Organizing for America | Maxim Thorne's Blog: Observing the Texas Two-Step

Observing the Texas Two-Step

By Maxim - Mar 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm EDT

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My friend Nicholas is so upset about Ohio and Texas. His 75 year old parents want to travel to Pennsylvania from Cincinnati to support Obama. His Mom can't stop crying he said. And she wants to know what I did wrong in Texas. This is getting personal for people. So I decided to write this about observing the Texas Two-Step Tuesday (Texas has both a Primary and Caucus). Be prepared for a VERY bumpy ride. The rains continued in Houston and we were all up by 5AM on March 4. The night before our Obama canvassing team ate at Pappideaux where the seafood meal for 10 (and only around $100) was unbelievable and the mom and son team (Debbie and Robby from NY/DC) had invited their relatives from Houston to join us. SEIU representatives Jason and Lorean and others were making jokes and taking photos. We were upbeat, and ready to go! I couldn't hangout much because I had the voter protection training at the local university and the manual on the primary and caucus to study. Nothing in that training prepared me for my arrival at the Lovett Elementary School polling place on Jackson and South Rice Avenues, Precinct 316, and I'd done voter protection already in Manchester, NH, Brooklyn NY, and Milwaukee, WI. I arrived early and attempted to introduce myself to the Chief Judge Ella Tyler who responded with "get out". I tried to explain that I was an attorney with Voter Protection, had the proper credentials and was here to observe for the Obama campaign and she said "get out". She then grabbed my upper arm and told me to "get out". I was escorted from the building. I was horrified, mortified and upset. The polling clerks were speechless. I went back to the Obama table that we had setup at the 100yrd line on the sidewalk, where we were providing Shipley's hot donuts to anyone coming to vote. Sumita, who was the feistiest Bangladeshi American Obama precinct captain, and who had been telling us earlier about how she had struggled to get her mom to vote for Obama (no problems with her dad) seemed ready to "throw down." We called into the boiler room about the incident with the Chief Judge. Another attorney Monica, who's local, was sent, and we watched as Ms. Tyler sent her out of the school screaming (seriously) and threatening Monica with arrest. Monica attempted to give Ms. Tyler her credential observer letter and saw those credentials rejected now three times. Ms. Tyler is a known Clinton supporter. In my opinion, Ms. Tyler has violated the Texas statutes and federal lawn. But she's inside and we are outside. I guess we are worried about the election in precinct 316. - - - After 4 hours trying to unsuccessfully get an observer into Lovett Elementary, and a short telephone conversation with the district attorney, I was now trying to get to the Fonwood Elementary School at 10719 Seneca Street, another polling station. The problem was I didn't have a car. As luck would have it, my friend Reggie has flown back to his hometown of Houston from DC to vote. He agreed to pick me up and together we tried to find his own polling place where he was to vote. Our first stop, a building in a dramatic upscale neighborhood was wrong, so his sister clarified and we went to the local school, where canvassers were all over the parking lot. We accepted a Ron Paul pamphlet (Gun-Lovers for Paul), a PETA petition, another about a local judge race, then the Houston LGBT caucus voter guide (they endorsed Obama) all handed to us before we got to the door of the school. Reggie voted.

Reggie next insisted that I seemed hungry and still a little shaken, thought it best to take me to "This is It" where I was refueled on unbelievable southern food. I canvassed the crowded eatery, met his sister (she had voted already but was worried about how cold it was now and how far it was to walk to the caucus to be held that night), joked with Rhonda a high end realtor about being more careful messing with these Texas folks. Finally I was dropped off to Fonwood Elementary. (Reggie left to visit an elderly aunt and then to catch a plane back to DC). It would not end there yet though because I was to spend a long evening at the Mt. Zion Church to observe the two caucuses there. I met with Jay the Chief Judge at Fonwood who was civil, showed me around and answered my questions. Two legal observers Mike and Parker were already there from Altanta, and we had heard about long cues at Mt. Zion which wasn't too far away. Mike drove me over I knew this was going to get interesting. - - - By 7pm the two long lines had formed at Mt. Zion, one around the left of the church made up of people who had come to caucus since 6pm because they had been told to come early (the caucus were scheduled to start at 7:15). The other line ran through the parking lot to the door where the primary was still going on. I asked Marylou, a very overweight woman who needed help getting a chair to sit down while she waited with her sister, why they came so early. She said she wanted to make sure she got into the caucus because she was afraid the Clinton people would come early and once the building was full they would call the fire marshall to stop Obama folks from coming to caucus. I heard this rumor repeated by several early arrivals, though JoBeth wanted me to know she was ready for the â€œpacketâ€! The Caucus was the second step in the two-step voting day in Texas. It was required to start only after the last person voted in the primary once they were in line by 7PM. As you might imagine, it took a long time before these folks got into the caucus room. Tempers were not good but it didn't appear to have anything to do with who the candidates were. People were tired, cold, wet. Some had been waiting for two hours. We had two precincts to caucus in one room. The caucus info packet contained only three sign in sheets, each of which could only hold twelve names. So by my count, we had over three hundred and forty people present with only thirty six people able to sign in. The first challenge was to get the official sign in sheets copied (at that time of night it not really possible). We called and called the election office and were told to use any material we could write on, paper towels, torn pages, legal pads whatever. So we created sign-in sheets which had columns for names, voter I.D. numbers, and candidate of choice. We had to search for pens, papers. People were ready to leave. People needed places to sit and even to stand. Children were getting testy. Teenagers with pants hanging quite low in the rear, and do-rags were wondering if they didn't have better things to do.
Next the precincts had to be separated which means that people had to get up and move across the room. Then was the nomination and election of the permanent chairs and secretaries of each caucus. Still more paper had to be found to sign people in. Next came discussion, mostly about how terrible conditions were, a little about the state resolutions, a lot about the time to wait to sign in and vote. One of the restless teenagers was the nephew of the woman who was voted to be the secretary of the proceeding. He seemed somewhat bored with the whole thing until Obama won by a landslide when the sheets were counted. In his district 384, Obama took all the delegates. In the other (district 7) , two went to Clinton and twelve went to Obama I think. This young man suddenly found himself nominated to be a delegate to go to the state convention for Obama. His transformation was remarkable. "He was the s###!" as a pal of his said. The delegate slate was voted in. He's going! I was struck by how everyone stayed despite it now being after 11 at night and the loud complaining. Not one person left before some scrap of paper made it to them so they could sign their names on and the candidate of their choice. It even jovial and testy at points when a few people actually wanted to complete all the columns of the reproduced sign in sheets (there were optional column asking about race, sexual orientation, disability etc) and people wanted to keep the sheets moving. One woman said she was sure she saw someone who was gay at the caucus and should sign that column. Someone answered that Obama supported everyone. There was general laughter. Their duty was done. It would take me two nights to get back to NJ because of travel problems, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

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By Michele Mateo Rusin Mar 17th 2008 at 7:10 pm EDT

I tried to get to Houston from Florida to help with this but couldn't do it at the last minute. It sounds like it was a difficult and you did a superb job. I still don't know why it is taking so long to get final numbers from the caucuses - can you explain that? Thanks again for your efforts!

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