Poker Poker Poker!: [vpFREE] Re: xvp Nevada Caucus

> 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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