Since the flu kept me from my usual post at my precinct yesterday, I phoned St. Betty this morning to get a report "on the ground" from her about the day's events at the Texas primary.
First of all, she reported that 20% of our county and precinct voted early, which helped keep the crowd manageable yesterday. At the last minute they were able to recruit a Democrat to help her and her daughter (The Defender) run the Democratic primary while the remainder of the Republican election crew ran the Republican primary. The voters on both sides were in good humor and excited and on the whole the process went quite smoothly. My friend Dorothy's son, a high school senior who is registered to vote, came in mid-afternoon to assist with crowd control at the end of election day and did a great job.
There were 300 voters in the Republican primary and 289 in the Democratic primary. St. Betty reported there were lots of first time voters: young voters and new citizens who needed instruction in how to use the machines and how to vote. There were lots of questions about the implications of cross-over voting in the Democratic primary (not surprising in this heavily Republican precinct): do you have to stamp my card "democrat"? how long does it last? what does it mean? Also, St. Betty said that a significant number of voters made it clear that they were only interested in voting in the presidential race in this primary and were not interested in any other races, so voting on this side went very quickly.
In Texas, all it means is that if you vote in the Democratic primary you cannot vote in the Republican primary run-off election, if there is one. And there is a hot race for Congress in District 22 (the old Tom Delay seat), so some potential cross-overs were concerned about not being able to vote in the Republican primary run-0ff.
The turnout for the Democratic caucus was huge, as has been reported everywhere. In the past I've seen 3 or 4 people show up. This year St. Betty said 250 to 300 folks appeared. She said the local Democratic party wasn't prepared for this kind of turnout which caused them some problems. The election workers had some logistical problems taking down the machines and completing their work after the polls closed due to the crush of people in the room at the high school where the election was held.
St. Betty anticipates problems in the Republican primary run-off election when there will certainly be a number of cross-over voters trying to "come home" who won't be permitted to vote in that run-off.
So there you have it, friends. My conclusion is that there was a significant Republican cross-over vote in our precinct, and doubtless throughout our area. We can only speculate as to which candidate benefited more from that.
First of all, she reported that 20% of our county and precinct voted early, which helped keep the crowd manageable yesterday. At the last minute they were able to recruit a Democrat to help her and her daughter (The Defender) run the Democratic primary while the remainder of the Republican election crew ran the Republican primary. The voters on both sides were in good humor and excited and on the whole the process went quite smoothly. My friend Dorothy's son, a high school senior who is registered to vote, came in mid-afternoon to assist with crowd control at the end of election day and did a great job.
There were 300 voters in the Republican primary and 289 in the Democratic primary. St. Betty reported there were lots of first time voters: young voters and new citizens who needed instruction in how to use the machines and how to vote. There were lots of questions about the implications of cross-over voting in the Democratic primary (not surprising in this heavily Republican precinct): do you have to stamp my card "democrat"? how long does it last? what does it mean? Also, St. Betty said that a significant number of voters made it clear that they were only interested in voting in the presidential race in this primary and were not interested in any other races, so voting on this side went very quickly.
In Texas, all it means is that if you vote in the Democratic primary you cannot vote in the Republican primary run-off election, if there is one. And there is a hot race for Congress in District 22 (the old Tom Delay seat), so some potential cross-overs were concerned about not being able to vote in the Republican primary run-0ff.
The turnout for the Democratic caucus was huge, as has been reported everywhere. In the past I've seen 3 or 4 people show up. This year St. Betty said 250 to 300 folks appeared. She said the local Democratic party wasn't prepared for this kind of turnout which caused them some problems. The election workers had some logistical problems taking down the machines and completing their work after the polls closed due to the crush of people in the room at the high school where the election was held.
St. Betty anticipates problems in the Republican primary run-off election when there will certainly be a number of cross-over voters trying to "come home" who won't be permitted to vote in that run-off.
So there you have it, friends. My conclusion is that there was a significant Republican cross-over vote in our precinct, and doubtless throughout our area. We can only speculate as to which candidate benefited more from that.
10 comments:
The great thing I see in this fascinating election year is the energizing of all the young people to come out, learn the system and participate. That is fantastic!
In my opinion, this is the most entertaining presidential year since 1960. Thanks to you Texans and the Ohioans, we Pennsylvanians can now look forward to an unrelenting seven (!!!!!) weeks of phones ringing off the hook, mailboxes full of campaign literature, and hours of TV advertisements.
The Democratic National Convention ought to be a blast. The “super-delegates” are going to have some real soul searching to do. They have the potential to alienate huge chunks of the party base.
All the talk of a “brokered convention” overlooks the fact that neither of the parties has an effective organizational structure to do the brokering. There are no more party bosses who can control blocks of delegates.
We should have sold tickets to this one. We could have retired the national debt.
Mac
And now the phones are blessedly silent....
It's certainly been fun, so far!
Hope you start to feel better soon.
Although the continual phone call were a severe irritation I was able occasionally to have some fun with them. Silence is bliss though. All said it's been very interesting.
Do the cross overs really expect to achieve their goal? Wouldn't it be ironic if they just helped Hillary in to the white house!! and what about the damge they might have done to their local races.. now they can't participate in the run-offs.
oy vey such is the wisdom of man!
Are the TV stations laying off people due to the loss in ad revenue?
RB, exactly right. We have an important congressional race--that's a big reason I didn't join the crossovers.
QP--Not only the TV stations lost revenue, but whoever makes money from those automated calls from Barack, Hillary, John McCain et al must be truly broke today.
Are you saying people crossed over and voted for Clinton to sabotage Obama? That's a charming thought.
I know that some folks claim they can tell a person’s political affiliation just by looking at them. I confess that I don’t have that ability. However, if voters in my area follow the stereotypes portrayed in the media I don’t think I saw many “cross-overs”. If they were present, I admire their dedication. Voters in the Republican Primary were sparse and would have taken about 5 minutes. To vote in the Democratic Primary they had to invest between 30 and 90 minutes. If they came back in the evening for the Caucus they invested another couple of hours. I have my doubts that many “spoilers” invested that effort.
Fergus,
St. Betty isn't guessing by appearance. The "crossovers" identified themselves to her as people who planned to vote Republican in November and asked questions about whether their vote in the Democratic primary would keep them from doing that. I agree you can't see that.
In past elections, I've had some of those questions before myself from people voting in the Republican primary, which in our area is more important in state and local races, who identified themselves as wanting to vote Democratic in the general election.
Songbird,
Probably just as many crossed over to vote for Obama to "sabatoge" Clinton. And maybe more--Obama got about 2/3 of the delegates in the caucuses even though he lost the popular vote in the Texas primary.
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