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Posted on 01/04/2012 1:31:47 PM PST by stillafreemind
As Perry's representative spoke, everyone was quiet, respectful and listened. When she stepped down, there was applause. Then the speaker for Ron Paul stood and talked for a couple of minutes. Again, everyone was quiet and respectful. The group listened, and when the representative stopped talking, they clapped again.
Some candidates, like Michele Bachmann, had no speaker. The chairman asked if anyone would like to talk for her. A gentleman said he would speak about Bachmann and gave a very nice pep talk on her behalf. Everyone applauded, and so it went until all but Huntsman was represented.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The news never talks about platform issues. Wonder why that is?
Pardon my ignorance, but were there also caucases for democrats yesterday? Or, if not, why would someone who is an avowed 0bama supporter got to a caucus last night?
Ours was very similar. The only real issue is I had to turn people away finally after 7:15 because we were way over the capacity limit and the room was well above 90 degrees and packed wall to wall. Better to tick off 10 or so who didn’t get in than the 200 hot and crowded people by waiting forever to start. It’s considered a business meeting and nothing can start till registration is closed.
Everyone was respectful. There were no disruptors. We had ballots and they were with me the whole time till I handed them to the permanent precinct chairs, and I collected the unused ones. For the count I had my own mother and a longtime family friend for that with 4 observers from campaigns.
The votes were kept separate for each precinct, then separated into piles for each candidate, and tallied. Then everything was added and when everyone agreed the counting was closed. I called them in and had the counts read back to me candidate by candidate, and doublechecked them on the state website.
We elected our convention delegates and passed our platform resolutions and we were done in two hours. Ours is fairly typical of most counties.
Wow..sounds like you had a lot of responsibility. I actually like the caucuses. I doubt if people outside the state know about the platform resolutions. It’s not a quick vote by any means.
I thought it was nice that some parents brought their kids to see how the process worked. We have such a small rural area that it’s hard to find the kids for special delegates. I don’t believe there were any there that fit the age group needed.
Anyway..I love the process. Civility is key and no one knows if anyone changes their mind about who they are voting for. Unless you make it clear who you are for..no one knows.
The narrative had to be "Romney wins." Was there any talk or suspicion of ballot manipulation (e.g. someone pulling out 10 ballots at the last minute that just happend to be all for Romney)?
I'll guarntee that no Dems voted for Santorum. Not so confident that no Dems voted for Romney, however.
Any observations, rumors or opinions on the process?
FReegards!
I can truthfully say that I live in a small rural area. We knew all but 2 people that were there. Of course I don’t know who they voted for and neither one got up to say anything about any candidate.
The girl was okay..the boy..a young guy..struck me as out of place. When we did our platform work..he voted against everything.
To me..he was a punk kid who probably saw something on TV and decided to have fun with the locals.
I truly didn’t see anything off color at all. Not saying something couldn’t/didn’t happen somewhere else in the state..just not where I was.
We see most of these folks every few years at the caucus..it’s not like we’re in a town/city that has a lot of turn over.
Our stickers (denoting that we are registered) are always waiting for us and we have to sign in.
None in my area, other than we had lots of new registrations. Out of 187 people and a handful of observers we had about 50 new registrants. I doubt anything changed that was transmitted from the counties to the state, but there are possibilities at the caucus itself.
I don’t like the state’s ballot security procedures. There are basic rules laid down by the state but by and large counties work at their discretion. A good percentage don’t even do ballots, they just do slips of paper. Ripe for fraud and the caucus leaders would never know it.
They are trying to improve. I was one of the right hand people to the chair of our congressional campaign last time who’s now working with this at state, and she’s part of the team trying to bring more formal procedures to things. It will take time I imagine.
More than I wanted, but still enjoyed it anyway. Fortunately that site had only 3 precincts. First time doing a presidential and I will make definite improvements for next time.
So what you’re trying to say is that the current president and the previous president both won Iowa on their way to the White House.
The Caucus held at Brighton was much like what you described. As soon as the Preference Poll was completed, more than half the people got up and left. Which left about 30 of us left to determine the platform planks.
The only problem we had was with people wanting to vote the minute they walked in the door.. when we explained that we had to do the Organizational stuff first in order for their votes to be valid, they sat down and waited. Only two candidates had representatives there to speak on their behalf: Paul and Santorum.
Since there weren’t assigned Ballot Counting Observers for the down ticket candidates, I asked for volunteers and people stepped forward to observe. I had them count the ballots twice so there could be no question as to what the outcome was.
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