Can someone tell me the details of caucus meetings? How long are they. Do you have to attend it all?

[Morereason]

Are they at a certain time of the day? Can you show up and indicate your support and leave?

[Morereason]

1. Holy Moly activity is high today. Kicking so someone can answer before it gets buried :)

[mac2]

2. In Navada primary they had both votes and caucus

with Hillary winning the vote and Obama the caucus. What was that about?

[Morereason]

6. I see now. Caucus at 11:30 for about 3 hours. As I thought, seems a very non-inclusive process

So if you cannot get the time off you are excluded from participation.

[Morereason]

8. Was there voting available in all locations or voting in some caucus in others?

[Emit]

14. It was a caucus not a primary with a traditional vote

The 'voting' amounted to registered voters filing into a room, splitting into preference groups and their heads being counted. Numbers were crunched based on simple mathematical calculations to figure out which candidates were awarded however many delegates according to proportion.

[Emit]

12. No, that is not correct.

The numbers that you are seeing on teevee and at sites such at these:

http://www.nvdems08.com/

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#NV

are showing you the number of state delegates (over 10,500) that each candidate received -- these state delegates were decided in each precinct caucus based on viability of groups consisting of thousands of voters. There are no voter tallies in these numbers that you are seeing on these websites or on teevee.


It appears that the Obama and Clinton campaigns and the Dem Party are still attempting to resolve who carried the higher number of national convention delegates. Obama's camp says because he won Washoe and rural counties, he gets one more delegate than Clinton. Clinton claims that since she won the majority of state delegates, she 'won' Nevada.

See also:

Saturday 19 January 2008: Democratic Party Caucuses meet in each precinct. Each Precinct Caucus chooses delegates to County Conventions based on presidential preference.

The Precinct Caucus chooses the precinct's delegates to the County Convention of the county in which the precinct is located. While a non-binding Presidential Preference Poll is conducted during the caucuses, delegates at the Precinct Caucus level are not bound to their declared Presidential preference.

Saturday 23 February 2008: County Conventions convene in each county. Each County Convention chooses delegates to the Nevada State Democratic Convention.

These County Conventions choose the county's delegates to the Nevada State Democratic Convention. While a non-binding Presidential Preference Poll is conducted during the Conventions, delegates at the Precinct Caucus level are not bound to their declared Presidential preference.

Friday 18 April - Sunday 20 April 2008: The Nevada State Democratic Convention convenes.


On Saturday 19 April 2008, the State Convention chooses 25 of Nevada's 33 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates at either the congressional district or statewide level.

16 district delegates are to be allocated proportionally to presidential contenders based on the support among the delegates to the State Convention from each of the State's 3 congressional districts.
CD 1: 6
CD 2: 6 (Washoe 3, Rural Counties 1, Clark 2)
CD 3: 4
In addition, 9 delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based on the support among the delegates to the State Convention as a whole.
6 at-large National Convention delegates
3 Pledged PLEOs
The remaining 8 National Convention delegates consist of

7 Unpledged PLEO delegates:
5 Democratic National Committee members.
2 Members of Congress (1 Senator and 1 Representative).
0 Governors.
0 Distinguished Party Leaders.
1 Unpledged "add-on" (selected by the state convention as a whole).
These 8 delegates and will go to the Democratic National Convention officially "Unpledged".

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/NV-D.phtml#0119


edited for clarity

[NMDemDist2]

3. it depends on the state

NV and IA had ones that lasted for 2-3 hours and you had to stay til the last count. Here in NM you just come in any time and fill out a ballot which are counted (by the local party) and delegates to the State Convention are based on each County's numbers.

I'm not sure which other states still use caucus' they are pretty stupid IMO

[Morereason]

4. So did they have a choice in Nevada? Vote or caucus? Is once given preference?

could you caucus any time? Because if not it would keep out lower income workers who do not have as much flexability in their schedules

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Depends entirely on your state's party's rules.

Check their web site for the procedures. In Minnesota the caucuses meet at 7:00 on the evening of Feb. 5. You can indicate a candidate preference and leave, or you can stick around to vote on party platform resolutions and whom to endorse for the Senate, and you might get picked to be a delegate to the district convention. But you have to be there to vote.

[Morereason]

7. "Pick a candidate and leave"...That sounds more fair and open

I am still trying to find details of Nevada. They are not easy to find on the official site

[mac2]

11. What party resolutions?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Anybody who goes to a caucus can propose a resolution

that can be submitted at the district convention (and later the state convention) to be included in the party's platform. It's totally grass-roots stuff, pretty fun to watch. http://dfl.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={3FE7BDD2-0932-45A2-8B80-86BA0

[mac2]

15. Like bring the troop home from all over the world?

Get out of the WTO? Bring back our Constitution? Get Faith Based funding stopped? Did they suggest any of these?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. Yes, exactly. The MN caucuses have not occurred yet,

but those are the sorts of resolutions that will be proposed. I don't know what happened in NV.

[mac2]

17. It seems the media keeps these resolutions from us

At the last minute the DLC will decide on the party's policy for the election. We can't win unless people know what we stand for.

[Emit]

9. Ours -- I'm in NV --lasted from check in time at 11:00

until 2:00. People had to stay through the candidate preference groups were decided and counted and until the numbers were verified by each group. We encouraged people to stay for the election of delegates and through the rest of the business we had to do, but, many left. As long as they were there for the numbers and to avoid their group losing a supporter, that was okay with us. Many of the die-hards stayed until the end.

edited to add a word

[mac2]

19. Doesn't sound very fair

Only the few remaining got to chose delegates and their agenda? Did the public even know this is how it works?

[Emit]

20. We asked them to stay -- we read the agenda (Chair did)

We advised them to stay. They had to stay in order to have their vote in their preference group count. They chose to leave on their own accord once the numbers were crunched and once we explained the delegate nomination process. It was beyond fair -- these people didn't want to stay. They knew that by leaving, the remainder of the group would be entrusted with choosing their delegates.

[Wilms]

10. The best explanation I've seen so far...

if not entirely accurate.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4126987

[mac2]

18. The media (and candidates) won't say people are still demanding answers

regarding the 911 attack. It is the reason for all the war and loss of rights in America today.