How Winning A Coin Toss Made Me An Obama Delegate

I vote in the middle of a cotton field.

Yeah, I know! It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But it's true.

When you live in a remote rural area like the wilds of West Texas, you have voting centers put up in the weirdest places so farmers and ranchers can get to the polls without having to spend half a day going to town.

About six miles from where I live, sitting on the edge of a road that cuts through two massive cotton fields, is a little one-story white cinder-block building--maybe 400 square feet--that has the romantic and unmarked name: Northeast Community Center.

It's just a plain, concrete-floor space inside with a small kitchen area and a dumpster outside, where country folk sometimes hold events like birthday parties and family reunions.

Long ago there was a swing set and a slide out front. The school bus would stop there and pick up a small gaggle of country kids, including mine. The building was locked, of course, so if I was late, the bus driver would just sit and wait and let the kids play on the swings rather than leave two children out in the middle of nowhere.

On voting day, there are a couple of people manning a cafeteria table, and one voting machine stuck off in the corner. In all my years of voting there, I've never encountered another voter at the same time. Not that nobody votes--it's just that we dribble in one at a time.

Back in '04, I accidentally showed up in a John Kerry tee shirt. You're not supposed to politic at a polling place, but they said, Aww what the hell.

Up until this year, nobody out here seemed to realize that Texas had a caucus as well as a primary. As an Obama precinct captain, I was having a little trouble imagining a "precinct convention" (which is what they call the caucus) at the Northeast Community Center. Especially considering that practically the entire county is Republican.

So, I called up the county clerk. I wanted to know if I was supposed to caucus there at the little cinder-block building in the cotton field or go on in to the county courthouse or something.

She said..Caucus???

And I said yes, I was an Obama supporter, where would I go to caucus for him?

And she said...Well...I don't know.

It seems the Republican county chair had turned in stacks of caucus packets but nobody had heard a word from the Democratic chair and only one other person in the whole county had called about a Democratic caucus.

I said...Does this mean THERE WON'T BE A DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS IN MY COUNTY?

And she said, uh, well, um...you can CALL her but...um...she's real hard to get hold of. Doesn't seem to be answering her phone...

So I called my Obama field organizer, who immediately e-mailed me a packet of my very own with Texas Democratic Party caucus rules. He said he was going to call his boss who was going to check with legal. Then I went to the TDP website and printed up this big voluminous sheet of signature designations for the throngs of happy caucusers.

The packet was all full of instructions about the precinct convention--on what to do if, say, the crowd is so big you have to move into the parking lot...or, if people have questions for the legal representative...or, what to do if voters are being prevented from attending by evil opponents...and, how to MATHEMATICALLY figure your alloted number of delegates.

(You take your social security number, divide it by your birthday, multiply it by your weight...okay, I kid...)

So I called the Texas Democratic Party, and said...What if I'm the only one?

They said, Then you get to be a precinct delegate. If nobody else showed up at the county "convention," I'd get to be the delegate to the state convention.

But then, at the eleventh hour the night before the primary, I got a call from the ghost-chair of the county, who seemed a bit rattled by all this caucus business, and said everyone in the county who wanted to caucus would just meet at the rodeo coliseum "in one of the little rooms."

So, we did.

About fifty of us, county-wide, came out of our Democratic closets where we all hide, and met in a small room. The county chair would call out the precinct numbers and someone would raise their hand and they'd get the caucus packet.

In my precinct, there were two of us.

He was voting for Hillary.

That meant that we each got HALF of a vote.

You think I'm kidding, don'tcha?

This is West Texas. I was the only one who showed up wearing anything LIKE a candidate button. I was also carrying an Obama sign. People stared.

Like most West Texas crowds, it was quiet and mannerly. People murmured while they filled out their choices, turned in their packets, and left. No whooping or hollering. Contrary to the stereotype, country folks do not like whooping and hollering.

I went out to the car and called the Obama campaign to report how many delegates we got.

They said they'd never heard of half a delegate.

I said that, in Texas, it works.

They were flummoxed. Nobody knew what to do with half a delegate. Some conferring took place.

Then they came back and said we'd have to toss a coin--the other delegate and me. Whoever won the toss would get the delegate.

Hillary or Barack? Heads or Tails?

Oh Lord how I wish I were kidding.

So I galloped back into the building to find my other delegate, but he'd already left.

Wearily, I drove home, looked him up in the phone book, and called him.

Technically, he was our chairman because he'd done it before, so I said, "If you toss the coin, I'll trust you if you say it's Hillary."

He said, "Look, I just voted for Hillary because Bill Clinton is a distant cousin of mine. She's ahead in Texas right now, so you take the vote. You can have it for Obama. He's a fine candidate and I'd have no trouble supporting him in the general election."

I guess that's whatcha call smoke-filled back-room politicking. The country version.

Whatever it was, I thanked the man, called the Obama campaign, and gave them my one-delegate precinct-captain report.

It's crazy, I know, but it's really glorious, when you think about it. How, in this great democracy of ours, even country folks so remote from the county courthouse that they have to vote at a schoolbus stop in a cotton field...still vote, and still get their votes counted.

Comments

[LightningJoe]

In Ketchikan, Alaska, the Democrats expected maybe fifty people to show up, which in itself would probably have violated the fire code, in the cafe the caucus was held in. The organizers had to enlist the IBEW down the block for the overflow, but there were still more than a hundred of us in the cafe, and about two hundred all together.

I stuck with Kucinich through the first round for cosmetic reasons, pressed to the cafe window in a "caucus" of one; but then crossed the "aisle" -- about a foot and a half of open, demilitarized air between the camps -- for Obama, where I knew I'd end up anyway.

In this overwhelmingly Republicon state, none of the organizers could remember when Democrats had even bothered to hold a caucus.

(I'll start saying "Repulican" properly, when the 'R' members of Congress stop saying "Democrat Party")

----

Kill your tv, and get your mind out of hock.

[DeanieMills]

Guys, thank you so much for your comments regarding this post, but as for submitting it to the NY Times, they don't publish stuff that has appeared elsewhere. Believe me, I've sent them original stuff and been rejected, but perhaps will try some more!

And yes, at the Texas state level, at the official count, half-delegates are rounded off. I think what the campaign was interested in was a rough estimate of how the count was going at the precinct level as the votes progressed. The official state delegate tally will not be made until the state convention on the 6th of June. Until then, all anyone will have is votes counted by precinct and county chairs.

Also, I did not choose the title of this post; that was an editorial decision. As you can see from reading it, we did not make a decision based on a coin toss. The other delegate in my precinct had been telling me, over and over while we filled out paperwork, that he thought Obama was a fine candidate and would have no trouble supporting him in a general election. But I never would have assumed the delegate--even for just a rough estimate--without discussing it with him first.

And I don't think he'd've been quite so agreeable if Hillary had not been winning the state, frankly.

Still, the point is that we were all counted, and at the state convention on June 6, his half-vote will be rounded out to a full vote, as will mine.

[provoice]

Dear Deanie...

It is nice to know that SOMEONE'S vote will count... thanks to th gyrations between the idiot the party has chosen as National leader and Florida's idiot party leadership.

I have seen that many people whose votes DID count think that I should be deprived of mine because of choices made by the fools and incompetents in charge of the Party.

I don't recall ANYONE asking me if I wanted the date of Florida's primary changed to begin with, nor can I think of any good reason why it shouldn't be held a YEAR before the general election if we were to chose such a date... screw the "rules", since there appears to be no good reason for them either except to give Dean a reason to throw his weight around.

As for the party hacks making MORE decisions about our votes behind closed doors... they had either better decide to hold another primary, or at the very least split the Florida and Michigan delegates equally between the remaining candidates, or a lot of us will be looking real hard at working for NEW party leadership with functioning brains.

[TheraP]

Late to the party, Deanie, but what a great tale! You can tell your grandkids how a kind guy on the other end of the phone helped the cause with half a vote... to equal a whole vote!

Can't wait to hear the tale of the State Convention you'll be going to!

Patience is a virtue, and it's one that is being sorely tried this election season. Your posts help!

We're glad we have a friend in Texas!

[PoliticalJunkessa]

I love on-the-ground stories like this. This has turned out to be an amazing election season. Thanks for sharing your view from a corner in Texas!

[aMike]

Thanks Deanie. I follow you over at TPM Cafe and it's nice to see I can follow you over here as well. Great Story.

Mike

[sbrownmiller]

This is such a fine piece of writing that it has to be sent to some print outlets that run op-end pieces. That is the only way it will end up where it deserves-- in an anthology on the American Political Process. It is a gem. It should be widely distributed in political science courses. Deanie Mills: Please send your piece to the New York Times op-ed page for starters.

[Katie1263]

I WAS IN TEXAS LAST NIGHT FOR A CAUCUS AND IT WAS A DISASTER!!
I came out from California to Help the candidate I wanted to win Texas. We worked very hard for our candidate in the Houston, Texas Headquarters , and that part was fine.

The problems began when I went to help out at a caucus. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE. There were at least 500 people lined up for Obama and Clinton. They were all put in a special location to wait for the precinct primary voting to stop. It was going way overtime, and so people were starting to get angry and frustrated.

There were 5 precincts in this particular location and finally, the judge came out to say we could take down the name and proof of voting (if they did not have proof of voting, then take their license'). So I jumped up on a chair to announce to these 500 people that we were going to put them into 5 lines to represent the 5 precincts.

They immediately became really angry that some of them had stood in line longer than other people who would move to the front of a line once they were separated into 5 lines.

I assured them that if they got in the correct precinct line then things would move much more quickly and once their names were verified in the book, (this is a book that has everyone who vote in the precinct and the judge has this book) their vote would be counted. That seemed to calm them down and the crowd started moving right along.

Here was the other dilemma: Each time a person was to fill out their information, there was supposed to be a Clinton eyewitness and Obama eyewitness for each person who signed the sheet. Well there simply wasn't! It was unorganized and it definitely felt like some of the legal aspects of this were slipping through the the cracks.

If I came in to help out from California, and ended up doing so much to make this caucus run smoothly, where the heck were the people who were supposed to do this properly in Texas? !!

As I see these returns coming in from the caucus, my eyes roll to the back of my head because I know all the things that could possibly have gone wrong in each precinct. I think the Texas Democratic party needs to look into these caucuses and what took place last night and fix their broken "Texas two-step" voting system.

[MysticInd]

Same happened in MN

[Star2000dancer]

Simlar in upstate, NY except my name completely disappeared in both Bush elections, & my ID was never checked when I handed in a paper ballot that I'm sure was never counted since Bush was handed the election by the time I drove home. So many stories like this out there.

[Levittown]

A coin toss is what its all about. No matter who you pick, coin toss or pin in a wall poster to select who you vote for you won't know if you picked right until you hear the President's State of the Union speech in
January of 2010. Compare his actions prior to the speech and count the cop outs and excuses. Then you will know if you guessed right. And the media, they will write a new column or a new broadcast to jusify whatever happens. I wonder if we will ever see a member of the media run for office, any office.

[wrabbitt]

is that how "W" decided on invading iraq? a coin toss preceeds football games and other things involving very overpaid so called professionals usually on performance enhancing drugs. So why would it shock us that superdelegates are drawn the same way! our government runs on money stolen from taxpayers the don't work for it and no one can say they do. I have faith in our election system they will shove another coin operated old man at us who ain't got a clue, unless we get lucky and Obama puts Hillary in her place (the caymans with her money.

[KaraMiaa]

What a really great story.....­...thanks!­!

[DocJ]

Good for you, Deanie, for holding the fort in the wilderness.

And now, a question: why do you think Rush Windbag is urging his flock of ditto-headed sheep to vote for Hillary in these early contests, if they possibly can?

BECAUSE SHE CANNOT BEAT McCAIN.

Apparently Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island contain a fair number of older women and knee-jerk feminists who identify with Hill's various humiliations At The Hands of A MAN, as well as soft-hearted men who buy into her calculated crying. I'm also sure these states have their share of racists who cannot imagine a black man in the White House. To be fair, there are also many people in these places who are genuinely concerned about his qualifications (and some of his endorsees).

But whatever people think of Hillary, a vote for her will invariably become a vote for more of what we've suffered these past seven years. And worse, since McCain can actually emit a coherent sentence on his own...

[splashy]

Actually, I think that he wants her to lose, and figures if he tells people to vote for her then the Dems will vote for Obama. Hillary is getting the votes of many that have been voting for the Repubs, the blue collar workers, because she gets them. Obama doesn't, that's obvious.

[RTEby]

This is a nice piece, thank you for sharing it with us. Thankfully, here in Tennessee we don't have a caucus system. If we did, my situation would be very similar to yours although I don't live in a flat land area but in a small, politically blood red, rural mountain community.

[ibsteve2u]

Here's hoping the vast number of coins that might be tossed their way doesn't decide the outcome of the DNC.

[wagadog]

Too bad you were so misinformed as to the rules of caucus math, which have rounding policies in all those cases.

[jdm58]

Your "precinct convention" sounds a whole lot more civilized than mine was last night! Kinda makes me want to move back to the country.

[lbarnett]

Now, that was a lovely story. I've always preferred your story telling ability over your electioneering. How nice that you could combine to two and make it so palatable.

Luv ya, Lee