Chaos at the Nevada Caucuses

You thought the Nevada caucuses happened in January?  They did.  But today the second stage of the Nevada Caucuses took place.  Or is still taking place.  Or is just colossally FUBAR.

This is what was supposed to happen:

Today, Democrats across the state will gather in county conventions for the next step in the process of choosing between U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Because the caucuses were nonbinding, delegates at the conventions will be able to change their minds about which candidate to support. That could influence how many delegates for each candidate ultimately go to the national convention...

While Clinton won the popular vote in Nevada, as well as the state's largest county, Obama captured most of the rest of the state giving him an edge in the number of national delegates here.

Since then, however, Obama has swept the last 11 contests, leading some to question whether Clinton's Nevada supporters might change their minds and back Obama.

Both campaigns have been working hard to ensure their supporters show up at the convention...

Also up for grabs are the 399 county delegates for former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who dropped out of the race last month.

This is what is happening:

The Clark County Democratic convention has devolved into chaos as party leaders try to juggle an unexpectedly large turnout with strict party rules for picking delegates.

More than 8,000 people showed up at Bally's Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, causing the fire marshal to shutdown a ballroom. Party leaders say delegates entitled to participate were shutout and may not get the chance to support their candidate.

Representatives of the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, along with party leaders, say they think the convention should recess and reconvene later at a later date.

The idea was loudly rejected by the room of rowdy Democrats. It is not immediately clear how party leaders plan to resolve the issue.

Apparently one of the problems is that the room where they were caucuses in Las Vegas could only hold 5,000 people, there were over 8,000 people, and they weren't able to circulate people through the room and get everyone in from the line outside.  

It's great that turnout is so terrific in the primaries and caucuses.  It's also no surprise.  It sounds as if the NV Democratic Party got caught unprepared for the surge in turnout, which in light of the repeated huge surge in participation seems inexcusable.  

UPDATE Some folks are asking why the turnout was unexpected, since the delegates should all have been determined in the first round.  Apparently this is the first time the second round occurred when the nomination hadn't been determined.  In earlier contests most of the delegates didn't bother coming to the second round.  But this time, with the delegate count so close, there was an obvious reason for them to show up.  Furthermore, it looks like the campaigns recruited people to be alternates for delegates who didn't show up, and some of these "alternates" may have gotten in before the delegates who should have gotten in to the room.

Just a colossal screwup.