Ba-Racking the vote

On Friday, my friend and colleague, Kriss, joined Patrick, the kids
and I on a road trip to Nevada so Kriss and I could help rock the
Nevada caucus. The traffic was horrendous and it took us 7 hours to
drive from Los Altos to Incline Village, NV (should have taken 4) to
drop off the kids at the condo we rented. Kriss and I then trekked
over the mountains to Reno and finally made it to the Obama Reno
office at 9pm, downed a quick margarita across the street, and then
went to orientation at 10pm to help with the local caucus. After
meeting folks, getting trained on what to do for a caucus, and
learning the right way to pronounce Ne-VAD-a (VAD rhymes with "fad"),
Kriss and I journeyed through the depressing streets of Reno to find
our hotel, Circus Circus.

Circus Circus, as expected, was a mix between depressing and
fascinating, from an anthropological perspective. After checking in,
we walked around the casino and lobby wearing our "Obama" stickers
and buttons. We talked to mostly employees, assuming they were Nevada
residents, to make sure they were going to caucus the next day. Most
people we talked to seemed pretty apathetic and hopeless. Most didn't
plan on caucusing, but the ones who were interested, liked Obama.
Unfortunately, they didn't plan on caucusing because they had to work
between 11am and 1pm when the caucus occurred (one of the major flaws
of a caucus, in my opinion). Our attempts to rock the vote ended at
1am when a local policeman threatened to kick us out for "soliciting"
in a not-so-nice way. I figured calling my husband to bail me out of a
Reno jail wouldn't be fun, so Kriss and I hit the sack.

At 5am, we woke up, showered and dressed, and drove to an upscale
neighborhood to get our instructions from a local precinct captain.
This precinct captain opened her home to about 20 volunteers (roughly
half from the Bay Area!) to hand out marching orders for the day.
Basically, we were all tasked with handing out flyers to families
already identified as Obama supporters to make sure they knew where
and when to caucus. We were all handed maps and then spent the next
3-4 hours driving around neighborhoods and bringing people their
newspapers and the flyer to their doorstep. After hitting roughly 100
houses, Kriss and I had to split up and go to our respective caucus
locations.

My caucus location was at a really nice elementary school in the same
upscale neighborhood. I was very surprised when I arrived at the
school as there were *tons* of Hillary supporters already there (I was
90 minutes early!) and they all had on every imaginable kind of
Hillary paraphenalia. In addition, they appeared very, very organized
with books detailing their instructions (compared with my random
sheets of paper). There were also some low key Edwards supporters but
on first glance, no other Obama supporters. I knew instantly we had
our work cut out for us.

Inside the building, caucusers registered, but there was no need for
photo ID which I thought was really bizarre. I finally ran into a
local precinct captain for Obama who gave me some signs to hold
outside to welcome the caucusers. I was definitely at a disadvantage
as the Hillary and Edwards folks were local and greeted the majority
of caucusers by name and showed them where to go. After roughly 4
dozen local residents arrived, the first African American couple
walked over and were not greeted by name. I jumped on the opportunity
to be the first greeter and said "welcome to the caucus, can I offer
you a sticker?" and gestured to my long roll of Obama stickers. The
woman looked at me like I was crazy and said, "No!" and kept walking
in. She then turned around and said, "well, maybe for posterity sake".
I was devastated.

When it was 11am, the doors were closed shut. I took my place in the
"observer" section when a woman came up to me and said, "I'm an Obama
supporter, but my husband and I don't have anyone to watch my 4 year
old while we caucus. Can you help?" I told her I would be happy to --
as a mom of 3, it would be a piece of cake to just have one kid. As
she took a seat, I walked with Sean to a small table and the caucus
began.

After a brief introduction on the rules and process by a local leader
from the Democratic party (who was amazing), we did a count of the
precinct. The Party expected 47 voters -- 151 showed up! The turnout
across Nevada was historic and this precinct was no exception. After a
funny bike horn sounded, the caucusers were then asked to break into
small groups aligned with their nominee of choice. Then the magic
happened. While the Hillary machine was very well organized and vocal,
I saw the flock of Obama supporters grow, and grow, and grow. They
were the most diverse of the other groups in terms of age and
ethnicity (though the majority of the precinct was white). At the
first count, there were 64 for Obama, 50 for Hillary, 26 for Edwards,
6 for Kucinich and 5 undecided! After we counted the groups, it was
determined that the Kucinich and undecided groups were deemed
"unviable" meaning they did not have a large enough group to earn a
delegate (based on a mathematical formula) so they would either have
to merge with someone else, or find a "viable" group to go to, in
order to have their "vote" counted.

During a quick break, Sean's mom came over to say hi and check in. I
told her how important it was for her and the others to convince the
non-viable groups to join the Obama camp. She returned to her group
and asked for someone who was a good speaker as she considered herself
somewhat shy. Her rallying was interrupted by the caucus leader who
said it was time to have 5-10 minutes of discussion and then re-tally
the groups. It was incredible to see this process and see the Kucinich
and uncommitted folks surrounded by the Edwards, Clinton and Obama
camps. After a few minutes, there was a burst of applause when all of
the uncommitted folks joined the Obama group. Sean's mom had her arms
up in the air with excitement and I noticed folks patting her on the
back. We did a final recount and it turned out that Obama ended up
with 69 votes, 53 for Hillary and 28 for Edwards. This yielded 3
delegates for Obama, 2 for Clinton and 1 for Edwards! The Obama group
cheered and Sean's mom came over to pick up her son. I asked her what
happened with the undecided folks and how they were swayed. She said,
"I've been a Republican all my life and voted for Bush the past 2
times. I think Obama is the first honest candidate I have ever seen
and this is why I am voting for him. The other people in the
uncommitted camps are also "recovering-Republicans" and so they
connected with me. " Amazing.

So here's what I learned:

- one person *can* make a difference (if Sean's mom had to leave
because of childcare duties, maybe we would have lost her vote, her
husband's vote, and the 5 people she swayed)
- after being a precinct captain and general volunteer, I have more
sympathy for telemarketers, jehovah witnesses, and postal workers :)
- this is going to be one close and exciting race! We have a lot of work to do!