nevada caucus

  • The Las Vegas Review-Journal crunches some numbers to show that the influence of caucus-goers widely varied, depending on their voting location.
    [V]oters at the casinos had, on average, twice as much influence as if they had voted near where they lived...Strip voters weren't the only voters who had greater individual influence on the caucus results based on where they were. For example, in Carson City, the ratio of voters per delegate was almost 19, but in Esmeralda County, it was just 1.5.
    The Democrats are allowed to keep this system at their discretion, but I see it as more evidence that Nevada should transition out of the caucus system. (thx, flea) (0) #
    1/25/2008
  • Even though Clinton won the most state delegates in today's Nevada caucus, because Obama did so well in the rural and northern parts of the state, he's being initially assigned more national delegates from Nevada, which is of course what counts in the end. Of course, more national delegates are assigned during the County Conventions, so this will likely change, but that does allow the Obama campaign to muddy the waters a bit. (7) #
    1/19/2008

Pictures and more from the Nevada caucus


Here are some pictures taken at Vaughn Middle School today, where I participated in the Nevada caucus. (All photos taken by flea.)

I got there a little early, helping the Obama campaign give out stickers as caucus-goers walked in. (This is where I had my unfortunate encounter with a Clinton supporter.) There were four precincts voting at the school, so there were quite a few people filing in.

At noon, you had to be signed in and inside your precinct's room. They explained the caucus rules, computed the viability threshold at 13, and then had us gather in the parts of the room that represented our first choice candidate. The Edwards group barely made viability, but they were in. It was immediately clear that Obama had more people than Clinton, but there was still the "realignment" round. Only two candidates with any voters did not make viability: Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson. Most of those people realigned with Obama, but a couple went to the Clinton camp.

They counted up the realignments, put the final count on a white board, and started assigning the delegates. Obama got 7, Clinton 4, and Edwards 3. Right after this, each group was responsible for electing the delegates who will attend the county convention and cast their votes. It was a bit of a chaotic process, but I was glad that we sent a diverse group.

Our room started to empty out, so we started wandering around the school to see how the other precincts were doing. The picture in the upper right above was from one of the other rooms, held in the school gym. It was the only room in the school that Clinton took. (Obama was up three overall.)

After the results in our local precincts were settled, we went back home where the networks were already calling it for Clinton. Overall, I enjoyed the process, but was depressed by some of the reasons people had for choosing their candidates. And although I liked the community aspect of caucusing, I still feel that primaries are a fairer system.

One last interesting thing of note: it looks like the results here in Nevada are breaking down the same lines as the Question 7 campaign in 2006 (which I worked on). Notably, Question 7 did very poorly among older voters and Hispanic voters, exactly where Clinton did her best. Additionally, it looks like Obama beat Clinton by 10 points in Washoe County (Reno), and lost badly in Clark County (Vegas). Similarly, Question 7 did poorly in Clark and had its best performance in Washoe. I'm not sure what this says, but it's an interesting observation.

All right, time to go get some food after a long day of politickin'.

Correction: It's been a year since the 2006 elections, so I got some facts wrong. First, Question 7 did the best in Storey County, not Washoe, although it did very well in Washoe. Second, Question 7 did very well among Hispanics and not so well among African-Americans, so I completely reversed that trend. I guess that makes the above a less interesting observation.

Sat, 01/19/2008 - 3:37pm

Back from the caucus

Quick update: just got back from caucusing here in Reno, Nevada. Obama took 50% of the delegates in my precinct compared to Clinton's 29%, but CNN is calling it for Clinton. I'll be back in a bit with pictures and more details, but I'll just say one thing: if you don't think those Muslim emails going around are hurting Obama, you're wrong. One elderly woman with a Clinton sticker shouted at me nastily: "I won't vote for a Muslim!" I spoke with another person who had the same belief, and I later saw her in the Clinton corner. Very depressing.

Sat, 01/19/2008 - 2:17pm
  • Most pollsters are skipping the Nevada caucuses because they think the transient population, the newness of the early caucus date, and the nature of caucuses themselves make it too difficult to do. Having worked for a statewide campaign here, I know this to be true, but this is great: I might be able to walk into my caucus location next week without a pre-declared winner. (via political wire) (9) #
    1/11/2008
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