Scenes From a Caucus

By all accounts, last night’s Texas caucuses were about as calm and orderly as Cloverfield . Voting irregularities kept cropping up. (See the Clinton camp’s accusations , plus scattered reports of “individuals preying on elderly.”) People claimed they were getting shut out of polling locations. Police even descended on at least one Houston polling location to break up the “rowdy” crowd.

Caucus-goer and friend of the blog Grace Parra happened to be exercising her democratic rights at the Judson W. Robinson Jr. Westchase Branch Library in Houston when the fuzz showed up. Before that, people were getting shut out without explanation. She e-mails:

By 8 p.m., the crowd was still waiting to get in. Leaders (self-designated?) from the Obama camp would occasionally call out stats affirming Obama’s early lead (these news flashes stopped as Hillary gained momentum), and bags of Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were passed around (even to Hillary fans, as an olive branch of sorts). Fueled by sugar, Obama fans repeated their war-cry, but the increasingly sassy Clinton camp shot back with “Men-o-pause!” and “Pantsuits! Pantsuits!” 

Actually sounds kind of fun.