A Slice of Life from One Nevada Caucus Site
LAS VEGAS -- Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire voters, most Nevada caucus-goers participated in the election for the first time. At a Democratic caucus precinct in Las Vegas, some voters said their disapproval of the Bush Administration motivated them to vote.
"I'm hoping someone's going to be better for the United States than what we've got now," Andrew Stice, an Edwards supporter said at the Rancho High School precinct.
John Bush regularly votes in a general election but said that he did not know that the caucus process existed in Nevada.
"I truly didn't know that it existed. I made it a point to vote but I didn't know about this until this campaign," Bush said. "I can't complain if I don't vote."
Many voters were inspired to caucus because of the individual candidates. Pati Richardson, an Obama supporter, said she believes in Obama's message for change. However, the campaign also strongly urged her to caucus. "They called me over and over and over on the phone so I came out to support him."
A Hillary Clinton supporter is caucusing for the first time because of her fondness for her candidate.
"I believe in her, I think that she's the best. She's a woman, and I'm a woman too. I see that she's very strong. I've seen her struggle through her problems and she came out victorious. So I know that she's going to be the one," Cristina Silva said.
Many of the first-time caucus-goers here were generally content with the process. However, there was some chaos and disorganization during the sign-in process. "This disorganized, this is a mess!" one voter yelled because he didn't know where to sign in.
A Hillary Clinton volunteer shouted, "I need some Obama people to come over and help sign in some of these Obama people here!"
Once the voters assembled into the high school and signed in, the actual caucusing took only thirty minutes. And the result? Hillary Clinton received 47 delegates and Barack Obama received 38. John Edwards was not a viable candidate so most of his supporters left.