Hillary Clinton won the Nevada caucus today, with a solid five percentage point margin over Bernie Sanders. Once again, like in Iowa where she correctly called six coin tosses, Secretary Clinton enjoyed more tie-breaker luck by pulling an ace over Bernie’s six to win a precinct. At face value, it seems like our methods to choose our leaders are obtuse, outdated and just plain messy. This becomes more and more clear when you see what caucusers have to go through in order to cast a vote.
Long lines in the hot sun was the norm today in Nevada, but once those taking part in the caucusing got inside, it was even more of a clusterf*ck. We spoke with two voters that were excited to represent their country in Nevada, but were left confused and frustrated by the sheer amount of disorganization.
(It) seemed like no one really knew what to do. Some people just left because they were tired of waiting
Once inside, there was a complete lack of pens, leaving voters to fend for themselves. I repeat – no pens. This is a seriously important moment for choosing a delegate that will represent voters, and they didn’t have pens.
The numbers representing their group that would be casting a vote was on an official, government scrap of paper:
We waited outside for an hour to be registered, once inside they had only 3 people with computer registering people and dividing them into precincts.
And in the event of a tie…
What’s shocking is the archaic methods that Nevada uses to determine a delegate. Surely, this is because it’s an ancient process, right? Nope. The Nevada caucus was implemented in 2008. What a mess. Especially considering the people there don’t even know what to do.
The 55 year old man who is wearing JNCO jeans and running my local caucus just admitted that now that he has a head count of both sides he does not know what happens next….
Posted by John Burkhardt on Saturday, February 20, 2016
Is this really how we should be deciding the leaders of our country?
Naturally, this left a bitter taste in the mouth of caucusgoers. I spoke to Angela Giacalone, who waited for hours, only to leave the event wishing she never even participated.
I was incredibly disappointed, but also frustrated. As much as I believe in voting, it made me never want to participate in a caucus again. It took 3 hours and it was utter chaos. The caucus is an archaic practice.
It’s shocking to think that in 2016, a time when our country and the human race has the most advanced technology known to man at the tips of their fingers, our country is being organized by scraps of paper and people that can’t do simple math.