Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Have I Just Been Disenfranchised?

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Tuesday, April 1, 2008


Today's Dallas Morning News is reporting that our county's Democratic convention was illegal because it was held Sunday instead of Saturday. I'll briefly recap the article since it may be behind a subscription wall. In essense, any voter at the state convention can challenge the county delegation. And if Texas lets our county delegation attend, then someone at the national convention could challenge the entire Texas delegation.

I have mixed feelings. I recall that when I went to our caucus that they mentioned the convention date was to be Saturday. I thought, "gee, I could go to a county convention," but realized that if I got chosen to be a state delegate that the date would conflict with an event already on my calendar, as would the national convention. I've covered a national political convention (the 1994 RNC - yep, I saw the tail end of the flag burning incident), but I'm not sure if I'd want to attend one as a delegate. Since I wasn't attending the county convention, I had no idea that they'd moved it. If I had attended, would I have known that the convention HAD to be held on Saturday?

Okay, I can understand why all the county conventions need to be held the same day. Makes perfect sense. OTOH, they had to find a place at the last minute to seat 4,000 people instead of the couple hundred they usually have at these events. What do you do? Book a stadium and hope it doesn't rain? They were able to get the Frisco Convention Center on Sunday. Could they have found a facility in another county? Would that have been legal?

The final delegate count was 65% for Obama and 35% for Clinton; the actual totals were 55% and 44% respectively, but Obama took the majority of delegates in the state, though Clinton had the majority of votes. The Clinton campaign says it won't challenge the Collin delegation. Why challenge a puny county delegation when you can challenge an entire state delegation? That could mean the entire Texas delegation could be unseated.

I doubt that one county is going to swing the final delegate count in Texas.

Whatever happens, I'm sure Republicans all over our county (including the ones who crossed over to vote for Clinton) are finding this whole thing highly amusing.

I think I'll go have another cup o' coffee.

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