[I posted this as a comment on the primaries open thread, but I found this all very interesting and so am putting it in a diary entry as well:]
MB of Wampum, who happens to have been the organizer of the caucuses in Portland, has been posting on several threads at Eschaton today concerning the counting of ballots in Maine. I posted a diary earlier quoting from some of these. In response to another Atrios post, she has posted a few more responses on the comments thread which I think are worth quoting here, since they give a truly fascinating look inside the process (and her frustration of having knuckleheads like ourselves constantly demanding numbers):
Here's the
first:
Ah, c'mon - I'm working on it... Had to call two of my conveners already today to get their notes from their chalkboards so I could reconstruct their vote totals.
But tell me - why the @#%$ does anyone care about our little old totals? They're final numbers, and really don't indicate what people thought when they went into the polls. Case and point; In my precinct, we had 3 attendees plus one absentee for Edwards. I knew right away we weren't viable, so I convinced the Clark people to join us - offered them a delegate or alternate spot. They had to abandon their two absentees, but we ended up with two delegates rather than just one. But in our final tallies, it looks as if Clark only had 2 votes, not 5, as absentees can't realign like live voters. So it's perfectly possible that there were more Sharpton voters than it appears, but they made the decision to realign in the second round, thereby erasing their previous perference.
But, seriously, don't hold your breath :-) The ballots are still in my kitchen, and they aren't going anywhere at least for a day - we have that special municipal election tomorrow, and we take voting very seriously. Voting, yes... Counting for the talking heads, no.
MB | Email | Homepage | 02.09.04 - 9:18 pm | #
And here's another:
But just to give my pal Atrios the first in the nation scoop on some previously unreported official Maine numbers....
The totals for Portland District 5, Ward 4:
Kucinich: 13
Kerry: 13
Dean: 12
Edwards: 6
Clark: 2
Sharpton: 0
Uncommitted: 0
Kucinich won the coin toss, so they got 4 delegates. Kerry and Dean both got 3, and Edwards 2. Clark and Sharpton received none.
Now extrapolate that out to 20 precincts in Portland, and you have yourself a story... Maybe ;-) I'll tell you tomorrow...or Wednesday....
MB | Email | Homepage | 02.09.04 - 9:24 pm | #
If you read them in the context of the entire comments thread, you will see to what she is responding ...