Transparency of Texas Caucus Questioned *
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Friend of Why Tuesday? Noah Kunin of TheUptake.org is in Texas covering the primacaucus, and he’s uncovered something very interesting, if not disturbing. On election eve, the Texas Democratic Party was unable to provide a list of where it does and does not have precinct chairs — the individuals who will run the Texas caucus.
A list provided to Noah by Bexar County (San Antonio) indicated that three-quarters of the precincts there have no chairs. What does this mean? Watch the video for Noah’s report, and visit TheUptake.org for more.
* 3:43PM EST Update: Reddit user meanfish takes issue with this being an issue of transparency.
So? Those precincts will just elect a “Precinct Convention Chair” at the beginning of the caucus. Whichever candidate has more supporters will get to elect that person, but that’s not really any more or less biased than a predetermined individual who would also have a candidate preference.
It’s not to say I don’t think this is stupid – the whole “primacaucus” concept is – it’s just that it really has nothing to do with transparency.
So is this story much ado about nothing? Let us know your thoughts.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
The only possible reason to have the Primacaucus is to circumvent the results of the election.
It also makes early voting meaningless for those who use it – the old, the ill, the incapacitated and those who cannot vote on election day because of their job or for any other reason.
Shame on the Democratic Party. Now that we have more Democrats voting than ever, the party rejects reason for connivance.