Texas caucus report

Yeah, I’m a bad citizen. I did vote in the Democratic primary which allowed me to participate in the caucus going on right now. I opted against going to the caucus for a number of reasons (mostly household considerations), and I think I may be glad I did.

A friend just phoned from a caucus in Dallas. He described barely controlled pandemonium with a very, very large turnout and only five sign-up sheets provided for the unfortunates who are running the show at his location.

I’d read reports this thing was going to be a mess. Some locations weren’t aware they would be hosting caucuses as late as last week.

The way I look at it, states that always hold caucuses have organization problems. It was a safe bet this primary-plus-caucus in Texas was going to be far less than smooth.

If I hear more about tonight’s events I’ll be adding to this page rather than starting a new post.

Update: Sounds like my friend’s experience was the norm tonight. From The Bastard’s Blog :

My best guess is that more than 200 people were present.  So many people were in attendance because Webb Elementary was hosting two precincts – my precinct, 2148,and our neighbor to the west, 2190.

It was a zoo.  Everybody talked over everybody else.  Precinct 2190 had a microphone, whereas 2148 had no voice augmentation.

It was difficult to hear a damned thing.

We had numbers from the day’s voting in the precinct, but no early voting numbers.  Obama led Clinton by seven votes in 2148, but that was hardly represented in caucus goers.  Obama folks outnumbered Clinton folks by two-to-one in my estimation.

The Obama campaign did a marvelous job mobilizing the base.  I’ve never seen so many Democrats in one place. 

There was a painful absence of leadership.  No clear direction provided, it seemed rather like herding cats.  By eight o’clock we had just begun the proces of signing in.

Others have reported similar circumstances.