By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Democratic party voters gathered all across the state on Saturday to participate in the Nevada Presidential Caucus, the first in the west this year.
The turnout from the six Moapa Valley precincts was strong with a total of about 130 people participating in the caucus. A total of 82 voters cast ballots during the two early voting dates on Saturday, Feb. 15 and Tuesday, Feb. 18. Approximately 50 more showed up at the Moapa Valley High School cafeteria on Saturday morning to participate in the live caucus event.
In Virgin Valley a little more than 900 voters total turned out to participate in the caucus. Around 770 of those cast ballots during the early voting periods. The remaining 150-some-odd voters attended the live caucus held at Virgin Valley High School.
On Saturday, voters filed in to register at their caucus site starting at about 10 am. Once precincts were identified, each voter met with his/her precinct group. At about noon the caucus began.
“There are a lot of candidates here and we are bound to have differences of opinion on them,” said party volunteer Rebecca Paulsen who was acting captain of Precinct 2476 located in Logandale. “But I think that we can all agree that Trump needs to go. So keep in mind, throughout this process, that we are, at least, all unified on that.”
The caucus went smoothly in both Moapa and Virgin Valleys. Though the process was complex at times, voters came together and worked it through to a usually clear result.
The job of each precinct was to assign a set of delegates to the candidates of their choice. The number of delegates in each precinct varied based on number of voters in the precinct. The delegates were appointed to attend the Democrat county convention next month.
Voters were first asked to gather into subgroups based on which candidate they preferred. Then they cast their first ballots. These ballots were counted and factored in with the early vote results. A calculation was then used to determine which were the viable candidates who would receive precinct delegates.
Those who had caucused in support of inviable candidates were then given the opportunity to re-align their votes with another candidate. Fifteen minutes were allowed between the first and second votes for discussion among precinct members in the realignment. Then the final ballots were cast.
Among the eight Virgin Valley precincts, Pete Buttegieg was the clear frontrunner with a total of 21 delegates. Joe Biden was second receiving 16 delegates. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar tied for third place each receiving 14 delegates. Other candidates receiving delegates in Virgin Valley were Tom Steyer with 3, and Elizabeth Warren who took 2.
In Moapa Valley there were six precincts with a total of 16 delegates in play. Sanders ended up on top with six delegates. He was followed closely by Buttegieg with five delegates. Biden and Warren tied for third with two delegates each. And Steyer came away with one delegate from Moapa Valley.
These results were generally similar to the state-wide tally. Sanders won the victory state-wide with 6,589 county convention delegates. Biden was second with 2,872 delegates. Buttegieg took third with 1,960. These three were followed by Warren at 1,381, Steyer at 652 and Klobuchar at 595 delegates.
While generally content with the caucus process, many participants in the local caucuses expressed the belief that the caucusing process was too complex and prone to error.
“It was a lot of work and it got a bit confusing at times for a lot of the people,” said Mesquite to Moapa Democrat organization president Elaine Hurd. “I think it is high time that we leave the caucus tradition behind and go to a primary election.”
But others liked the interaction and discussion involved with the caucus system. “We had a long list of candidates which offered a lot of variety and differences among them,” said Moapa Valley resident Ley Soltis, site manager of the MVHS location. “That poses a challenge, but it also results in a really good discussion among participants. I think there is some value in bringing people together and giving them a voice right down there at the precinct level.”
