politics.
I watched Hilary's Iowa caucus commercial, where the motto was, "Caucusing is EASY!" However, Nevada's caucus was everything and anything but. I did my own research on how caucusing procedures go, why caucusing is important, etc, etc. Yet when I got to my assigned location, none of my outside knowledge was helpful whatsoever. I got to Sierra Vista high school at exactly 11AM, dozens of others coming from the parking lot. When I got to the main entrace, I was stunned to find out that there were no officials running the "information booth", but rather a couple Hilary and Obama campaign volunteers struggling to aid the many confused and irritated caucus goers. I did not remember my precinct number, only the location of my caucus. Instead of having the map which indicated your precinct at the front of the school, everyone had to go to the cafeteria, then go to another destination based on their precinct. A majority of people were already mad that there was no one to accomodate them, and some even turned around and went home. I heard that at another entrance of the school, a woman was informing people that they were not allowed inside since it was past 11, preventing another handful of people from caucusing. Overall, the organization and execution was terrible and I feel many who were not calm or patient or even informed could stand this mess. After I had finally found my precinct and registered/checked-in, I sat down and waited and watched all the apprehension and stressed out individuals. There were supporters already seated with their signs and t-shirts. I was very appalled to see that a spanish speaking Hilary supporter was swaying other spanish speaking people in line, telling them that after they registered that they should go to the Hilary side because that was where they were "supposed to go" after check-in. I felt that was highly unfair and skewed many of their judgement, for they were clearly unaware of what was happening and were manipulated by those who could communicate with them. I personally feel that some of those spanish speaking people would have voted for Obama if they were not pursuaded by that one Hilary supporter. The chair person and the secretary failed to explain exactly what a caucus was, and many people made their own assunmptions of what the entire point of this event was. They ran out of the ballots. They didn't check ID at the registration line. The counting of the people in the groups were by the heads of each group, and I feel like there could have been miscalculations on purpose to get more delegates. Also, my friend at another caucus site informed me that at the end of her “selection” of candidates, the precinct captains said, “Raise your hands if you want to be a county delegate.” The most concerning part of the process that she noticed was that many of the people raising their hands to represent Obama at the county convention were Edwards people who shifted over after he was considered not viable at our precinct. Now, are the county delegates REQUIRED to remain true to their selected candidates or are they allowed to change at the county convention? I wonder then if our caucus votes are legitimate if these delegates can change their votes for the national convention, for say, their original pick which was Edwards, thus further taking away from Obama's campaign?