Will Washington State's legislative Caucus in a post March 4th world produce harmony or strife?
With Texas and Ohio producing no clear nominee, the democratic party here in Washington is headed for a train wreck unless unified direction is given to counties and legislative caucus credentials committees across our state.
This need might have been minimized had one candidate or the other been established as the presumptive nominee in yesterday's primaries. Now, I have a prefrence but am trying to stay above the frey. In fact, I have known about this potential problem for some time but held out hope that events would eliminate the climate we now are faced with as we look toward our legislative and county caucus conventions. With the fight for every delegate now expected to continue through the time of our next level of caucuses the state party must remedy the situation or risk differing rulings and outcomes across our state and ultimately litigation and harm to the party itself.
The issue involves affidavit voters at our precinct caucuses. This year, the ability to have your vote count at the caucuses for deployed military and those immobile for medical reasons was expanded through use of an affidavit. This process was developed within the party but along the way errors were made when deadlines for sending out the forms collided with final adjustments by the state party involving the date by which these affidavits had to be returned and where they had to be sent. In the end, voters in good faith, followed differing instructions, some complying with an earlier date and some with a later date, while some returned the forms to the state party and others returned them to their county party.
As a result of this chain of events a significant percentage of these affidavit votes are subject to credentials challenge by supporters of one candidate or another at the next caucus level. Some within the Clinton campaign have already indicated an intent to file credentials challenges to some of these affidavit votes. The party makes the names of caucus voters and their preference available to both of the candidates campaigns. So with the race so close, how would either campaign use this information to their advantage? Without a top down credentials ruling from the state party, the system is ripe for exploitation. Supporters for either candidate could cherry pick and challenge affidavit votes for the opponent seeking to have them disqualified and thus changing the delegate allocation in a given precinct. The supporters of the opposing candidate could then be expected to counter in kind since failing to do so would cause the tactic to succeed. One end result is that well intentioned voters would be disenfranchised. But the fights that would break out across our state while credential committees rule in differing ways (as a result of no clear direction from the state party) is what would cause lasting harm. Action can and must be taken now to avoid this breakdown. Finger pointing won't keep this train on the track. Who was at fault should be set aside and the state party should focus in on the voters involved who until proven otherwise, can only be assumed to have cast their affidavit votes in good will. Clear bench marks must be established by the party and communicated to every credentials committee across this state before it is too late and the campaigns must be implored to accept all of these ballots unless they, for instance were not received by the state or county until after the latest due date published. I really believe that the tone of our next level caucuses is at stake along with the integrity of the caucus system. This year should yield an interesting and positive experience for continuing caucus delegates. After all, we have two great presidential candidates, one of whom will be the next president. This year the primary and caucus season is like an extended world series to a political junkie like myself. As baseball, it's fun to watch. As wrestling, not so much.
So let's avoid the train wreck.
Will Washington State's legislative Caucus in a post March 4th world produce harmony or strife? | 20 comments (20 topical)
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