An Open Call for Ending the Caucus Format – Can’t Technology Come to the Rescue?

Let the games begin...Let the games begin...Let the games begin...

 

 

 

I just finished participating in my first-ever caucus — the just-resolved 2008 Nevada caucus to determine the Democratic primary race — and I was pretty horrified by what I saw. 

As a brand-spanking new citizen of the great state of Nevada (which I know realize is pronounced, against all history, Spanish equivalent or common sense, Neh-VADD-ah), I was eager to join the political process in this pivotal state.  You see, my prior two states of residence — first, New York, and then California — were gigantic states that voted so late in the primary process that the race had usually already been decided.  Here was my chance – in a state whose swing vote was a determining factor in the last two presidential campaigns, to participate in a meaningful political process… or NOT.

I’ll be blogging about the wild ride the country is going on this election (and in particular Nevada politics, whose political practices make Florida’s look normal) in a new blog I’ll be starting tomorrow and continuing for the rest of the 2008 election process called “The Accidental Delegate”  (www.accidentaldelegate.com), as I ended up so confused and disgusted by the disorganization and capacity for outright fraud and manipulation that at the end of the process, I signed up to be a delegate in the Clark County convention in two weeks (which, apparently, is only part of the process for REALLY determing which delegates are sent to Denver for the Democratic convention). 

The long and short of it – MSNBC proclaims Hillary the winner while the election is still going on (and many of the delegates read this on their cellphones), yet Obama claims to have earned more delegates due to geographical disparities (also widely reported) - and yet the head of the Nevada Democratic party says she has no idea of what Obama is talking about.

I took plenty of photos on my iPhone, including of the Edwards campaign representative holding up signs and leading cheers during inside the caucus during registration – which is illegal – and of one of the Obama campaign representative slapping an Obama sticker on the back of my jacket without my knowledge, then hiding from my camera the rest of the caucus and accusing me of invading her privacy (in a public election where you are also breaking multiple campaign laws, come again?).  Even the Hillary camp, the most mild mannered of the bunch, had their T-shirts on several of the women who were checking in voters.   Apparently, that is legal in Nevada.  Silly me, in all the states I live in before you weren’t allowed to distribute ANY campaign materials within 500 feet of a polling place, much less inside of it.

The caucus format is simply a bad one – I can see now how Howard Dean went from up 20 points to losing the race in Iowa by what happened inside of the caucus grounds.  I always thought that one man, one vote and the privacy of the ballot box were hallmarks of American government (a man two rows in back of me at the high school gym we caucused in told the person next to him, “I’d like to vote differently, but my wife is here and will hear that I’m voting for someone other than her candidate and I don’t want to break up my marriage.”  I can only imagine the coersion at the caucuses that were held in the casinos where culinary workers were made to show their support in public for or against their union’s choice.  Since many of the casino culinary workers came from nations where people were discriminated against or, let’s be candid, shot, for supporting the wrong candidate in public, I’m sure Obama gained many votes he would not have gotten had this been a traditional, closed door election.

So how does this impact technology?  There were four counts of people in my district – with four different results: they counted the final one as accurate.  There were more than six counts of the actual votes: again, they counted the final one.  Since in this particular precinct, Hillary was a landslide winner (63 to 22, with 17 votes for Edwards), a few miscounted votes did not make a huge difference.  But I’m certain there were precincts where a vote or two made a lot of difference (especially since in Nevada any candidate with less than 15 percent doesn’t count and is told he or she must change their vote – and at that points the campaign reps pounce on them).

Since the same company (Diebold) makes both the election booths in the general election and most primaries, as well as many of the nation’s ATMs, why can’t we issue a national election card once every four years that lets one vote in their local primaries and elections from any ATM – no more absentee votes, no more butterfly ballots.  If you can withdraw exactly $220 from your bank in Las Vegas from an ATM in Shanghai, why can’t you vote in private once or twice a year in the same manner.  Perhaps someone like Dee Hock, the father of Visa, needs to get behind my idea (which I’ve been talking about for several years, but only now feel compelled to blog about).

More to come on this on my new site – www.accidentaldelegate.com – and keep watching this site for more news and views on how social media is changing our world. 

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This post was written by Michael Terpin

January 20, 2008 | Filed Under media

1 Comment 

Comments

One Response to “An Open Call for Ending the Caucus Format – Can’t Technology Come to the Rescue?”

  1. gordon on August 7th, 2008 3:49 pm

    The caucus format is simply a bad one – I can see now how Howard Dean went from up 20 points to losing the race in Iowa by what happened inside of the caucus grounds. ok thank you.

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