Thousands of Democrats gathered state wide at caucus sites where vote counts often topped a thousand, forcing Democrats to stand outside in order to be counted. In Senate District 21, Sanders had 944 to Hillary’s 488 votes. Similar results have been reported in other locations, but what will be telling will be more rural caucus sites — which may take a bit to come in.
Kansas Democrats have said that while the sites could be “confusing at times” and took “way too long” complained others, the environment was generally considered peaceful and fun, with warm weather outside allowing many to gather in the sun and enjoy the process.
Some sites attracted several thousand in a fairly unruly, wild caucus that makes what happened elsewhere in the country seem tiny — this is largely because at a HUGE caucus site, one per senate district, several thousand voters are potentially able to caucus; leading to huge logistical issues of head counts and crowd control.
But the sites, by all reports for Democrats were largely orderly, well handled and stayed pretty calm. Slightly more than 3,600 caucus goers arrived to caucus in the main Douglas County site. This site, pictured below, went 81% for Bernie Sanders. Final vote count: 2884 for Bernie. 657 for Hillary. Not included, of course, were all of the caucus goers who were ineligible due to age, but still attended with parents & family.
While Democrats had thousands at sites who sang, cheered, whistled and yelled their support, Republicans had something different occur today. Speaking in Wichita, Donald Trump — who finished second in the state after a blistering performance by Ted Cruz, was faced with some members who weren’t so appreciative of his stances.
As a result, according to reports, they were asked to leave the caucus site.
http://ksn.com/2016/03/05/tweets-from-wichitas-gop-caucus/
Before the caucus, a group of Hispanic youths and a group of Muslims were asked to leave a rally held by Donald Trump.
Commenters from that Republican site tell me that some members of those groups — hispanic youth, Islamic members, and minorities, had changed their party registration to Republican to make sure that they could not be ejected and that they would be able to present their side of the story. It apparently didn’t matter, as numerous reports beyond KSNW Television say the anti-trump protesters were ejected all the same from his event. Follow up email and contact informs me that some who had looked to re-enter the caucus, as registered Republicans were made unwelcome to attend.
UPDATE:
Bernie Sanders has been declared the winner with 90% of sites reporting, early look at margins seem to indicate Sanders won the state by about a 2.5:1 margin.
Update X2:
Kansas will give:
23 Delegates to Bernie
10 Delegates to Hillary.
He won 67% to 33%
Update X3:
I’ve had several people contact me about the Trump protesters. Yes, they were all ejected. Those inside the site say that ‘well, that was it, it was over after that’, others have informed me that despite some changing their registration to (R) in time to be able to actually caucus, they were denied re-entry after protest. So, since there is a bit of a dispute on how you want to read that, I’m leaving the above as is, with a few caveats and this addendum.
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