Clark County Democratic Convention 2016 Part 2 of 3

In Part 2 of this account of my experiences at the Clark County (NV) Democratic Convention, I will describe the events that occurred on the day of the convention. Part 1 provides a brief summary of relevant events leading up to the convention.

I did not attend the Early Check In, but, instead showed up around 9:50 a.m. on Saturday April 2^nd to check in. There was a huge line outside the convention center. People in the line were patient as the line snaked around the convention center toward the entrance. Volunteers with both campaigns were handing out stickers and water bottles. After about a ½ an hour, several people wearing paraphernalia from the Sanders campaign came around saying that unelected alternative delegates were not needed and could go home. This would only have been true if there were enough elected delegates and elected alternative delegates to fill all 8,915 delegate slots. Once inside, we heard that wasn’t true. When we get to the vote totals it will be clear that this wasn’t true. Some of the people saying this were actually Sanders volunteers, but, they were getting their direction from someone else. I clearly saw one “volunteer” tell two others volunteers to announce that the unelected alternative delegates could go home. I don’t know if that individual is the person who started the rumor, or if he was simply following directions he was given. Inside, people with the Sanders campaign were clearly upset about this behavior.

Around 12:30 p.m., I finally got around to the check-in table. I showed them the form I had printed up after doing the on-line registration. I was given a form to fill out specifying which candidate I was their to support. That form ultimately represented the “First Ballot.” It wasn’t officially called the “first ballot,” but, that term will help people to understand how the voting process worked at the county convention. The people who did the early check-in on Friday filled out their “First Ballot” on Friday.

For most of the day, various candidates for offices were given the opportunity to talk to the assembled delegates for about 5 minutes each. The Nevada primary to determine candidates for the various offices will be held in June, so this potentially gave the delegates a chance to find out about the candidates. Unfortunately, the sound in the convention hall was horrible. If you weren’t in the front 1/3 of the hall, you couldn’t hear anything being said. Someone later told me that the speakers in the back portion of the hall were not turned out. They were visible, but, were not working.

The initial ballot results were supposed to be announced around 2 p.m., but, that didn’t happen. As time dragged on, rumors began to swirl and people began to get restless. It was at this point in time that I first heard about the removal of the chair of the credential committee earlier in the day (see link below). This was apparently happening while I was waiting in line (or possibly before I got there). 

Apparently more delegates showed up at the convention center than could be seated inside, so, they were transferred to an overflow area. I was unaware of this issue and the associated controversy until after the convention. I have no idea how the people in the overflow area voted on the motions presented inside the convention hall.

One of the rumors floating around is the convention was that it was clear that Bernie had won the County Caucus, and the Hillary Campaign was trying to delay the results until enough Bernie supporters had left that they could call for another vote and win the second ballot. Shortly after I heard this, I noticed that Bernie volunteers were located at the exit doors telling people wearing Bernie paraphernalia not to leave, and why they shouldn’t leave. I don’t know how long volunteers had been manning the doors, but, it was a smart move.

While we were waiting for the vote tallies, one representative from each candidate was given the opportunity to speak. Nina Turner, a former state senator from Ohio, spoke first as a representative for Bernie Sanders. She spent most of her time talking about Bernie’s political activism, from the 1960s to the present. I did not hear the name of the woman who was speaking on behalf of Hillary Clinton. She is a Nevada state senator. She spent most of her speech talking about Clinton’s biography.

Finally, around 4 p.m., (I think, the battery on my phone was dead, so I’m not positive what the actual time was) the “Final Results” were announced. I put “Final Results” in quotation marks because they weren’t final. These results are based upon what I’m calling the “First Ballot.” First the Clark County Chairman announced that there were 3,825 elected delegates present, 915 elected alternative delegates present, and 604 unelected alternative delegates present. We held a vote to seat all of the alternative delegates as official delegates, bringing the official number of delegates present to 5,344 (or 59.9% of all of delegates originally voted to the County Convention at the Precinct Caucus).

The Chairman then announced the “Final Results” which came out as 2,390 votes for Hillary, 2,958 votes for Bernie, and 9 undeclared delegates. I’m not sure how we got to 9 undeclared delegates, when there were only 3 undeclared delegates coming out of the Precinct caucuses. I don’t know if people either marked the wrong box by mistake or if several delegates were having second thoughts about who to support. When the vote was first announced (Clinton’s totals were given first, followed by Bernie’s totals), I could not hear anything after the two-thousand, nine hundred because of the roar from the crowd:

Someone in the crowd motioned for a recount (this would have been the second ballot), with the large Bernie crowd immediately creating an uproar over this motion. After the crowd quieted down, the Chairman called for a voice vote, noting that 75% of the attendees had to vote in favor of the motion for it to pass. Most of the Clinton supporters appeared to vote for the motion, but, all of the Sanders supporters (in the majority) voted against the motion.

The Chairman then said that the rules called for a one hour realignment period, during which time people could switch their support from one candidate to another, and, because the undeclared delegates comprised less than 15% of the total votes, they had to declare for one of the two candidates (this also would have been required if a third candidate had been represented and had received less than 15% of the vote). Because the convention was running several hours behind schedule, a motion was made to reduce this realignment period to 10 minutes. It passed almost unanimously. I heard a few nay votes, but, very few.

After about 15 minutes, the Chairman came back to the podium with updated results. Hillary received 2,386 votes, and Bernie received 2,964 votes, while there were still 7 undeclared delegates. Because of the seven undeclared delegates, another realignment period was needed. This upset nearly everyone in the crowed. Again, the realignment period was shortened to ten minutes. If people would have known who those seven undeclared delegates were, and if they were still present, I would have feared for their safety.

After about 20 minutes, the Chairman came back and said that there was no change to the ballots and those votes would be final. There was then a considerable delay while they calculated how many delegates each campaign would be sending to the State Convention. I have no idea why it took them so long to figure out the math for this issue. Finally, it was announced that Clinton would have 1,298 delegates going to the state convention and Sanders would have 1,613 delegates going to the state convention.

 The Chairman then said that if we were interested in becoming delegates to the state convention, we should go to the back of the hall where each campaign had a table and let them know we were interested. A number of us were confused, because, when we registered on-line and when we checked in at the convention, we were given the opportunity to declare our interest in being a state delegate. After a large group of us had gathered around the Sanders campaign table, someone came up and told us to go back to the front of the convention hall. The Sanders campaign told us that they were worried the Clinton campaign would try to call for another ballot, which we would not hear about because of where we were standing. For some reason, the Democratic Party did not turn on all of the speakers in the hall, which made it nearly impossible to hear what was being said in the back ½ of the hall. Most of us went back up front, but, I eventually wandered back to the back of the hall. The Sanders campaign apparently had enough volunteers to fill the delegate slots. At the Sanders campaign table, the volunteers were packing things up. At the Clinton table, I saw a dozen or so people frantically filling out forms. I’m guessing these forms were people volunteering to be delegates, but, I don’t know for sure.

We were told that the last act of business was to vote in the delegates to the state convention, and we had to wait for each campaign to provide the lists. This action took hours to occur. I suspect the delay was caused by the how the votes will be taken at the State Convention. According to www.thegreenpapers.com , two votes are taken at the State Convention to determine the delegates. (1) One vote is by congressional district, and a second vote is statewide. Because there are three congressional districts in Clark County, the staffers for the campaign were probably going through making sure they had adequate representation from each district.

During this waiting period, people were slowly trickling out of the convention center. It looked like the people leaving were dominated by Clinton supporters, with many Sanders supporters sticking around to make sure another vote would not be taken. Many of us had heard about that happening at one of the Iowa county caucuses, with the Clinton supporters repeatedly calling for revotes until enough Sanders supporters had left so they won the ballot.

While we were waiting for the campaigns to provide the lists of delegates, people were sitting or standing in small groups. The Sanders campaign brought pizza in for people (it was luke warm at best, but, still, it was pizza), which was nice of them. I don’t know how many pizzas were purchased, but, I saw several stacks with 10 or so boxes. A Hillary supporter started walking around the front part of the campaign hall carrying one a Hillary sign. After a while, several Bernie supporters started following him around. Then more Bernie supporters joined the parade until it turned into a Bernie conga line, which the person operating the sound system facilitated by playing music over the sound system. There were maybe a half dozen or so Clinton supporters in the parade, but, the vast majority of people were Sanders supporters of all ages. A brief video of this event can be seen below:

The convention was originally scheduled to end at 8 p.m., so, at 8 p.m., a crowd of Bernie supporters began to assemble in front of the podium and demand a vote on the delegates. Within 5 minutes, the chairman came forward to announce that the lists of delegates would be displayed on one of the screens, and, then we would have a final vote. This process was delayed when one of the delegates collapsed, and paramedics were called in. I don’t why the woman collapsed, but, suspect that she was dehydrated or exhausted. As the paramedics wheeled her past the podium, she gave use a thumbs up. Hopefully, she is fully recovered. If anyone has an update on this woman, feel free to provide it in the comments.

Finally, around 9:15 p.m. the remaining people in the hall voted to approve the lists of delegates and the gavel was laid down (indicating the end of the meeting).

The final post in this series will provide my final thoughts on the Convention, and, what factors played a role in the final vote