on the shenanigans you missed... These are just a few- there were many more. Thank you for a lovely post btw.
Detroit caucus sites stay open extra two hours; black leaders call for new election
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
2/7/04 6:11 PM
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The leaders of four black statewide groups may challenge the results of Saturday's Democratic caucuses because some caucus sites weren't open or had been moved, Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus Chairman Derek Albert said.
"We feel very strongly that African-Americans were disenfranchised today. ... You had people running from site to site looking for where they could vote. ... We're calling for a new election," he told the Associated Press.
<details snipped>
"This is worse than in the '60s," said Albert, who also is chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus. "This is horrible. This election needs to be stopped. Because this is not right."
<snip>
Dean state director Daren Berringer had said changing polling places at the last minute hurt voters, especially in low-income areas such as Detroit where people might not have arranged transportation to get to a caucus site outside their neighborhood.
"They're walking to their polling place, and they're finding their caucus site has been changed," Berringer said. "The sites in Detroit and Southfield are in minority areas. This is direct voter disenfranchisement."
<snip>
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1076181242303271.xmlhttp://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=290602#290612====
Detroit caucus sites stay open extra two hours
Black leaders call for new election
Saturday, February 7, 2004 Posted: 6:42 PM EST (2342 GMT)
LANSING, Michigan (AP) -- The leaders of four black statewide groups may challenge the results of Saturday's Democratic caucuses because some caucus sites weren't open or had been moved, Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus Chairman Derek Albert said.
"We feel very strongly that African-Americans were disenfranchised today. ... You had people running from site to site looking for where they could vote. ... We're calling for a new election," he told the Associated Press. "We just went through this in Florida in 2000. Michigan should be above this. The Democratic Party should be above this. We're not going to tolerate this."
(snip)
Democratic caucus sites in the city of Detroit were staying open an extra two hours Saturday because of problems earlier in the day with some sites being moved or closed, the party said. During the extended hours Saturday, voters could vote at any caucus site in Detroit rather than just the one they had been assigned previously.
Michigan Democratic Party Executive Chairman Mark Brewer said all sites in Detroit would stay open until 6 p.m. EST, while sites in the rest of the state closed as scheduled at 4 p.m. EST. But a check of several Detroit sites found them closed after 4 p.m.
(snip)
Edwards state director Derek Albert, however, said most of the moved sites were affecting minority voters and were robbing them of their right to vote. "This is worse than in the '60s," said Albert, who also is chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus. "This is horrible. This election needs to be stopped. Because this is not right."
Dean state director Daren Berringer had said changing polling places at the last minute hurt voters, especially in low-income areas such as Detroit where people might not have arranged transportation to get to a caucus site outside their neighborhood.
(snip)
http://www5.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/07/elec04.prez.democrats.caucus.ap/================================
We also said good things about the other candidates, and that people shouldn't vote on who is popular, but who they believe in. That even if your candidate didn't win, maybe they could influence the candidate that did. That the party deserved the continued dialog, and the whole country deserved it's say so, to heal this country/party, so that we would be united. That people need to think and decide for themselves. And lots of "FACTS" Yes that ugly five lettered word!!!
The Kerry Krew then get up there, or as I like to call them at this cozy town hall meeting, "The Suits" A lifer and his trainee. This guy's dropping names and showing he's a real good "Smiler" The whole "I'm one of you" They play on fears, they praise their boy. They let everyone know, "Hey, This election is over. So, we're going to pass a paper around, everyone write your name down, and get on board the Kerry train."
Well Killingworth, CT didn't buy into it. They had a mind of their own. They started asking questions. "The Suits" started dancing around the topics, getting fuzzy. Saying things that weren't true. When people started disagreeing with them, they tried to get the people to listen but not speak, at their own town meeting. "The Suits" started acting like they were running the show, and not invited. They started saying the information wasn't in on the war yet, not true. They started saying raising lots of money from special interest was a good thing, now is it? When Killingworth showed they had a mind of its own, that liked many different candidates, "The Suits" put on their coats and got out of there. All the other reps stayed to shake hands and talk.
I'm not saying we won Killingworth over to Kucinich, because we didn't (Though we did good in Washington and Maine) I'm saying Killingworth could think for it's self, and was tired of being told what to do, and I really think that great group of people won't make up their mind until March 2nd. I hope all of America is starting to get like Killingworth. If Kerry wins, Kerry wins, but let our party be heard, let it run to the Convention. No more tricks or suits. Real people, real issues, for a real candidate.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=295891#296406====
Hoppin_Mad Mon Feb-09-04 12:30 AM
23. Not if they're true - Here is one first-hand account from WA
"Here is what happened in my precinct. We won 4 delegates for DEAN because none of the other candidates were viable. In our precinct Dean had over 71% of the votes...
BUT
When I went to the 36th district HQ's to find out what the caucus numbers were for the whole district and I looked on the computer that AMY HAGPOLAIN was entering data on - I discovered she had completely reallocated the delegate allocation for my precinct! She had entered only 1 DELEGATE FOR DEAN (instead of 4) and gave 1 delegate to Clark (note - we did not have a single Clark supporter at our precinct caucus), 1 to Edwards, and 1 to Kerry in my precinct - The precinct that went 71.1% for DEAN with no other candidate being viable or receiving a delegate. That single error affected Dean's delegate count by 1% at the Congressional District level. Looking further into the available paperwork, I found another error in another precinct that was next to mine at the caucus. Of the twelve precincts I had time to look at, I found two errors that gave delegates to Kerry that were not his. I also noticed that the head count in our district said we had 13 people signed in, when it was actually 21!!! That effects the percentage for viability and the delegate allocation!
This woman (AMY) got unbelievably angry (defensive) with me as soon as I pointed out the mistake. She immediately started berating me and started a big argument. We had quite an unpleasant shouting match. Then, she and another 36th District Official named PETE started a viscious passive aggressive game, blaming me for keeping them there to late, calling me a jack-ass, on and on and on. Eventually, they won the battle with the District Chair to stop the recount that we had in progress. I made them all stay as long as I could and we started recounting precincts to make sure that the sign-in (head count) numbers were accurate. We found that the majority of the precinct head counts (from the sign-in sheets) were under counted by one or two people and in some cases by as much as 5 to 10 people!!! A couple of the precincts were over counted.
Then PETE (last name unknown) told the Chair that no copies of the minutes needed to be made and he would keep them at his house. He started loading the Caucus Minutes into his car to take to his house and AMY was taking out tons of paperwork (I don't know what, exactly) while we were discussing when to start the recount again... the few people on my side who were trying to get the re-count done gave up as Pete and Amy talked the Chair into counting tomorrow and then she let them take all the minutes and delegates papers out the door... UNBELIEVABLE… I could not have made this up if I had tried my best! Truth IS stranger than fiction.
THE DEMOCRATS ARE F&^%ED in this District and, quite possibly, this state! I was treated so horribly for finding that first mistake and only wanted to look for more problems. Based on my intial findings this woman named AMY was either (1) inept or lazy and didn't care that she entered the data wrong or (2) she was stealing delegates from DEAN. Either way, it was wrong. When she was asked to correct her error and to look for others - she lost it and BLEW UP! She and her cohort Pete had absolutely no interest in accuracy... they kept repeating to me - "The election is over... Kerry won". They weren't accountable to anyone! This is not about who won - at least not now, anyway. This is about all of the votes at the caucus getting accurately counted so that the delegate allocation is correct. People like AMY and PETE need to be banned from doing this kind political work. I felt like I was a REPUBLICAN 'hanging chad' Party in Florida - or at least what I imagined it to have been like..."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=295375#295472MrsGrumpy (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-04 06:00 AM
Response to Reply #96
97. I worked on phone banking to get the vote out for the caucuses. While
we were phone banking it became apparent that the caucus sites were wrong. Really wrong. Phone calls were made and all were assured that the problem was corrected. It was, in some places. It is now obvious that all of the corrections were not made. I am really angry about this. We did a lot of work and it doesn't show in the voter turn out for Detroit.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=295375#296393====
Egnever (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-14-04 07:04 PM
Original message
My Vote went to Dean!
What a strange day it was today here in Nevada.
Today we had our caucus and I was fortunate to be able to cast my vote for the candidate I believe in. Not because the party wanted me to but because I stood my ground.
Strange things that happened today,
Kerry showed up outside the caucus. Apparently thats his right but I found it extremely strange that a candidate should be standing outside on the steps while the people are making their decision. It wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much that he showed perhaps if he hadn't been an hour and a half late and they hadn't held up the vote till after he had time to make his appearance.
Yup thats right Voting was supposed to begin at 9:30 but it didn't begin till 12:30
Rules were changed throughout the process which is something I also thought was strange.
Originally we were supposed to gather in the football field of the a local high school where we would wait till our precincts were called to go into a room that was filled conspicuously with only Kerry posters to cast our votes and elect our delegates. How Kerry was the only one allowed to have posters in the original voting room is beyond me but hey thats politics I suppose.
The Dean camp made arrangements for one of our representatives to stay in the football field and make us aware of when our precincts were called so we could show our support outside the room since we were unrepresented inside of it.
This lasted all of 15 minns before the fire marshals decided that it was unsafe to have people waiting in the courtyard outside the classroom ???? so we were all told that the caucus would be held entirely on the football field.
So off we marched to the football field our Dean contingent gathered on the field and we held our signs high in support of our candidate, There much tongue wagging ensued from the "democratic party leaders" on how we remembered Vietnam and how proud we were to be patriots willing to stand up against this war and asking how many veterans were in the crowd!
I wanted to puke. Our caucus had obviously become a Kerry rally from the top down from holding the voting till after he made his appearance to the speakers pushing the whole Vietnam veteran thing and thanking all the other candidates supporters for participation in their caucus.
The last thing to happen before we were sent to our corners for our precincts was a group of Kerry supporters came and stood in front of us as Kerry signs were passed out to them. Whole football field to stand in and they choose to come line up directly in front of us and then get their signs handed to them I was appalled at the gall but thats politics I guess.
The one thing I heard repeated over and over by the Kerry folks when asked why they made their choice for Kerry was.....
He seems like he is going to be the winer.....
WTF?
I didn't find one Kerry supporter that had anything else to say about him other than that.
It was amazing the number of people that came there completely uninformed about their candidates. Including the "democratic leadership"
In his speech before the voting the Kerry representative Said we wanted a candidate that could take on the bush administration against an unjust war against ashcroft and the patriot act and against things like no child left behind that was ruining our education system.
I could only roll my eyes as the crowd cheered and went off to vote.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=335557 
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