The March 4, 2008 Texas State Convention ( Caucus ) was confusing, at best; possibly corrupted, at worst.
Absolutely No Candidate Bashing or Promoting Allowed! - Just The Facts!
If you participated in the Texas Convention (Caucus) on March 4, 2008, and experienced any problems, questionable actions, or fraud; please enter that info on this blog. Submit First-Hand personal experiences ONLY.
Include your name, names of others involved, precinct number or caucus location, physical documentation you have (ie. video or documents), and as much information as possible. If I have further questions, I will contact you.
3/6/08
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Just add a comment here and let me know that you have a detailed, first hand, Texas caucus or primary vote story to tell. I will set up a blogger account for you, so that you can do that.
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Denton County Convention
There were JOHN MCCAIN primary voters participating in the caucus. SOME OFFICIALS, wearing BARACK OBAMA buttons, were handling our HILLARY CLINTON CAUCUS FORMS. Did they forward them to the Denton County Convention? Some at the caucus said that CLINTON sheets were unaccounted for.
Also, they ran out of CAUCUS forms (so the elderly for HILLARY CLINTON left), there was no verification of the information; the forms were immediately forwarded to the Denton County Convention.
Our caucus, moreover, disenfranchised the elderly that overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton. The overwhelming Obama supporters from our urban college, University of North Texas, were allowed inside the convention.
However:
THE elderly, for HILLARY CLINTON, with canes and even walkers were made to stand outside for over 3 hours AND then had to stay outside in the DARK while trying to fill out their respective caucus forms. Many could not bear the severe cold weather and no outside lighting; it was cold, snowed the night before; and it was pitch black; no forms; a few officials were trying to get us to write BARACK OBAMA'S name on our respective caucus forms. We won the Texas Primary, but are we being robbed of our Texas Caucus?
I sincerely hope that Denton County individuals, in particular precincts 405-415, will be able to substantiate and provide additional information.
I was, and am, very infuriated at the very least.
Sharon, I thank you very much for your dedication and assistance. Blessings, Matt
(Additional personal information is available upon request)
I was in Precinct #300 in Parker County Texas and it went well. The chair was an Obama supporter so he made sure that the secretary be a Clinton supporter. Everyone was cordial and fair. We ended the night with 6 for Clinto and 5 for Obama. All is well in Parker County Texas!
I vote in precinct 1119 in Southwest Fort Worth. No identification was checked whatsoever. It was chaos. People had to stand out in the cold for two hours. Many elderly residents left because they could not stand that long. People with school children left, because the TAKS test was given early the next morning. That meant teachers also needed to go home. It was after 10PM by the time the voting was over.
Arlington Precinct 1380 was disorganized, no ID's were checked, and sign up sheets were merely passed around.
There was confusion over what ID number to use because the sheet said one thing, but they told us to write a different number. There were numerous crossouts on the sheets.
Unsure exactly what happened to all of the sheets, as they kept asking for them to be turned in, but never acknowledged if they received them all, of which I am not sure they knew how many they passed out in the first place.
There were not enough seats because there were two caucuses going on in the same room - which only added to the confusion.
All in all it was unorganized, confusing, chaotic, and pretty much open for fraud. The whole process was patently unfair to those who worked the night shift, or had reasons for not being out at night, and not to mention the disabled who are able to vote by mail, but cannot make it to the caucus.
If you need personal info, will give it separately. Thanks, Mea
I WAS IN HOUSTON TEXAS ON MARCH 4TH, TO OBSERVE A CAUCUS, AND IT WAS A DISASTER!! I came out from California to see how the caucus was run, because I was very curious.
The problems began when I went to help out at a caucus. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE. There were approx. 500 people lined up for Obama and Clinton. They were all put in a special location to wait for the precinct primary voting to stop. It was going way overtime, and so people were starting to get angry and frustrated.
There were 5 precincts in this particular location ( The Beverly Hills Community Center) and finally, the judge came out to say that the people in charge could take down the names and proof of voting (if they did not have their voting stub, then take down their license'). Since the crowd was getting rowdy, and there was no structure, I jumped up on a bench to announce to these 500 people that they were going to put them into 5 lines to represent the 5 precincts.
They immediately became angry and starting saying that some of them had stood in line longer than other people, and it would not be fair if some people were able to move to the front of a new line once they were separated into 5 lines.
I assured them that if they got in the correct precinct line, then things would move much more quickly and once their names were verified in the book, (this is a book that has everyone on the list who has voted in the precinct and the judge has this book) their vote would be counted. That calmed the crowd down and things started moving right along.
Here was the bigger problem: Each time a person was to fill out their information, there was supposed to be a Clinton eyewitness and Obama eyewitness for each person who signed the sheet( and write down which candidate they wanted) to make sure it was legitimate. The eyewitness was called a Precinct Captain. Well out of the 5 precincts, only two Precinct Captains were there for Clinton, and 5 for Obama. It was clear to me that the legal aspect of this process was slipping through the cracks.
If I came in from California to observe the caucus procedure in Houston Texas, and ended up doing so much to try to make the caucuses run more smoothly, where the heck were the people who were supposed to do this properly in Texas? !!
As I see these returns coming in from the Texas caucuses, my eyes roll to the back of my head because I know first hand about the chaos, and know what really went on that night. I think the Texas Democratic Party needs to look into these caucuses, and what took place last night and fix their broken "Texas two-step" voting system.
Important note: At the Clinton headquarters that day, a guy named Bill was answering the phones. He received several calls from people saying that they had seen some of the Obama volunteers approaching people who had voted earlier in the day, give them their voter number that confirmed they voted with their first and last name. With this information, they would be able to put this on the official form at the actual caucus. Well this information would not be alarming to me if there was a Clinton and Obama eyewitness watching each person step up who signed the official form. But as I said earlier, that was simply not the case. Therefore , it would be effortless to slip in these voters who were not at the caucus at all.
(a) The tribunal hearing an election contest shall attempt to ascertain whether the outcome of the contested election, as shown by the final canvass, is not the true outcome because: ..(1) illegal votes were counted; or ..(2) an election officer or other person officially involved in the administration of the election: ____(A)prevented eligible voters from voting; or ____(B)failed to count legal votes; or ____(C)engaged in other fraud or illegal conduct or made a mistake. (b) In this title, "illegal vote" means a vote that is not legally countable. (c)This section does not limit a provision of this code or another statute expanding the scope of inquiry in an election contest.
5 comments:
Denton County Convention
There were JOHN MCCAIN primary voters participating in the caucus. SOME OFFICIALS, wearing BARACK OBAMA buttons, were handling our HILLARY CLINTON CAUCUS FORMS. Did they forward them to the Denton County Convention? Some at the caucus said that CLINTON sheets were unaccounted for.
Also, they ran out of CAUCUS forms (so the elderly for HILLARY CLINTON left), there was no verification of the information; the forms were immediately forwarded to the Denton County Convention.
Our caucus, moreover, disenfranchised the elderly that overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton. The overwhelming Obama supporters from our urban college, University of North Texas, were allowed inside the convention.
However:
THE elderly, for HILLARY CLINTON, with canes and even walkers were made to stand outside for over 3 hours AND then had to stay outside in the DARK while trying to fill out their respective caucus forms. Many could not bear the severe cold weather and no outside lighting; it was cold, snowed the night before; and it was pitch black; no forms; a few officials were trying to get us to write BARACK OBAMA'S name on our respective caucus forms. We won the Texas Primary, but are we being robbed of our Texas Caucus?
I sincerely hope that Denton County individuals, in particular precincts 405-415, will be able to substantiate and provide additional information.
I was, and am, very infuriated at the very least.
Sharon, I thank you very much for your dedication and assistance.
Blessings, Matt
(Additional personal information is available upon request)
I was in Precinct #300 in Parker County Texas and it went well. The chair was an Obama supporter so he made sure that the secretary be a Clinton supporter. Everyone was cordial and fair. We ended the night with 6 for Clinto and 5 for Obama. All is well in Parker County Texas!
I vote in precinct 1119 in Southwest Fort Worth. No identification was checked whatsoever. It was chaos. People had to stand out in the cold for two hours. Many elderly residents left because they could not stand that long. People with school children left, because the TAKS test was given early the next morning. That meant teachers also needed to go home. It was after 10PM by the time the voting was over.
Arlington Precinct 1380 was disorganized, no ID's were checked, and sign up sheets were merely passed around.
There was confusion over what ID number to use because the sheet said one thing, but they told us to write a different number. There were numerous crossouts on the sheets.
Unsure exactly what happened to all of the sheets, as they kept asking for them to be turned in, but never acknowledged if they received them all, of which I am not sure they knew how many they passed out in the first place.
There were not enough seats because there were two caucuses going on in the same room - which only added to the confusion.
All in all it was unorganized, confusing, chaotic, and pretty much open for fraud. The whole process was patently unfair to those who worked the night shift, or had reasons for not being out at night, and not to mention the disabled who are able to vote by mail, but cannot make it to the caucus.
If you need personal info, will give it separately. Thanks,
Mea
I WAS IN HOUSTON TEXAS ON MARCH 4TH, TO OBSERVE A CAUCUS, AND IT WAS A DISASTER!!
I came out from California to see how the caucus was run, because I was very curious.
The problems began when I went to help out at a caucus. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE. There were approx. 500 people lined up for Obama and Clinton. They were all put in a special location to wait for the precinct primary voting to stop. It was going way overtime, and so people were starting to get angry and frustrated.
There were 5 precincts in this particular location ( The Beverly Hills Community Center) and finally, the judge came out to say that the people in charge could take down the names and proof of voting (if they did not have their voting stub, then take down their license'). Since the crowd was getting rowdy, and there was no structure, I jumped up on a bench to announce to these 500 people that they were going to put them into 5 lines to represent the 5 precincts.
They immediately became angry and starting saying that some of them had stood in line longer than other people, and it would not be fair if some people were able to move to the front of a new line once they were separated into 5 lines.
I assured them that if they got in the correct precinct line, then things would move much more quickly and once their names were verified in the book, (this is a book that has everyone on the list who has voted in the precinct and the judge has this book) their vote would be counted. That calmed the crowd down and things started moving right along.
Here was the bigger problem: Each time a person was to fill out their information, there was supposed to be a Clinton eyewitness and Obama eyewitness for each person who signed the sheet( and write down which candidate they wanted) to make sure it was legitimate. The eyewitness was called a Precinct Captain. Well out of the 5 precincts, only two Precinct Captains were there for Clinton, and 5 for Obama. It was clear to me that the legal aspect of this process was slipping through the cracks.
If I came in from California to observe the caucus procedure in Houston Texas, and ended up doing so much to try to make the caucuses run more smoothly, where the heck were the people who were supposed to do this properly in Texas? !!
As I see these returns coming in from the Texas caucuses, my eyes roll to the back of my head because I know first hand about the chaos, and know what really went on that night. I think the Texas Democratic Party needs to look into these caucuses, and what took place last night and fix their broken "Texas two-step" voting system.
Important note: At the Clinton headquarters that day, a guy named Bill was answering the phones. He received several calls from people saying that they had seen some of the Obama volunteers approaching people who had voted earlier in the day, give them their voter number that confirmed they voted with their first and last name. With this information, they would be able to put this on the official form at the actual caucus. Well this information would not be alarming to me if there was a Clinton and Obama eyewitness watching each person step up who signed the official form. But as I said earlier, that was simply not the case. Therefore , it would be effortless to slip in these voters who were not at the caucus at all.
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