The Texas Primary: Part I

LatinaLista — Today, Texas is seeing the kind of unbridled excitement that first showed itself at the Obama rallies when upwards to 18-20,000 would show up to hear the Illinois senator speak.

(Source: Getty Images/Houston Chronicle)
And so far today, the excitement hasn’t diminished — even with North and West Texas blanketed by a dusting of snow.
Different media blogs from around the state are keeping an eye on the pulse of Texas voters and are reporting essentially the same thing: far more Democrats voting, more Republicans switching parties to cast a vote in the Democratic race and tales of potential dirty deeds!

It seems “there are reports of people not registered to vote in Texas, “traveling from out of state intending to appear at conventions this evening to vie for the position as temporary chair,” an intra-precinct leadership post.”
Because Texas has such a funky primary procedure, there’s ample room for unethical people to take advantage of the system.
What it boils down to, and if you want to know how it works, read this, a person can win the popular vote but still not get the amount of delegates needed to win the nomination.
Sounds eerily like a certain past election with two contenders named Gore and Bush, and we know what happens when someone who doesn’t win the popular vote assumes the win.
At any rate, because it is such a hassle to have to return to the place where today’s vote was cast, the thinking is that not too many people will return, which leads the puerta open for those unethical or die-hard (depending on how you view them) campaign workers who want to see their candidate win the most delegates.
A comical footnote to today’s election, is the accusation that the Clinton campaign really does know Latino voters and that we adhere to a different clock.
The piece that ran on the Washington Post’s political blog was that the Clinton campaign created a Spanish-language ad that told voters to arrive at their precincts for the caucusing (called conventions in Texas) at 6:30 p.m. The same ad in English told English-speakers to arrive by 6:45 p.m. The convention starts after the last voter casts their vote which can be 7 or thereafter.
I really didn’t think too much about the ad until I received a phone call from Hillary herself about an hour ago (recorded, of course) telling me in English when to go back to my precinct for the caucusing. She told me 6:30!
Speaking in global terms, everybody is interested in what happens in this election tonight as they see it is the make or break night for Clinton. There were reports that the BBC was going around Dallas interviewing voters as they left the polls.
I didn’t quite appreciate the global interest until I received a request to appear on a television newscast tonight to discuss the election returns. Though I’ve sworn off TV appearances, I feel pretty safe with this one — otherwise, I wouldn’t be sharing this.
First, they absolutely promised that I would be the only guest and I would just be doing analysis. Secondly, chances are that unless you live in very few pockets of the United States, you won’t see me but all of the Mideast will.
Yes, I will be appearing on the Al Jazeera English-language network talking about the TX Latino vote, sans burka — as far as I know.
But for those who can’t wait for your nightly newscast to see who’s ahead in the Texas primary, check out the web page of the Office of the Secretary of State 2008 Democratic Party Primary Election Night Returns.
This is the page all media will be monitoring for the latest results.
Tonight, will be one of surprises no matter which direction the election goes but one thing is certain — It’s going to be a loooong night.