[Assam] Caucusing In Texas

[amlan saha]

Here is another - as per the dem state election manual, in answer to the
question "who conducts the caucuses?", it says that - well, the precinct
captains do but if the precinct captain fails to turn up at the
predesignated caucus center on time, whoever  (voters) reaches there first
becomes the precinct captain and takes charge.

This on top of being able to vote effectively twice in the same election.

I love honky tonk land :-)

On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 12:48 PM, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:

> Thanks for enlightening us yet another amazing Texan trait , Ram.
>
> I know weird is everywhere. But this certainly  stands out :-)
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> At 11:33 AM -0600 3/5/08, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
> >Very few people in Texas have voted in the primaries and much less in the
> >Democratic primaries.
> >And boy, was it an experience.
> >
> >For those who are not familiar with the process, Texas has, what they
> call,
> >a "two-step' process for the Democrats. The Republican, don't go thru
> that
> >process in the Primaries - its the regular 'vote your candidate' process.
> >
> >The first part is to vote for the particular Democratic Party candidate ,
> >and a certain number of 'committed delegates' are given proportionally to
> >the the candidates.
> >
> >The second part is what is called the "Caucus". Now, this is easier said
> >than explained. But basically, from what I understand:
> >After the last person in line (at 7 PM) has voted, the Caucus begin. In
> the
> >Caucus, people are supposed to 'influence and cajole' voters who don't
> >support your candidate, form a goup and elect delegates to the
> State/Central
> >convention who will, in turn represent your candidate and cast their
> ballots
> >in his/favor.
> >
> >Confused? Well, so am I, and everyone I know is too.
> >
> >What really happened: from start to finish - it took about 5 hours. There
> >were just 6 machines, 3 people to register, and a bunch of other
> volunteers
> >giving you wrong information from time to time.
> >
> >But we did get to vote, and then stood in line for caucusing (if thats a
> >word). After an eternity, they basically told us to separate into lines
> (one
> >for Hillary and the other for Obama). The Hillary line had only a few
> >people, the Obama line was long in the precinct we voted. In the
> Caucusing
> >part, we had to write our names/address etc on a form. Thats it.
> >
> >There was no 'caucusing' in the cacus. They could have just cut to the
> >chase, and kept a form next to the ballot machines and people could have
> >done the same thing.
> >
> >On the whole, it was fun, and exciting to have taken part in a process
> that
> >certainly seems important..
> >
> >Hope y'all enjoyed this.
> >
> >Well, that much for politics - at least as its done in Texas.
> >
> >--Ram
> >_______________________________________________
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