Houston Hearing This Friday Cancelled Because of Hurricane Ike
September 10, 2008 by End the Texas Two Step
Filed under Blog
The primary/caucus advisory meeting scheduled for Friday, Sept 12, in Houston has been cancelled because of Hurricane Ike.
We will post information when it is rescheduled by the Texas Democratic Party.
Media Reports on Harlingen Hearing
September 9, 2008 by End the Texas Two Step
Filed under Blog, Media Coverage
Senator West’s Advisory Committee on the Primary/Caucus held a hearing in Harlingen last Saturday. Here are links to two media reports on the meeting. We need a bunch of people to attend the hearing in Houston this Friday. The start time for the Houston meeting is 9am. The location is Jacinto City Town Hall Center (at 1025 Oates Road, Jacinto City, TX 77029).
The Brownsville Herald, “Texas 2-Step Revisited: Hearings give Valley Democrats chance to voice their concern on primary/caucus system“.
KGBT TV 4, “Democrats hold hearing over ‘two-step’ primaries”.
(YouTube Video) of KGBT report.
14 Caucus States and Their Populations
September 9, 2008 by End the Texas Two Step
Filed under Blog
Texas is by far the largest of the 14 states that use caucuses. The other caucus states all use a pure caucus system while Texas uses its own Texas Two Step of a primary/caucus hybrid. The 13 pure caucus states are all much smaller than Texas. The large states, such as California, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan all use primaries.
Wyoming Population Rank 50
522,830
North Dakota Rank 48
639,715
Alaska Rank 47
683,478
Hawaii Rank 42
1,283,388
Maine Rank 40
1,317,207
Idaho Rank 39
1,499,402
Nebraska Rank 38
1,774,571
Nevada Rank 35
2,565,382
Kansas Rank 33
2,775,997
Iowa Rank 30
2,988,046
Colorado Rank 22
4,861,515
Minnesota Rank 21
5,197,621
Washington Rank 13
6,468,424
Texas Rank 2
23,904,380
Democrats Who Oppose the “Texas Two Step” to Attend Hearing on Primary/Caucus System at Harlingen Public Library Saturday, September 6
September 5, 2008 by End the Texas Two Step
Filed under Blog, Press Releases
Media Advisory
For immediate release: Sept 5, 2008
Contact: Scott Cobb 512-689-1544, scottcobb99@gmail.com, www.changethecaucus.org
Democrats Who Oppose the “Texas Two Step” to Attend Hearing on Primary/Caucus System at Harlingen Public Library Saturday, September 6
“End the Texas Two Step” Group Seeks Change in Caucus Process Used by Texas Democrats to Allocate Delegates
A group of Democrats who are seeking an end to the “Texas Two Step” process of allocating delegates among the candidates for president will attend a hearing sponsored by the Texas Democratic Party in Harlingen on Sept 6. Members of the group will be available for media interviews starting at 8:30am on Sept 6 before the hearing starts.
The hearing is being held by the Advisory Committee on the Texas Democratic Party Convention/Caucus System. The Committee is conducting a series of meetings open to the public to allow for Democrats from all across the state to share their Primary/caucus experience.
The meeting of the Advisory committee will be at the Harlingen Public Library, Harlingen, Texas on Saturday, Sept 6, 2008 at 9:00am. The library is located at 410 76 Drive, Harlingen, Texas 78550.
The “End the Texas Two Step” group wants the Texas Democratic Party to change its rules for future elections, so that all national delegates are awarded to presidential candidates based only on the results of the popular vote in the primary. In 2008, delegates were chosen through a complicated “Texas Two-Step” process that allocated 126 delegates based on the primary and 67 through the caucus system.
At the Texas Democratic State Convention in June, the group collected signatures from more than 30 percent of the number of delegates to the convention on a resolution calling for an end to the “Texas Two-Step”. When the resolution was brought to the floor of the convention, it was tabled without discussion on a motion by Senator Royce West on the grounds that his committee will be looking into the caucus system.
“The current system is unfair because it dilutes the voting strength of people who vote in the primary but do not return for the caucuses. Many people can not attend caucuses because of reasons beyond their control, such as their age or their health, or they may have young children, or they may work or attend school in the evenings, or they may be in the military and stationed overseas. Others may just be unaware that to fully support their chosen candidate they have to “vote twice”. Less than one-third of the 2.8 million people who voted in the Democratic primary on March 4 returned for the caucuses. Around 2,000,000 people voted in the primary but did not return for the caucuses”, said Scott Cobb.
“We believe ALL voters should count equally”, said Amy Esdorn, who voted for Barack Obama in the primary, but was unable to attend the caucus because she is a graduate student who had class the evening of March 4.
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