Before going down to the local elementary school to caucus for the first time since I’d been a registered voter, I had been curious, almost giddy that we were going to be participating in this quaint, arcane process of counting bodies in a building. I have since learned that people –particularly partisan hacks paid to manipulate elections — game these mysterious, ambiguous processes and take advantage of people’s lack of sophistication and naivete.
Before I early voted last week, I had been uncommitted as to which Democratic nominee would have my vote. I had been impressed with the Obama camp’s organization, the zeal of their volunteers, their use of technology, and the personal nature of their campaign. I got several personal invitations from friends who had volunteered for his campaign.
I got phone calls with recordings from the Clinton people. I had wondered: Where was the famous Clinton organization?
Tonight, I learned where they have focused their efforts: on rules and procedures, on manipulating caucus, on getting by through legal loopholes and the aggressiveness of campaign workers willing to creatively interpret these arcane caucus regulations.
My precinct in San Antonio was the largest in the neighborhood polling site with 11 delegates at stake. The line for the Clinton supporters in our precinct was flowing well, but the Obama side remained immobile. A few us started to wonder, “What’s going on here?” So we asked questions. And the young man with the red sweat shirt, the big smirk on his face and the Clinton sign on his lap just shrugged and said, “Hey, I’m just a volunteer. Don’t jump on me, we’re making things go as fast as we can. We’re only supposed to have one person checking IDs, but we’ve got two.” He had grabbed the precinct packets, which contained the enrollment forms and the precinct information and so he controlled the flow of the precinct enrollment.
I called our precinct captain — a civic-minded man in our neighborhood, apparently not accustomed to this kind of aggressive chicanery in our precinct — and asked him, “Is that right? Aren’t you supposed to be running things?” So we read the rules and procedures. And I went around the gymnasium of the elementary school, and observed how many people were checking IDs and enrolling people at other precincts — some precincts had two people, some had three — and I learned that indeed, the young man in the red sweatshirt was gaming the system. We got some Obama supporters who had already enrolled in their precincts to volunteer to check IDs and enroll people so we could get our line flowing. The Hillary camp was obviously trying to tire us out so we would just go home and not vote.
Another young man wearing a silver tie and a Hillary Clinton button was telling the Obama supporters that they could go home. But, I shouted out, no, it’s better that you stay. There was such an atmosphere of mistrust, misinformation, frustration and fatigue.
At the end of the process, the Clinton people outnumbered the Obama people in the election of precinct chairwoman and secretary. Those of us who had become enraged at the shenanigans had to watch the chairwoman and the secretary like hawks because they were trying to add nonexistent Clinton voters. When we caught them trying to add three votes, they shouted us down. It seemed to be a very well coordinated attack on our precinct. To tell you the truth, I don’t think any of these Clinton supporters were actually voters in my district.
This whole process has left me with a sick stomach. To think that these people could live with themselves and be happy manipulating an election, I can’t understand it. In the end, Clinton got six or seven delegates and Obama got four or five, with 59 Clinton people enrolled and 40 Obama people enrolled. I have to wonder: How many Obama people left because they got bad information from the Clinton precinct “volunteers?”
I had never been anti-Hillary. But this whole scene infuriated me. If she wins, I can’t help but think that she will have done so the old-fashioned way — by gaming the system and manipulating votes.
