I went to the Clark County (Nevada County of Las Vegas, Henderson etc..) Democratic Convention with my mom, who was a delegate for Obama, and my brother (both myself and my brother were alternates). We had pre-registered the day before but it was obvious, that like the caucuses in January, the convention had huge turnout and that it was going to probably to cause problems....
(photos and observations below the fold)
We showed up at around 9am and you could already see a line in the lobby of Bally's Hotel and Casino, this was really surprising because the end of the line was quite a walk away from the main convention area. As we approached the main convention it started to get more crowded but never too uncomfortable or chaotic. As we entered there was "standing-room only" but I'm sure there were more people outside.
Pledge of Allegiance, National of Anthem and some local Dem speakers. Then Shelley Berkeley (D-NV) and Anthony Weiner (D-NY) both said they were Hillary supporters which brought up questions how come there were no Obama speakers invited (but there more speakers to come...). Speeches were often interrupted by chants of "Oh-Bah-Mah" or "Hil-La-Ry".
Before the convention continued it was obvious that it was getting more crowded and a speaker came to the podium who said the Fire Marshall was going to close down the convention if we did not do something about the crowds. All alternates were then asked to orderly move to an overflow room so that actual delegates (some of who were still waiting outside and registering could get into the room). This occurred without incident.
Inside the overflow room (which was actually a Barack Obama pre-convention meeting room) there were announcements made including what some of the problems were. One man at the podium announced that one of the big problems was that with the 1000+ caucus locations in Clark County about 300+ of those never reported the actual names of the delegates. So they received the results (i.e. 5 delegates for Obama vs. 4 delegates for Clinton; like my caucus location) but don't know how to verify that somebody is actually a delegate vs. an alternate vs. somebody off the street.
It was obvious that alternates wouldn't be needed and most started leaving the overflow room. I left as well but had confirmed with my mom that she's fine inside the actual convention. As I was walking out of the casino, I heard a lot of people saying it was "disgusting" how they were un-prepared etc... I felt semi-frustrated too but felt overall that this was a good sign because of the turnout.
My mom stayed in the convention and later reported that the convention had been cancelled and that a lot of rumors about people taking ballot boxes into bathrooms and throwing them in the garbage etc... probably not true but when frustration + emotions + lack of organization all mix it's what happens.
I hope people aren't discouraged about democracy and the party but Harry Reid, Rory Reid and the prominent party members of NV should have organized this better and should have had contingency plans. This being my second caucus in NV I definitely think we should move to a primary....we just don't have the organization to pull off a caucus. (Take the poll below)
Now some pics:
Main Convention Hall
another pic of the Convention Hall
The alternate overflow room
Alternates (notice the blue tags) waiting in the overflow alternate room.