The Las Vegas Sun reports: New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign told the Sun this evening that only employees who work for companies with more than 4,000 workers can caucus at the nine at-large sites on the Strip. [...] The Clinton campaign has been so preoccupied trying to spin the injustice of the Nevada caucus system that even her Nevada spokeswoman remains unsure of the actual rules. State Democratic Party caucus rules, however, say the at-large sites will be created working with employers at locations where more than 4,000 employees will be working during Saturday’s caucus. Any shift worker working within a 2.5-mile radius of an at-large location can caucus there. The at-large caucus locations were created by the Nevada Democratic party to enfranchise the tens of thousands of casino employees working the day shift on Saturday, but it's by no means limited to them. Anyone working that day --- working, not living --- within 2.5 miles of the caucus location can participate. One has to wonder if they are adequately prepared to get out of those voters on Saturday or if they will simply miss that opportunity. Many of the other union workers on the Strip, such as construction workers, belong to unions that have endorsed other candidates. Lost in the Clinton campaign's attempts to claim caucus manipulation are the original motives of the state party decision. Nevada, after its extraordinarily low turnout in 2004, had an interest in trying to find new rules to encourage new people to turn out --- no one, after all, could have predicted that voter turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire would double. They turned to their growing base of Latino and union voters in Las Vegas, whose Clark County is home to 70% of Nevada precincts. Second, they were chained to the caucus format, instead of holding a primary, because they were intitially scheduled by the DNC ahead of New Hampshire, which maintains that it should remain the first-in-the-nation primary. Nevada's state party was forced to make do as best they could, experimenting to make sure as many people as possible could participate. Third, Nevada made a strong argument for its early voting status by noting its diverse population of Latinos and African-Americans, making it incumbent on them to turn out those populations to caucus. This was one key measure to do so. Youth vote advocacy organizations have long advocated opening up more polling places on schools and university campuses to encourage student participation. This was a similar opportunity. Lastly, for decades the proporitional system of allocating caucus delegates has benefited rural precincts --- why not risk giving weight to the voices of shift workers, union members, service employees, and minorities? The Clinton campaign has twice now tried to discourage voters from reaching the polls, twice rejected the legitimate claim of core Democratic constituencies to caucus. I'm hoping that, despite the polls, despite the establishment politicians on their side, voters again prove them wrong. |
