« Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Master | Main | Nevada Estate Planning Attorney »
Nevada Caucus Experience
By TLS | January 20, 2008
Yesterday I had the chance to go to the Nevada Caucuses. It was the first time I’d ever attended a caucus. It was an interesting experience and I’m glad I went. I was one of only three attendees from my precinct. We were combined in a room with another precinct. That group had 34 attendees.
I thought being at the caucus was a great experience and I felt proud to do my civic duty! I had previously read the article on Ron Paul’s website about the Republican caucus in chaos, so I was expecting to see this first-hand. There were some hiccups along the way, but overall it went pretty smoothly. This is basically how it went down:
- + I arrived at the caucus location (a high school) at about 8:30 AM. The first thing I noticed were that there were dozens of signs posted out front in support of John McCain (probably 20-30 signs). I saw a handful of signs for Ron Paul and exactly two signs for Mitt Romney. I saw no signs for Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, or Rudy Giuliani.
- + I went to the school cafeteria to find a board with a map on one side that showed the city carved up into precincts and a list of precincts and their assigned rooms on the other.
- + I found my way to room 824 where there were a few people waiting and took a seat.
- + By 9:00 AM the room was full. There were a total of 37 people in attendance.
- + The caucus chair that oversaw our precinct was not aware that two precincts were represented. She had to go find the packet related to one of the parties.
- + Before voting the caucus chair invited the caucus members to give a one-minute speech in favor of their candidate of choice. The first person to stand was a pastor. He gave his opinion that we should vote for a candidate with good moral values, someone that believes in the Bible as the only scripture, someone that believes in the true Gospel. He warned us not to be fooled by good-looking, slick-tongued, imposters. Quite obviously, this gentlemen was pro-Huckabee and was trying to bash Mitt Romney without coming right out with it. Following his remarks, several people spoke about the need for a strong military and were in support of John McCain. One person pleaded on behalf of Fred Thompson, claiming he was the only candidate with a truly conservative platform. A few people expressed concern about the economy and the need for a quality leader with executive experience - they were in favor of Mitt Romney.
- + We next elected delegates to the Clark County Republican Party Convention. My precinct could have up to four. There were only three of us there, so we all volunteered. The other precinct could have up to eleven. Eleven people volunteered and they added a few alternates. The chair asked if anyone wanted to challenge a delegate for the spot. If anyone did want to challenge then there would be an election. There were no challenges, so the delegates stood as is. We all completed the necessary paperwork and turned it in.
- + At voting time, we discovered that the packets for our precincts did not contain ballots. We ended up finding a pad of paper and writing the name of the candidate we supported on it. After all the votes were in they were counted and stored in the packets.
Results of the contest were as follows (37 total votes cast):
Romney: 25
McCain: 8
Thompson: 2
Paul: 1
Huckabee: 1
I later learned that Mitt Romney won the caucus by a 40% margin. Ron Paul came in second. I was glad with the outcome as I think Romney is the best man for the job. But regardless of the outcome it was a great experience. I’m looking forward to attending the Clark County Republican Party Convention on February 22-23.
Topics: Politics |
January 25th, 2008 at 4:40 am
I look forward to reading how the county convention goes. I was a little intimidated by the process to volunteer to be a delegate this time around. If the caucus systems stays for the next election, I will volunteer to be a delegate.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I was a little unsure about being a delegate at first, but I decided to go for it, anyway! I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the note.