I don’t want to get too involved babbling about the voting yesterday or the insane ranting going on in Texas about the voting yesterday, because I am sitting here waiting for a phone call, but … I do have a few quick things to say regarding stuff I have been hearing on the radio and TV news today.
If you did not know there were caucuses in Texas, you apparently live in a hole with no TV’s, radios, newspapers or interaction with other humans. Really. People in Siberia know there are caucuses in Texas. It’s not like it hasn’t been the subject of a whole lot of hoopla in the media for about a month.
If there is only one person running for a particular office in a primary, there will only be one name on the ballot. All people running for all open offices have to be represented, even if there’s only one of them to list. This does not make the election a farce, because it isn’t an election … it’s a party primary.
If you insist on voting in the caucus at 8 am in the morning when you go to vote in the primary, you will be told no. You can’t vote in the caucus until the caucus has begun after the polls have closed.
Yes, people can leave the caucus after they have signed in and their vote will still count. It is not necessary to stay, unless you think you may change your vote or you give a damn about who the delegates end up being and the other party business.
Yes, if a precinct runs out of sign-in sheets and doesn’t have a way to print or get more, they can create sign-in sheets themselves by drawing on blank paper. Those votes will still count. Anyone saying to just run to a Kinko’s or grocery store has never been to a small Texas town. There are places on the planet where copy machines are not readily available 24/7.
The results for the caucuses are not instantaneous. In fact, they aren’t even official until the June state convention. Any information you get about them now you are only getting because the state party has been trying to appease the media’s need to know something immediately. There are a lot of people out there who obviously don’t recall past elections when we didn’t know who the next president was going to be before we went to bed the night of voting. Anything involving pieces of paper and hand counting is going to take a while. UN observers are not necessary. I know you’d like to know who won them this instant, but it doesn’t work that way here. Acquire some patience and deal with it.
Phone’s ringing! More later.