10a. xvp Nevada Caucus
Date: Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:22 pm ((PST))What a mess it was. I called my candidate, Barry Obama's office last week to
find out how and when it was going to be held. They told me from 11am to 1pm
then told me the nearest place for me to vote was a middle school near
Boulder Station. I slept in a little late and show up at 11:50 to find out they
will stop taking registration in 10 min so I get in line only to find out at
12:05 I'm in the wrong line. "The M thur Z line is on the other side of the
table. OK, I'm in the right line finally and they are still taking signups as
the
festivities start. I strike up a convo with a beautiful young black woman
and mention when I lived in Los Angeles we had a great black mayor for like 3
or 4 terms named Bradley. That didn't strike a bell with her so I asked where
she moved here from, She said Delaware. I said, I don't believe Delaware
exists because I've never met anybody from Delaware. She giggled so I told here
I
should maybe get a job as a comedian in a black comedy club. "Are there any
white people here tonight?" A Hispanic man walked past us wearing a very nice
leather coat. I told him, "Sir, you must have had to steal a lot of copper
to afford that coat." He didn't understand English nor did any of the other
Hispanics all around us. It was weird being in a room with so many illegal
aliens and all of them had Nevada drivers licenses.OK, so they start the vote count. The lady at the microphone told all the
Hillary people to get on that side of the room and the Barry Obama people to get
on the other side. They had us outnumbered by 5 to 1. I yelled out to the
Hillary people. "IF YOU WANT TO WIN YOU HAVE TO CRY AND FIRST LADY BILL HAS TO
SAY STUPID THINGS." They booed me and the lady at the microphone called for
order. There was one John Edwards guy in the middle of the room who drifted to
the Hillary camp.The actual vote count was done verbally. They instructed
each person to call out numbers beginning with "one" "two" and so on. Since
this was Nevada I was expecting number "ten" to say "Jack" but that didn't
happen. All in all it was a good experience.
Cute story; I hope there was some non-factual humor thrown in.
If not, my concerns about the country and our elections goes up (still another) notch.
Incidentally, I am an expert in meeting procedure (honestly - and yeah, that's weird, and they're aren't very many of us), and the count system you describe is called a serpentine vote, since usually it's done with everyone on one side standing up and then counting off - going up and down the rows in a snake-like (serpentine) manner.
The advantage over having tellers count the vote is (1) it's usually faster, (2) everyone watches the count, so the accuracy is more credible, and (3) you have something to do while the count is going on (watch it) rather than just standing there bored.
And I believe number "ten" is supposed to say "ten" and number "eleven" is supposed to say "Jack" - at least in the counts I've participated in. I actually like that - most of my meeting friends know I play cards, and would get a chuckle out of it if I'm ever number eleven and get to vote that way 
--BG
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