Okay, it's gone past an obsession. I have to come to grips that I have a disease. If I'm not hooked up to campaign news on the internet or listening to NPR waiting for another story about the election, I'm jonesing for the stuff. It's gotten bad enough that I recognize my problem, but still I read on. I've caught myself several times reading the inane comments random people leave on You Tube videos and getting upset with them. I've gotten mad at "FeudFan76" for goodness sake. "FeudFan76"!!!
One would think this is the bottom, like realizing how disgusting it is to pull left over tobacco out of cigarette butts in public ashtrays, rolling it in the torn back corner of the local rag and smoking it on the way to get some nicarette.
"I'm okay. Really. I can stop anytime."
But then I see a blurb about alleged voter fraud in the Texas Caucuses and I've got to have more. The blurb shows up on my latest source of political crack:
They have been cataloging press releases, videos and conference calls from, about and between the predidential candidates. I had heard about an "Emergency Conference Call" that the Clinton campaign organized on March 4th, the night of the second step of the "Texas Two Step." The call was meant to level complaints of Vote Irregularities and Voter Intimidation in Texas. The crazy thing was it was crashed by Bob Bauer, Obama Campaign’s General Counsel. He took over for a few minutes and brought up complaints the Obama campaign had from previous competitions. You can listen to the interesting part here.
The website linked this press release with the allegations from the phone call:
[Clinton Campaign Press Release from March 4, 2008]
March 4, 2008MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested PartiesFROM: Lyn Utrecht
The campaign legal hotline has been flooded with calls containing specific accusations of irregularities and voter intimidation against the Obama campaign. This activity is undemocratic, probably illegal, and reflects a wanton disregard for the caucus process.The three most egregious categories are:
Campaign Counsel
RE: Caucus Irregularities1) Irregularities: Prematurely Taking Precinct Convention Packets by Obama Campaign
Numerous calls have shown that Obama supporters prematurely removed convention packets from polling places. Packets may not legally given out until 7:15 PM or when the last voter has cast a ballot in the primary. The Texas State Party warned the Obama campaign in writing that they may not take these packets early or remove them from the polling locations. The Party directed that these irregularities be reported to law enforcement “since they amount to criminal violations.” The Party stated “removing convention packets . . . will not be tolerated.”
A sampling of the precincts where this occurred are:2) Voter Intimidation: Lock-out of Clinton caucus goers by Obama Campaign
- 659 – Tarrant
- 709 – Houston
- 2316 – Tarrant
- 1205 – Dallas
- 3127 – Bexar
- 3082 – Fort Bend
- 18/224 – Harris
- 3221 – Dallas
- 87 – El Paso
- 851 – Houston
- 115 - Harris
- 470 – Galveston
- 388 – Harris
- 3000 – Dallas
- 1214 – Dallas
- 20 – Medina
- 205 – Walker
Numerous calls have been received that the Obama campaign has taken over caucus sites and locked the doors, excluding Clinton campaign supporters from participating in the caucus. The Clinton supporters have been unable to enter the premises to caucus. In at least one instance, law enforcement was called and forcibly opened the caucus site.
A sampling of the precincts where this occurred are:
- 4401 – Dallas
- 2052 – Tarrant
- 4402 – Dallas
- 75 – Harris
- 18 – Hardin
- 259 – Harris
- 124 – Nueces
- 4050 – Tarrant
- 115 – Harris
- 6 – Roma County
- 78 – Jefferson
- 117 – Denton
3) There are numerous instances of Obama supporters filing out precinct convention sign-in sheets during the day and submitting them as completed vote totals at caucus. This is expressly against the rules. The sign-in sheets were copied by the Obama campaign from the Texas Democratic Party website and taken by supporters to various polling places to sign-up caucus goers prior to the start of the caucuses
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I read a comment about You-Tube videos showing voter fraud in process. Since I'm a true junkie I hopped out there to find 'em.
The description for this video reads:
"Nobody knew what to do - and an elected official yelled at people for asking about verifying voters..."
The video shows nothing of the allegations from the memo above. It looks more like a understandably frustrated poll worker that was ill prepared for the overwhelming turn-out. The woman that took the video later wrote this in the video comments:
"This is my video - I took the footage. This is in North Dallas. Obama supporters were attempting to intimidate Clinton supporters into not asking questions about the voter verfication [sic] process never having been done."
Notice the shift from an "elected official" to "Obama supporters." This is one of many circumstances that prompted the calls to Clinton's "legal hotline." Frustration with a poorly run process turned into feelings of disenfranchisement. (aside: Is it a sign of real change in the system when a white woman feels disenfranchised by a black woman? This is something new in the history of the US of A.)
Then we have this picture of a different caucus locale:
"Nothing Fraudulent Here."
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Looks fun if you ask me. Another location that ran much like this one reported there was a tie. The precinct had an odd number of delegates, so a coin toss decided which candidate would get the extra vote. A twelve year old tossed and a ten year old called. The sweet smell of democracy at work.
Of course FoxNews had to weigh in.
Commenting on a picture taken from a helicopter of a large number of African American voters in the overflow area of this inadequate caucus facility:
"Looks like the outside of a jail instead of a caucusing." (Can you really use "caucusing" like that? Afterward, have you been caucused?)
As a white man my racism-dar isn't well tuned but isn't that a little bit racist? Rather, a LOT bit. A really whole lot bit racist. But it is FoxNews and they have misled many times before and continue to do so.
A Texan commented on YouTube:
"I was at one of the caucuses in Houston. This description of a "mob" is completely false. The caucus I attended had to many people that they couldn't fit in the building and the caucus had to be held outside. There were about 300 people at the caucus who had to wait outside for two hours, in a quiet and orderly fashion, because the precinct folks were completely unprepared for the turnout. There was no mob and these charges are simply outrageous."
Another echoed:
"i live in houston. this was in houston. except what the national news is not telling you, is that this was a scene outside of a caucus...after four hours of being locked out from entering the caucus. no one came out to let anyone know when or how they would caucus. this event had nothing to do with an unruly mob or causing a disturbance. the police were there, because the citizens were chanting...loudly."
After all of this, if you now go to the Hillary Clinton website you will see that the original press release is nowhere to be found:
Was the apparent Voter Fraud magically cured? Or were these more false allegations (read "mud") thrown and failing to stick? I guess it was worth a try.
Another video has an Obama volunteer helping sign people in at a caucus site. The video description says among other things, that "the lady in the denim shirt with the sign up sheets is an Obama supporter that appointed herself precinct chair. She is NOT an election official, therefore she should not have access to the sign up sheets. Voters were asking her questions believing that she was an election official. As you can see, there is not an election official checking for proof of voting earlier in the day."
Why one might ask has this lady "appointed herself" precinct chair? Maybe she watched this training video from the Obama camp on how to high jack an election:
Did you hear the part about forcibly taking over the caucus site or locking Clinton supporters out or taking away Hillary Clinton campaign signs or filling in your candidate on any supporter designation lines left blank or anything else nefarious? Of course you didn't because it wasn't there. Obama supporters were not trained to do any of that stuff.
Voter fraud and voter suppression seem to swirl around any hotly contested race but not every allegation is credible. Here is an Obama supporter during the Kansas Caucus that voices a couple about the location of caucus sites. Is it active voter suppression?
Another example from Texas. About 45 seconds in we see a Hispanic man has gotten the paper work first and is the precinct captain. He says that we then fill in the support blank with "WHO? Hillary. Obviously." The man next to him does not agree.
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Voter Fraud? Voter Disenfranchisement? Not that I've seen.
Voter misunderstanding? Supporter over zealousness? Poorly organized by election officials? Most certainly. In my opinion the caucus system should be revisited and questioned. If the number of people participating continues to increases, the ability for Caucus States to adequatly manage the process will be challenged ever more.
As far as this election is concerned: Is this a problem with the two candidates playing dirty? Maybe a little in each camp. If this were a basketball game, I would say the problem was
in the refs (election officials) and fans. It's not the players' fault that beer was thrown in the stands and a fight broke out in the parking lot.
Now back I go to watching videos of speeches and TV appearances and reading the blogs of so many pundints and the comments of so many readers of so many blogs of so many pundints.
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