Eventually One Of The Texas People Voting Today

 Well.

It wasn't easy, but eventually I managed to do my voting duty today.

Apparently today was the first time I have not early voted in my current Texas location. Which means when I showed up at my regular voting location, in the Sikes Senter Mall, there was nary a voting booth to be seen.

I then asked my phone if it knew where the Wichita Falls voting locations were located.

My phone directed me to a location nearer my abode than the Sikes Senter Mall, that being the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles location on Southwest Parkway.

So I made my way back south to Southwest Parkway where I eventually parked after seeing a "VOTE HERE" sign.

I made my way through a byzantine maze to the voting location. Handed over my voter registration card and my driver's license I.D., which is still inexplicably required in Texas, the producing an I.D. thing.

I was then informed I was in the wrong voting location, that my voting location was in the First Christian Church on Taft Boulevard, across the street from Midwestern State University.

There is more than one Christian church at this location on Taft, but the First Christian name is the name of the church, not a reference to its location in the lineup of other Christian churches.

Eventually I found my way to another "VOTE HERE" sign, which you see below.

After following another byzantine maze I eventually found my voting location.

I'd forgotten that in a Texas primary election one does not get what is known as a secret ballot.

After proving one is an eligible voter one is asked if one wants the Republican or the Democrat ballot.

One has to answer this question, out loud, twice.

How embarrassing it must be if one wants to vote Republican to have to announce such out loud for all to hear.

I understand the concept of controlling which primary ballot one gets to vote on, thus helping solve the problem of cross over voters voting for a horrible Republican candidate to help guarantee the Republicans lose against a much better Democrat candidate. For instance, voting for Ted Cruz so there'd be a slimy, creepy Republican opponent for Democrat Beto O'Rourke.

But why can this choice not be made secretly? As in after one enters ones voting code, then selecting, in private, which party ballot one wishes to be voting on?

And why does Texas make voting so difficult? With so many voting locations, which seem to vary with each election? A church voting location? That sort of seems an unseemly thing, what with that whole separation of church and state concept.

I don't remember the last time I ever went to a voting poll location in Washington. Sometime in the 1980s, would be my guess. Washington long ago went to the permanent absentee ballot option, where one got mailed a ballot which one returns by mail. That method has been refined over the years to the point now a registered Washington voter gets their ballot in the mail, and then drops it in one of the many conveniently located ballot boxes.

I just returned from a month in the Arizona version of modern America. Texas always seems so quaint in so many ways when I return from modern America...

More Texas Two Step Chaos & Weather Woes

We are back with clear blue sky again after yesterday's weather extreme. This morning did not bring the expected ice covering. Yesterday's afternoon sleet canceled about 500 flights out of D/FW, leaving some people stranded on planes for over 5 hours. Which is one of my many personal visions of a living hell.

Meanwhile reports continue to accumulate like snow regarding chaos and confusion at the second step of the Texas Two Step. One caucus goer reported his wife called party officials for help during their caucus meltdown, the person who answered did not know what to do, so the caller asked to speak to a supervisor who she heard say "just hang up on her".

On a plus note a Texas legislator is introducing a proposal to end the ridiculous Texas Two Step as practiced by the Texas Democrat party.

If you've not heard what the Texas Democrat Two Step process is, or don't get why it is absurd, let me lay it out for you. 55 percent of the delegates are chosen directly by the voters, with each vote weighted differently based on how the voter's precinct voted in the last 2 elections. Another 19 percent of the delegates are chosen at precinct caucuses with vague rules regarding how to weigh the votes. 11 percent of the delegates are chosen at the state convention and the remaining 15 percent are appointed by party bosses, a leftover from the good ol' boy network that used to run things.

Now do you get why we still don't know for sure who won the Texas primary election on the Democrat side, Obama or Hillary?

The Republican Party in Texas uses what would seem a revolutionary democratic method for picking their delegates in that 99 percent of the delegates are chosen directly by the voters. What a concept. And there is no chicanery regarding 'weighting' the votes based on past elections. Each vote is counted equally. I don't know how that remaining 1 percent of the delegates is chosen by the Republicans. I do know that John McCain is the nominee. And that he won Texas.

Global Warming, Snow & the Texas Two Step

It is only a couple weeks til the start of Spring. And yet this afternoon North Texas is predicted to get snow. Possibly up to a couple inches. When is this Global Warming thing you hear so much about scheduled to kick in?

It now looks like what I predicted days ago is about to be official, that being that though Hillary won the Texas primary vote and the most delegates from that win, Obama won the Caucus Chaos by a larger percentage and thus won more of those delegates and is expected to come out ahead with 99 delegates to Hillary's 94, gave or take a few in either direction.

Meanwhile the scandal over the largely botched second part of the Texas Two Step, that being the caucuses that Barack won, continues to grow. Angry voters are being heard, made more angry as they share horror stories and realize their experience was not unique, but was more the norm.

In one D/FW suburb, Mansfield, voting did not end til 20 minutes before 10pm. Many of the hundreds who showed up at 7pm for the caucus left in frustration as the hours clicked by. These people were left standing outside in the cold. And to add more pain to the pain, when many of them tried to escape they found their vehicles stuck in mud requiring a tow truck to unstick them.

Other precincts broke the election rules by allowing caucusers to sign in before the voting ended and letting them make their caucus choice. Other precincts did not realize that once the caucus began a voter could make his presidential choice and then leave without participating in the rest of the caucus.

At a caucus location in Denton County over 1000 showed up. People got so frustrated by the confusion that at least half of them left. One of the frustrated said, "I've never experienced anything like this. It kind of makes me want to leave the entire state."

I think that is a common sentiment here at times.

Caucus Chaos

My experience at last night's Texas caucus was not an isolated one of a kind fluke. Even though the Caucus Chaos that I witnessed was not mentioned in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram similar scenarios played out at voting locations all over Texas to varying degrees of chaos, confusion, disorder, turmoil, discord, pandemonium and borderline anarchy.

At some polling places in Tarrant County (location of Fort Worth) the primary voting ran over an hour late, causing the caucusing to begin over an hour late.

In many locations, when the caucusing finally began, more chaos followed with no one knowing what to do and then, when the process finally got under way, running out of sign in sheets and ballots. As a Hillary supporter, Michelle Coomer put it, "I was so appalled at how it was run. It was a terrible mess. It was a fiasco. There was no organization."

Approximately 500 people were left out in the cold at Fort Worth's Southwest Subcourthouse waiting for the voting to end. Some people had been directed to the wrong voting place leaving them not enough time to get to the correct location.

Various locations reported people showing up to vote in the primary who had early voted, taking literally those campaign slogans telling them to vote twice. Other voters somehow thought they had to participate in the caucus or their primary vote would not count.

It is not yet known who won the caucuses. It is known Hillary won the primary. Like I said before, it is likely Obama will end up with more Texas delegates because it is likely he won the caucuses.

So far I've not heard any noises, beyond my own, regarding declaring the caucus results fraudulent due to all the problems and the large number of people who were unable to participate due to all the ineptitude.

Voted Without a Glitch

I got to my voting place about half past noon. Lots of cars in the parking lot, but no line to wait in to vote. I just walked up to the first person I saw, handed her my registration card and helped her figure out what my last name was and where it was located on the alphabet. Eventually, another precinct worker (is that what they are called?) showed up and between the 3 of us we were able to find me on the voter roll.

I asked the precinct workers if this little room was actually where the caucus was going to take place. They confirmed that it was. I asked how can that work? Various voices chimed in with various comments along the lines that it may be a disaster, we don't know what we'll do about parking, we don't know where to put the people. And that they are hoping to have a police presence in place. I can't wait.

Each time I've voted in Texas the method has been different. The last time a sort of video game device was used. If I remember right you entered a code that you'd been given upon signing in. You then spun a dial to move to different spots on the electronic ballot. You could go back and forth over the pages changing your vote if you wanted to. When you were satisfied you were done you hit a button and a nice big American flag appeared on the screen and waved in the wind. I don't remember if music played. I suspect not.

The voting process today seemed to have gone back in time, somewhat. I was handed a paper ballot, then directed to a voting booth. It was not very private. You had a pen and filled in a square by whoever you wanted to vote for. The guy next to me asked the election worker if he had to vote for everyone on the list because all he wanted to vote for was Barack.

When I finished voting for the only person I was voting for, mainly because I had no clue about any of the other races or people running in them, despite some shady looking guy handing me a brochure when I walked in asking me to vote for him. I believe he was running for city council. So, upon finishing voting I was led to a copy/fax machine looking thing and told where to stick the ballot. It was sucked in, scanned and was not seen by me again.

I thought it quite odd that the election worker could clearly see who I was voting for. That did not seem right.

There was no Hillary sign at the voting location. There was a large Obama sign. And many others.

Sunny Sky Voting Weather

The view out my window has returned to a nice shade of Texas blue after yesterday's unseemly all day gray drizzle. The predicted iced version of water falling did happen right on schedule, arriving about 6pm in the form of frozen pellets that seemed to be a mutation of a snowflake and hail.

Some areas of the D/FW Metroplex must have had a lot more snow/hail than I saw, because this morning while driving in Arlington I saw several cars with about 4 inches of white stuff on them. And others with lesser amounts.

Texas Primary Election officials have now let it be known that they are very nervous about what is going to happen tonight. Their worries are the same I mentioned yesterday, as in too many people in too small of spaces with too little parking to handle those who return for part 2 of the Texas Two Step, that being the caucus. They are also afraid that the voting may go on well past 7 due to the requirement allowing anyone in line the right to vote, as long as they are in line before the 7 o'clock poll closing time.

The caucus can not begin until the last voter has voted. Where the caucusers are supposed to wait I have no idea. I may just go check out the spectacle. And then bail. Unless it seems interesting.

Miserable Drip & Election Mayhem

Today's blog is a weather report. When you've got nothing else to say the weather becomes the conversation topic. North Texas weather can be such a trial, but the lead up to Spring is the worst. Or the funnest if you like rock and roll storms full of sound and fury and a chance of a tornado or grapefruit size hail. That was our entertainment here in the wee hours this morning. A lot of noisy rain and big booms with bright light effects. No tornado in my immediate zone though. I've yet to hear the tornado sirens go off this year.

The past few days had been in the 80s with one day almost breaking the record at 91. I'd spent one afternoon reading by the pool. I thought the cold misery was done for the year. But last night's storm from the south brought in fresh hell from the north and after the 2 fronts got done fighting the north won, just like it always does. So the temps have been falling all day. It's been dripping all day, a winter in the northwest type drippy winter day. And that dripping is predicted to turn into some form of ice as daylight leaves. It could be snow, hail or an ice storm. Of the 3 the one I truly dislike is an ice storm. I've had falling down issues during an ice storm.

I forgot to mention, my current dreary view of the world is what I'm looking at right now in the photo above. Looking out the window to the right of my computer desk.

Earlier today I braved the cold when it was still in the 40s and returned that Gail Sheehy book about Hillary called Hillary's Choice. I checked out a couple new books and asked the librarian if the library was tomorrow's caucus place for this precinct. She did not know. So much for libraries being a good source of information.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about tomorrow's voting. I do know that the library is my voting location tomorrow, that is Step One in the Texas Two Step. Step Two starts when the polls close, Step Two being the caucus. The location of which I do not know.

That wonder of useless information, that I may have complained about before, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had an article this morning which was ostensibly about all the confusion over tomorrow, but somehow did not answer the key question, as in where are the damn caucuses? Instead they had a cutesy dumb Myth and Fact list that was particularly insipid. Like "Myth: Voting twice means voting early and then voting again during the day Tuesday." Or "Myth: Voting twice means I can vote in both the Democratic and Republican primaries." Or "Myth: I can vote Tuesday without having registered."

Apparently this Texas Two Step method has been in play for 20 years but this is the first election where people are actually interested. I'm thinking Texas will get rid of this, well, idiotic, method by the next election cycle because by the end of tomorrow night it likely will be nationally controversial because no one will be able to understand how it was Hillary won the Texas popular vote while Obama won the most delegates. That's my prediction and I'm sticking to it.

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TEXAS TWO STEP UPDATE: Upon consulting an election expert I have learned the Texas caucuses take place at wherever your polling place is. The Star-Telegram actually said this, but I, dense reader that I am, was not able to parse their verbiage and accurately extract its meaning. I also think when I read that the caucus starts when the voting ends that they couldn't possibly mean in the same location. But how would one get quickly from the voting location to the caucus location, I wondered? It never crossing my mind that they could be one and the same.

So, tomorrow we have a set up here in Texas for one gigantic Cluster Muckup. Early voting has already broken all records. Tomorrow's turnout, despite the cold weather, is expected to break all records. So, how in the world are they going to clear out the voting equipment and set up a caucus meeting in the small meeting room that acts as the polling place in the library I visited earlier today?

I was going to just vote in the primary and ignore the caucus and stay home and watch American Idol. But now I'm thinking I can try and figure out my VCR and watch American Idol later. This should be at least as entertaining a mess as Saturday's security incompetence at Hillary's Stockyards rally.

Hillary's My Girl

I'm tired, worn out and starting to grow tired of this blog thing. Like what is the point? And then I got an email from my #1 Blog Fan a few minutes ago. I've not heard from my other Blog Fan. But #1 asked why I'd not Blogged today, particularly after last night's debate in Austin.

Well, like I've already said, I'm tired, worn out and starting to grow weary of this blog thing. But, you know, one really should not disappoint ones fans, even if there are only two.

Yesterday, while listening to Rush Limbaugh on WBAP Dallas on my cheapie radio headphones while hiking in Tandy Hills Park , Rush annoyed me to the point that I decided I'd blog about that today. But then that sick and tired thing kicked in and I really didn't care. Though I was slightly aroused to slightly caring this morning when reading a column by George Will saying pretty much the same thing nonsense that Rush was spewing.

I've decided there actually is a vast right wing conspiracy. Mrs. Clinton was ahead of her time on that one. It now seems to be a talking point amongst the right wingers that it wears on their last nerve hearing Hillary tout her 35 years of working on children and women's issues. The boom boom boom of the anti-Hillary drumbeat pops way too loud making the bogus claim that she supposedly has never done anything on her own.

Just forget about her working as a lawyer for years, all the way back to working for the Watergate Committee, the woman has traversed the country doing good things, well before Bill. Like, she made it all the way to Alaska where she got a job gutting salmon that lasted one day, with Hillary fired and the plant shut down overnight due to Hillary bitching so effectively regarding the unhealthy conditions. When she says she has been out there working hard to help people for 35 years it turns out to be true. I mean, how many of you have made it to Alaska and caused a salmon factory to shut down? I worked in the salmon industry for less than a week in Alaska in my early 20s. I too was appalled. But unlike Hillary I just scurried home without shutting down a single thing.

Read the Wikipedia article about Hillary, and you will learn she has been doing some significant things that have helped kids and women for decades. Read Gail Sheehy's 'Hillary's Choice' book and you'll read in detail not only all the things Hillary not only worked on, but worked hard on, including rescuing her husband from his foibles on many an occasion. Read how she battled and won against Reagan when the Republicans tried to ruin the Legal Services Corporation she'd help turn into a success.

What that woman did to bring Bill back to life after he was booted out of the Arkansas governor's mansion is amazing. I mean, she was relentless. Bill was in hiding, would not meet the press for months, got increasingly erratic, wandering the aisles of Wal-Mart asking random people what he'd done wrong. While Bill spent his time whining and despondent Hillary relentlessly fixed all that had gone wrong that had turned the Arkansas people off. Including letting it be known she would now be known as Mrs. Bill Clinton, she got contacts (eyeglass replacements, not people contacts), went clothes shopping, had her hair styled and colored for the first time, and, egads, started using makeup, including lipstick for the first time in her life. Bill was re-elected governor. And this time Hillary ruled the mansion with an iron fist. The problems of his first administration were not allowed to re-occur.

Which brings me to last night's debate in Austin. I listened to Hillary with a new respect. I actually liked her. I am putting off doing my early Texas voting til the 29th, lest I change my mind again. But currently I am going to vote for Hillary.

Sadly, this is bad news for Hillary. The person I vote for never wins. Now, Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Will, I know you are reading this, devote readers of my Blog that you are, you two should be ashamed of yourselves. Now, go do some research on Mrs. Clinton. And then apologize you rude men.

Disenfranchised in Texas

I've been trying for months to get my voter's registration changed so that I can vote at my new address. At the last election I went down to my local polling place and I was not allowed to vote. On the actual election day you have to vote at the place you are registered. For me that was/is way north of my current location. Previous to the last botched election I'd done early voting. With early voting you can vote anywhere that there is an early voting poll place.

I've had a long history of trouble dealing with various Texas bureaucracies ever since my exile here way back in 1999. First thing I encountered was they insist on seeing your social security card to do just about anything. Now, up in Washington we'd always been told to keep this a secret, even before the problem with identify theft came into being. So, I had to get a social security card. This involved finding my birth certificate which involved asking my mom if she had any proof that I'd been born. She had none so I had to contact my place of birth in Oregon to generate a birth certificate so I could get a social security card so I could get a Texas driver's license and register to vote.

So, after many months of trying to go through all the hoops I finally was able to apply for a Texas driver's license. The DMV, or whatever they call it here, was a zoo. The computers that you took the written test on were so dilapidated that you could not make out colors. With the test asking you some questions based on colors. But, despite all the obstacles I managed to pass both the written and the driving test.

A couple weeks went by. My new Texas license finally arrived. On a Friday. I was planning to drive up to Washington for Christmas, leaving the next day. So, I was glad to finally have my Texas license. Til I looked at it more closely. As you can see by looking closely at the photo of my license, above, there is a rather glaring mistake.

So, yes, I headed north using a Texas driver's license that said I was a Female. Because of having this I did get one odd benefit. My sister let me attend her all girl Christmas party. But I had to be the greeter and show the girls my I.D. to establish my bonafides as being one of their gender.

When I got back to Texas I went down to the DMV, or whatever they call it here, waited in line, again, showed the lady my new license, asked her if she saw anything wrong. She said ooops. And then she checked the record. She had me lean forward and she whispered to me, "the records out of Austin say you are also African-American. You aren't are you?" I told her as far as I knew I was not either African-American or female, but how can anyone be absolutely 100% certain about such things?

So, now I guess I am in Texas Voter's Limbo. I'm fairly certain I can still do the early voting thing. Unless that has somehow gotten mucked up by me trying to change my polling place. I don't know why they don't have the permanent absentee ballot method that Washington and other states use. That would make it all so much simpler.

Now, if I do get to vote in the March 4 primary, who should I vote for? Barack or Hillary?