“Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” – Otto von Bismarck. I would add political primaries to that too.
Sue and I were at the convention and were Sanders delegates. It was bedlam when they announced Sanders won in an upset. First off, yes, there was an email sent to those who registered Friday night saying they didn’t have to attend. This was not a dirty trick from the Sanders campaign. It was sent to all Friday registrants from the Clark County Democratic Party. The Clinton campaign quickly emailed their people telling them to show up anyway.
The Sanders campaign says the Clark County Convention was worse run than the recent Phoenix Arizona debacle. I would have to agree. The entire process from the caucus to the county convention was ponderously slow, deeply disorganized, and easy to game by those who wanted to. This is what happens when an election process is handled by a party not the state and almost everyone running it is a volunteer.
When delegates checking in at the convention, were supposed to sign a white slip, which went to those tabulating results. Sanders volunteers said more than few Sanders delegates never signed the slip because they weren’t given one to sign. (Sue said she said saw white slips on the floor.) Thus, Sanders staffers, probably lawyers, were forcing hard counts during the initial counting. In addition, the unexpected surge for Sanders probably had Clinton lawyers challenging everything too. The chair of the convention alluded to this say there were “issues” and that’s why the initial count took almost three hours.
Clinton supporters managed to get Clark County Credentials Chair Christine Kramer suspended right before the convention due to her alleged stealth support for Sanders. She was suspended after arriving at the hall at 8 AM because she was late. Huh? She and supporters then staged a sit-in and were almost arrested.
Meanwhile, police were called to remove people from the overflow area, with some saying they were told to vote for Clinton or not be allowed in. One problem apparently was there were only 6,600 seats and more than that showed up. I don’t know if anyone was turned away.
Any resemblance between this and one-person one-vote democracy is of course strictly coincidental.
Detailed article from Heavy about what happened.
Ron Paul forums summarizes what happened.