A committee of Galveston County Democrats is sifting through the results of last week’s election-night caucuses. But another group, to be appointed Tuesday, will try to resolve disputes about them.
There are 67 national delegates at stake from the Texas caucuses, which were overwhelmed by unprecedented turnout. State party officials reportedly have been getting frantic calls from national officials and the national press corps demanding to know how many will go to Barack Obama and how many to Hillary Clinton.
But with less than half of Texas precincts reporting and Obama up 56 percent to 44 percent, state party officials on Tuesday pulled the plug on a voluntary reporting system. In Galveston County, Obama’s margin was 58-41 with just more than a quarter of precincts reporting.
But some of those voluntarily reported results are sure to be disputed.
Rules Were Broken
Last week, the chairwoman of a Texas City caucus that heavily supported Obama complained when a Clinton supporter seized the caucus results and refused to turn them over.
Also, April Horner, captain of Precinct 108 in Galveston, complained to party officials that many people participated in that caucus without furnishing proper identification. Another participant in the caucus wrote that almost all of those without proper ID were Obama supporters.
Lloyd Criss, chairman of the Galveston County party, this week said that in his precinct, sign-in sheets were taken to Obama’s Galveston headquarters, where names were added to them. However, Criss said, the apparent additions didn’t seem to affect the delegate count.
“Every rule you can think of was violated at these caucuses,” he said.
Among those rules was that caucus paperwork was supposed to be submitted to Criss by 5 p.m. Friday. By Monday, Criss still hadn’t received all the results of the county’s 102 caucuses, but he said that the party would count late arrivals.
“We don’t want to exclude anybody,” he said.
As the results have come in, they are being evaluated by a committee headed by Marcey Casey, president of the Galveston County Democratic Club and the party’s island co-chair.
Casey describes herself as an “agnostic” in the Clinton-Obama race. The committee’s other members include Obama supporters Mary Ellen Brennan, Johnny Shelton, Jane Johnson and Loretta Davis; as well as Clinton supporters June Middlebrooks, Jeannie Bond, David Bond and Laurie Buchanan.
Casey said her group was going through the minutes of precinct caucuses to see whether they jibed with the sign-in sheets.
The committee has worked harmoniously, Casey said. It has found some discrepancies and is likely to find more before it finishes its work on Friday.
Group To Check Credentials
Those discrepancies won’t be settled by Casey’s committee, however. They and other questions from the caucuses will be handled by a yet-to-be-formed credentials committee.
For example, before people signed in to participate in the caucuses, officials were supposed to check their names against precinct rolls to ensure they were in the right place and that they had voted in the Democratic primary.
But at least in Galveston precincts 105 and 106, overwhelmed officials told the more than 300 gathered just to sign in; they’d check the names against the rolls later and if discrepancies warrant it, delegate counts would be adjusted.
It will fall to the credentials committee to check those sign-in sheets.
The committee will be appointed at a Tuesday meeting of the county Democratic Party’s Executive Committee. It meets at 7 p.m. in the jury-assembly room of the county Justice Center.
Also to be chosen will be the nominations committee and other panels for the March 29 county convention. The nominations committee will rule on nominees to the state convention in June.
Anyone who voted in county Democratic primary is eligible to participate in the executive committee meeting and be available to sit on the committees, Casey said. In fact, she said she hoped new people would show up and get involved in the inner workings of the party.
“Democracy can be messy at times, but you want to see people participate,” she said.
Results Official March 29
The results of the caucuses don’t become official until the March 29 county convention. Because of the heavy turnout expected, the convention has been moved from College of the Mainland to the La Marque High School auditorium.
Even though delegates elected to the county convention have given their word to support a given candidate, they’re not bound to do so.
That’s even true for delegates picked to attend the Democratic National Convention in August.
However, once delegates make it to the state convention in Austin, the candidates have a say over who gets selected to go on to the national convention in Denver. Obama and Clinton can review and approve lists of supporters who have declared their candidacy to represent them in Denver.
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At A Glance
WHAT: Executive Committee meeting of the Galveston County Democratic Party
WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday
WHERE: Jury assembly room, county Justice Center, 600 59th St., Galveston
