Posted on 03/22/2016 10:43:27 PM PDT by M. Thatcher
Just got back from my caucus... My head is still spinning.
Check in was slow but reasonably controlled. Super-long lines. I've never seen turnout like this.
Got my credentials, but no presidential ballot. They said those would be delivered to our caucus room.
Got to my caucus room. I counted about 120 people there (no idea how many were actually registered and credentialed).
We elected Precinct Officers, State Delegates, and County Delegates - the typical incompetence and ignorance of the rules you'd expect to see from volunteers, but all went somewhat smooth.
...Then came the Presidential Ballot.
Someone shows up with a stack of probably 250 ballots. The precinct chair splits them up, and starts handing stacks of them out and tells people "take one and pass it down".
No checking credentials, IDs, NOTHING.
I'm sitting at the end of a row and people start handing me stacks of extras. I literally had over 50 ballots in my hand.
[link to i.imgur.com (secure)]
We were told to mark our vote and place our ballot in a tin can. They then asked for a volunteer to hold the can. At this point, most people filed out the door.
I cast ONE vote, then stuck around to see what would happen with the votes.
About 15 minutes later, with only about 10 or so people milling around, someone walks in the room with an envelopes STUFFED full of "absentee" ballots - some envelopes having 2-5+ ballots.
I raised a question and said, "isn't there an absentee process already in place? Didn't people have to register for that last week?" and was told "Oh no, this is completely normal".
As I've mentioned in other threads, I was in Party leadership for 6 years and no, this is absolutely not normal.
I then asked if I could observe the vote count, and I was told my observations where not needed and to leave the area while the ballots were being counted.
I left the room (things were already a complete Charlie Foxtrot at this point) and wandered over to my friends precinct caucus to see if it was just as much a cluster.
His caucus was just getting to the presidential ballot, and as I walked in the door I was handed ANOTHER BALLOT.
Again, no credential check, no ID check, NOTHING.
No, I didn't vote again...
I went back to my precinct and they had the results: 74% Cruz 14% Trump 11% Kasich
Now just imagine this kind of outright incompetence/manipulation happening in 2000 precincts across the state.
As I left the building, I started overhearing results coming back from other precincts... Overwhelmingly numbers for Cruz... Like 70-90% or more. (In one precinct Cruz got around 100, Trump had 2, Kasich 0)
Bottom line... They basically are going to post whatever the hell numbers they want.
There were no apparent controls, no credential checks, no ID checks, and ballots being handed around like napkins.
UTAH RESULTS ARE A COMPLETE SHAM
And it just cost Trump 40 delegates.
GOPe. I am saying exactly, ND Republican voters have no mechanism to vote for a candidate this year. The "caucus" will be decided by delegates to the state party convention which, by the way, is having trouble getting the delegate slots filled. Convention in Fargo, 1-4 April.
“GOPe. I am saying exactly, ND Republican voters have no mechanism to vote for a candidate this year.”
I can’t believe the people of North Dakota are just going to take that kind of disenfranchisement sitting down.
Where are the lawsuits?
Yes
Good question!
Well then, I suggest you take it up with them because as I said, I had not heard this.
We need to get Kansas back to primaries, too much funny business can happen at these caucuses. I know quite a few Trump supporters that couldn't make it to the 4 hour window that made up our caucus.
At least with primaries, they have all day to be able to get in and vote. That could be why Trump had a slight edge in polling in Kansas but lost by a wide margin as the 4 hour window just wasn't enough time and who knows what funny business can go on at them. Cruz could have still ended up the winner in a primary but it would have been much closer, IMO.
I've come to the conclusion, I don't like or trust caucuses.
CGato
This is a once in a lifetime business opportunity for you, Ohio.
There are thousands of other "fools" at Election Betting Odds.com who will give you 5-1 odds on that bet.
I suggest you re-fi the house and go all in!
I’ll take it. See you in November.
You are safe then...
“My kids have LDS friends and they have great manners.
I had some good LDS friends in high school. The one closest to me died young of cancer. I don’t know as many now as I don’t move in their circles.
“It’s a creed for many and just because it’s not for me I’m sure not going to act like I’m superior to those born into it”
I wouldn’t call it a creed because for me that makes it sound like just another denomination of Christianity. It’s not, if anything it’s a 19th century variation on Gnosticism, borrowing Christian forms for an entirely different purpose.
I suspect that Paul was writing about some other Gnostic group when he penned the opening of Galatians but it always makes me think of the ‘Angel Moroni’:
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
I opined a bit more frankly on Mormons here:
To: Catsrus
It’s simple
Their Christianity is plain different
They can believe as they want or born into
I would never say otherwise but when I read Smiths musings it gives me pause
And I like Mormons as a rule
It’s such an unusual happenstance just popping up in New York and the Midwest based on the dreams of one man and predicated on sexual mores that folks had to find troubling
Great way to very quickly expand a brand new religion though
And once established then do away with what made the church what it was so fast....literally 2-4 generations
Does your average run of the mill parishioner believe the Moroni book and that Smiths dreams were real and divine as say the burning bush
I don’t know
I would not make a good Mormon given I’m non conformist and rebellious and anti authority by nature
120 posted on March 23, 2016 at 2:43:54 AM CDT by wardaddy (Cruz path to nomination is a box canyon)
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Yeah I remember seeing that post too. In fact I think it was that post with “Their Christianity is plain different” that prompted me to write. I like Mormons as people but the Mormon religion isn’t a form of Christianity. It’s borrows bits and pieces of the bible but teaches something entirely at variance with Christian theology. Gnosticism did something similar in the first century.
https://carm.org/comparison-between-christian-doctrine-and-mormon-doctrine
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