[After I started this post, Wampum posted the El Paso incident reports,* a few of which this post puts on the record. And it took me too long to finish because of the all-to-typical sort of RL issues a DFH
like me would have....]
Let me start with my own caucus experience. My caucus--perhaps I should say the caucus I attended--was held on a Sunday, in the afternoon, in a high school gym; I live near a college town, and I stood in line for an hour before I got in. Right off the bat, I could see that the caucus system discriminated: Although the line was full of college students -- many of them wearing Obama paraphernalia and working the line for votes -- there were (of course) no sick people and very few older people, and very few people with kids. In fact, the woman I was in line with, who had a hip replacement, wasn't able to stay through the vote. It was clear just by eyeballing the line that caucus attendance didn't represent the town -- and that's before we get to other people who can't attend: People without cars (there's no public transportation on Sunday), people who have to work (my friend with the bleeding feet, a Hillary supporter, works 7 days a week), as well as people with child- or elder-care issues, and people who had to be out of town that day, whether on business, vacation, or serving in the military.
The caucus itself was not especially abusive. We all sat in the bleachers to be counted off. The chair, an Obama supporter complete with sticker, did treat the initial caucus, that included Edwards and Kucinich supporters, in perfunctory "Let's get this over with" fashion, and did make the minority [not Obama] supporters walk down from the bleachers onto the floor both times, but that wasn't my prime takeway; rather, the sustained blast of rage and contempt I received from someone I had thought of as a friend, because I was voting for Hillary, was my takeaway. (I'm sure others have had similar experiences.) One advantage of the secret ballot is that it's, well, secret, so relationships don't get destroyed over politics.
Not only is the caucus system unrepresentative, it's open to abuse by anyone who wants to game it. Over at TalkLeft, one P. Cronin has a detailed comparison of the caucus system vs. true, secret ballot elections, and it's not a pretty sight [PDF, and please read and disseminate widely]. Here's the first comparison table, and boy, is it gruesome:
Why are we doing this? Why, in the Year of Our Lord Or Lady, If Any 2008, after election 2000 was stolen in FL, and election 2004 was pretty iffy in OH, are we relying on a system where the results are not transparent or auditable, and the results are not officially certified? Does this travesty of a caucus system make any sense?**
Which brings me to the TX caucuses.
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