about 30 minutes, we were seated comfortably in a cafeteria chatting excitedly about democracy and the election. We looked around, trying to guess who among us might be Republicans in Hillary clothing while waiting for the people in charge to tally the votes.

We were informed that 235 of us had shown up, and that in 2004, 13 people had. Everyone looked around, feeling pretty impressed with themselves until the caucus chairwoman casually, smilingly tossed out, “Where have you all been hiding? It would have been nice to hear from you before now!”

They then announced our precinct’s results:

80 votes for Hillary Clinton
155 votes for Barack Obama

After that, they split us up into groups by candidate and asked us to elect our delegates, who will move on to the county caucus at the end of March.

And that was it. It was orderly - as orderly as 235 Democrats in one place can be - and it was friendly, and everyone left with a good feeling. Of course, 155 of those people left with a slightly better feeling, but overall, it was a good experience for all involved.

No questionable or illegal proceedings. No voter disenfranchisement. No shouting, crying, or police. Just 235 people, excited about a Presidential election, enthusiastically spending a couple of hours to help determine its course.

Two things are for sure in these politically uncertain times:

Texas will be very important in determining the 2008 Democratic Party nominee.

And Texas doesn’t like to do things like anybody else.

On March 4th, Democratic voters in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont will be voting in their respective primaries. Ohio and Texas are the biggest prizes in term of delegates, with a total of 370 delegates up for grabs between them, including the oft-discussed Superdelegates.

Texas is poised to be a big battleground in the war for delegates, and it’s acknowledged by both camps that Texas is a must-win for Senator Clinton. Clinton hopes to make up some ground by honing in on the Latino vote, a demographic which has typically been friendly territory for her and her husband.

But Texas holds a few surprises for the uninitiated. Texas does things like, say, choosing delegates, in an unusual way. The Burnt Orange Report goes in depth on this, if you’re interested in the nitty gritty, but the basic idea is that delegates are allotted by District according to voter turnout in the previous two statewide elections. So, if your district had particularly large voter turnout in the last two elections, it will be allotted more delegates this time around.

What does this mean for Senators Obama and Clinton? Well, at the risk of making some very large generalities, it might mean that even if Clinton can clinch most of the Latino vote (whether she can is a debate unto itself) she probably can’t carry Texas on that factor alone. Even though Latinos make up approximately 25% of the registered voters in Texas, many of the Districts with heavy Latino populations aren’t delegate-rich.

Participation in this year’s primary is expected to be very high in every corner of the Lone Star State. Clearly, no candidate can - or should - claim to have a lock on the vote from any given slice of the population. Both candidates will have to cover a lot of ground over the next two weeks – both physically and in terms of strategy – before they can hope to claim victory in Texas. Many of my more conservative friends who have supported Ron Paul will come out in the primary for Obama, while most of my baby boomer colleagues will be voting for Senator Clinton. By next Thursday, when the two candidates will be in Austin for a debate broadcast on CNN and Univision, the discussion will have reached a fever pitch.

One thing’s for sure: Texas Democrats, myself included, are feeling pretty good about this rare opportunity to affect the outcome of the Presidential election.

This article was also posted at Voice Your Vote by LeftyLucy, my alter alter ego.