Posted on 02/05/2012 5:31:13 AM PST by SJackson
LAS VEGAS — A special Saturday night Republican caucus intended to accommodate orthodox Jews who couldn’t vote until after sundown became the scene of controversy and confrontation after caucusgoers were told that to gain admittance they had to sign a legal declaration under penalty of perjury that they could not attend their daytime caucus because of “my religious beliefs.”
The use of the declaration brought protests from many supporters of Representative Ron Paul of Texas who arrived at the polling place — a school in an upscale neighborhood here named after its benefactors, the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam — after they got an automated phone message from the Paul campaign saying people who couldn’t vote at the regular caucuses could do so at the night meeting.
Some Paul officials suggested that what they described as the “religious test” administered at the caucus would lead to lawsuits, and they said that anyone who missed the earlier caucuses for any reason should have been allowed to vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Yelling, shouting, police called but no arrests. These people are a bunch of anarchist thugs. Small time thugs. Just the image the GOP needs.
Why wouldn’t I be able to vote just because I’m not Jewish?, Mike Dicicco, a Paul supporter who drove more than half an hour. Maybe because you were too lazy to pick up your butt during regular caucus hours Mike. I hope. I'm sure this was your first caucus.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Yelling, shouting, police called but no arrests. These people are a bunch of anarchist thugs. Small time thugs. Just the image the GOP needs.
Why wouldn’t I be able to vote just because I’m not Jewish?, Mike Dicicco, a Paul supporter who drove more than half an hour. Maybe because you were too lazy to pick up your butt during regular caucus hours Mike. I hope. I'm sure this was your first caucus.
paulistinians really need their own time to vote.
No, no- you must be wrong about that. I've seen the RON PAUL REVOLUTION/LOVE bumper stickers with my own eyes. Bumper stickers don't lie. These people LOVE you (and me)... and sometimes people have to be tough with those they love. If they gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, that's a sacrifice they are willing to make.
It's for our own good, you know.
Mr. niteowl77
I doubt that just Orthodox Jews were the only ones voting. ANYONE should have been able to vote, and I can’t stand Paul, but geesh, this is ridiculous....if ONE can, then ALL should be able to. Don’t you agree?
No, it’s up to the party and state election officials. This is no different than absentee ballots, which in Illinois up to a couple years ago required verifying you’d be out of town. Or the absentee ballots issued to hospitals and nursing homes under special circumstances. I couldn’t care less whether Nevada authorized this special time, or whether they hold their elections on Saturday which eliminates observant Jewish participation, but if they do authorize the special caucus they should be able to enforce their rules. Shame on the Paul campaign for doing robocalls instructing their followers to turn up without disclosing the conditions of voting.
In the position of totally agreeing with the officials here. Preventing gaming the system - I am all for that.
It was not a late running caucus, it was specifically arranged so orthodox Jews did not have to break the Sabbath to vote.
An honest and fair arrangement for a caucus that falls on the Sabbath. Is it special pleading? Yes, in a way it is, but justified.
To give an analogy, from where I live. We have a strange neighborhood - a fair number of Jewish, a fair number of Catholic and a lot of Muslims and Sihks. Shops stay open late on Saturday, for our orthodox citizens. The local butcher displays only fish in his window Friday, though of course you can order meat, both normal and halal, from the counter.
Thursdays, food shops close at 1:30 PM - it is a town charter thing and to do with the market. During Ramadan, the shops can re-open at sundown Thursday, for our Muslim neighbours.
It is just a matter of respect.
Paultards annoy me. The tard part of the name is well deserved. There should have been some arrests.
True, though the blame for this goes directly to the campaign.
supporters of Representative Ron Paul of Texas who arrived at the polling place...after they got an automated phone message from the Paul campaign saying people who couldn’t vote at the regular caucuses could do so at the night meeting.
That would appear to be an outright lie, with no possible purpose other than creating the type of scene it created. Shame on the Paul campaign as well as the paultards. Ron, I'm sure, knows nothing at all about this.
Saying they can and saying they should (or even saying they do considering Va. & Fla.) are different.
If the officials said we are leaving certain polling places open later to accommodate the religious principles of Jewish voters, and if for some reason you have to vote late for reasons other than religious principles we still welcome you, there would be no fuss and everybody would have looked good.
The smarter thing would have been just having an election on a day that is not someone's sabbath.
And I'll grant that there are many Paul supporters who are total A-holes.
Honestly, I’d not be surprised if he didn’t know about it. It has the stink of a publicity stunt whipped up by a junior.
I was just fair to Paul. Need to lie down for a bit and hold my brain in!
I tend to agree about the Sabbath. And if it’s an issue in certain precincts, probably better to schedule the caucus for everyone in the precinct at a later time. I assume in Nevada that one caucus’ in one’s own precinct.
That's what I would think but the caucus' states have me totally baffled.
Everyone is missing the point. This article is not about the Jewish sabbath, or Adelson, or Paulestinians. It is about the NYTimes scared out of their wits that the GOP is doing spectacular outreach to a long-overlooked segment: religious Jews. Remember that Orthodox Jews - 68% of whom voted for G.W. Bush in 2004 - have 7 children per family on average, while Deformed JINOs have 1.2 kids per family...or at least the ones who aren’t intermarrying or turning gay. Do the math. 25 years from now, American Jews will be a larger, conservative bloc. And the NYT is terrified about it. Kudos to the Nevada GOP for recognizing this.
“... they got an automated phone message from the Paul campaign sayin’g people who couldn’t vote at the regular caucuses could do so at the night meeting.”
Actually sounds more like a Romney trick to me...
Would have had to have access to the Paul EMail lists. I'm guessing the Paul campaign would mention that. Stealing names of supporters sounds a bit like that Watergate thing years ago. If true, the Paul campaign needs to call the authorities.
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