I have a question about Texas ---

[jillan]

How is it possible that Hillary won the primary, but lose the caucus?

Do some people only vote in one or the other?

I'm curious, and thinking something seems fishy.

[vireo]

1. The caucuses were held later in the day

And had much lower participation and, being caucuses, "fishiness" would be par for the course.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#TX

[feminazi]

2. the caucuses were held after the primary ended

people basically had to vote twice..once in the primary, once in the caucus. as has become all too clear during this campaign, the caucuses do not reflect the will of the majority of voters in a state.

the elderly, people with kids and shift workers, etc have a hard time getting to a caucus because it's usually held within a narrow time frame. HRC's demographic falls into the category of people who are disenfranchised by a caucus. BO's demo is younger and more affluent and better able to attend so the results skew toward him. the same thing happened in WA where there was a vast difference between their caucus and primary results.

the fact that she won TX by 4 points, but lost the caucus is a good selling point that caucuses are unrepresentative of total voter preference in a state.

[NCarolinawoman]

3. This would go along with the first hand account I read on the evening of voting.

Someone who voted for Hillary said that he spoke to three nurses at the voting place who also voted for Hillary (in the primary). The nurses were upset because they could not attend the caucus that evening--they had to work, instead.

I read this FHA over at General Clark's Blog. The individual who related this story had just voted and was going on to caucus. What the nurses told him had made him feel a bit disheartened.

[libbygurl]

4. The Dem primary process should get rid of caucuses - truly unrepresentative of general voter...

...preference, indeed! Also should get rid of those OPEN primaries that allow non-real Dems to hijack the voting.

What else can the Dems do to further destroy themselves this season? No, don't answer that. (A lot!)

[feminazi]

6. totally agree with you

the caucus and open primary crap is a slap in the face to all true Dem voters.

however, i DID enjoy our CA open primary this year because my son, who is a registered independent, asked me "how can i vote for hillary?". he's 24 and we had not discussed the primary season at all so i don't think i influenced him. we went down to the registrar's office and voted early. he got a Dem ballot and voted for the smartest girl in the class! i like to think i'm raising an enlightened male!

[libbygurl]

7. Good job you're doing, obviously! And you're son isn't afraid of strong, intelligent women!

Wonderful story - thanks for sharing!

[anamandujano]

5. When I showed up to my caucus in San Antonio, I had to walk by a very long line

of last minute voters, Dem voters.

We had to wait a good hour before they all finished voting before we could start signing in.

I don't think too many of them came into the caucus room, just went home to dinner. There were about 250 caucus attendees. Everyone was starving.

By the time I got out of there, it was a good three hours plus, and I didn't even wait to vote for delegates. It was ok to leave at that point; my vote was counted (sign in, then wait an hour to get verified.)

I'm not complaining, it was a good experience, but it's understandable why most people don't show, even if they had the time free.

Not representative at all.