Talk:Texas Democratic primary and caucuses, 2008

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from what I understand, first we (texas) hold a open primary with early voting, then around 7 or 7:30 the polls close and a caucus is held where everyone must vote again (the texas two-step?). is the caucus open or closed? what percentage of the delegates are determined by each part? What are the typical results of this chaos? -- 06:04, 14 February 2008 67.9.157.203

Don't think it's a caucus as such, but rather a local party precinct organizational meeting. Voting in the primary adequately indicates your presidential preference, but if you want influence over which specific individuals are sent as delegates to the regional convention in your area, then you have to show up for the organizational meeting. The delegates at each regional convention choose the delegates to the statewide convention, and the delegates at the statewide convention choose the actual Texas delegates to the national party nominating convention. As for open vs. closed, the poll-workers at your precinct will stamp your voter registration card with "DEMOCRAT" or "REPUBLICAN" when you vote in one party's primary, and this stamp is evidence of your party membership if you want to attend a post-election organizational meeting. AnonMoos (talk) 10:29, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
Oops, the situation I described above applies to most elections, but apparently the local party precinct organizational meetings for this election do actually have some caucus-like features. Sorry if I misled anyone... AnonMoos (talk) 12:12, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
Texas is unique, and I've linked to both the Delegate Selection Plan, delegate selection plan summary ("How To Be A Delegate"), and the nonpartisan Texas House information guide to explain the process. Calwatch (talk) 09:22, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] "Democratic" vs. "Democrat" primary.

I was thinking "Democrat Primary" is more correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tigercap (talk • contribs) 22:06, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Actually, "Democrat primary" would be interpreted by some Democrats as derogatory... AnonMoos (talk) 22:47, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Results

Uh, no results to list? Gary King (talk) 05:58, 5 March 2008 (UTC)


[edit] History of this process?

This is such an unusual variant on the primary system that I think a history of what was behind the design of it would be a great addition. Anyone with some expertise in Texan political history reading? Caitifty (talk) 06:14, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Caucus vs. Convention

These are not "caucuses". However, everyone insists on calling them that. The second step of the "Two-Step" also includes two steps.

1. sign in - where you indicate your candidate preference - If that's all you want to do, you can leave at that point.

2. convention - where delegates are selected - the party has allocated a certain number of delegates to each precinct and the delegates are chosen based on the percentages of support in the sign-in sheets.

Thus, there is no caucusing done as such. After the sign up sheet, the percentage of delegates for each candidate is fixed. Dunkelberg (talk) 14:59, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Caucus doesn't exclusively mean "allocate delegates to candidates". It merely means to hold a party meeting. At any rate, the Texas Democratic Party itself, which runs the caucuses, refers to them as such in its Delegate Selection Plan. --Bryan H Bell (talk) 19:41, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Precinct Conventions Results

Good article here about the reporting process: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/030708dnpolconventions.de9cc4.html 72.221.106.140 (talk) 22:01, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

  • Why are we using the Green Papers when party officials are claiming a different result? --Peephole (talk) 17:07, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
    • The Green Papers are used only for delegate count estimates. Since delegates aren't officially pledged until later in the process (state convention I believe), there won't be any official delegate counts released until then. Andareed (talk) 21:25, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "41% of precincts reporting"

The deadline for precinct chairs to turn in the caucus results in each precinct was last Saturday, but apparently the TX Democratic party doesn't intend to devote resources to tabulating individual caucus votes in precincts beyond the 41% already done. So I guess there won't be stats covering all the precincts until the county/district delegate conventions... AnonMoos (talk) 03:05, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Texas two-step"

The phrase was all over the media in the days immediately before March 4th. AnonMoos (talk) 06:30, 18 March 2008 (UTC)