Election Transparency

The Caucus meeting was NEVER brought to order.

Standing rules established by the Central Committee included the prohibition of cameras, video or sound recording. This did not sit well with the caucus goers.

One particular individual protested the demand to put away his camera. Central Committee Chairman, Eugene Dokes refused to gavel the meeting to order until the camera was put away.

Caucusgoers sided, quite vocally, with the cameraman! And at that moment Stokes lost control of the caucus! Rather than address the question, perhaps calling the meeting to order and entertaining a motion and a vote on the subject, Dokes dug in his heels. Police were called. Threats of eviction and arrest were made.

At this point, the gathering of about 700 people who have been in this high school gym began chanting "Transparency". This was not just RP supporters. The Romney captains were locally and visually encouraging their people to stand and respond.

The police approached the man, he stood his ground. There was maybe 4 or 5 police officers there. They didn't want anything to do with this. The GOP Chair sat down. Now we're waiting on police backup. More chants, "remove the Chair", etc.

About 30 minutes go by and now local and State Highway Patrol begin filling into the gym. They take stands of 2 each in front of each set of bleachers. By now the video recorder has been taken down, but the man remains.

The GOP Chair takes the podium and asks for nominations for caucus chairman. About 6 people rise to make nominations. The GOP Chair recognises a woman, she makes her nomination, the Chair asks for a second, identifies a man next to her and says we have a second. All those in favor "aye" a murmor of ayes. All those opposed "nay" a loud voice of nays goes up. The GOP Chair says the used have it, here is your caucus chairman.

The Caucus Chairman then announces a motion to adjourn. Those in favor, none heard. Those opposed, a roar of "no's". The ayes have it, meeting adjourned. St Charles County will have no delegate representation to the district caucus.

I was there. The description above was 100% accurate. After being told to leave the school or be arrested for trespassing, we went out into the school yard, and attempted to have a rump meeting (if you can get a quorum of the original people, you can re-open the caucus.) They ARRESTED the person we were trying to elect as chairman.

Over 75 people signed up to be a del (including me) but the ones who were chosen it was done behind closed doors. I was under the assumption that I was going to vote who gets to be a del, not a list of ppl chosen on who's been most active within the party. This was my first caucus ever attending and it seemed like the GOP didn't want newcomers any say on the process.

On Saturday March 10th, in Athens, GA, the democratic process was trampled on. County chairman Matt Brewster and nominating committee chairman John Elliot blatantly broke the rules of their own party when they improperly, and without a majority, passed delegate slates and adjourned the convention amidst cries for “division”, which is a call for a standing head count.

When warned that their conduct was jeopardizing the status of the delegates and alternates for the entire county, the chair Matt Brewster directed all questions to John Padgett, who is the Secretary of the Georgia State Republican Party. Unfortunately, Mr. Padgett refused to answer questions and fled the scene along with the rest of the local GOP leadership.

“They cherry-picked the delegates that they wanted to go to the district and state conventions without following party rules. They did not listen to any voice of opposition and ended the meeting illegally.”

Fellow delegate Shawn Lewis added, “I personally called for a count of the votes of the ayes versus the nays, and was refused. I was told that the convention was closed, and watched as everyone just up and fled from the scene. I was ignored by the state GOP secretary after we were told that he would answer questions. I’m thoroughly disgusted; this is my first time participating in the process, and I feel violated.”

Similar Problem in Pennsylvania

My county's GOP is supposed to hold an endorsement convention in which all the county committeepeople (400 some) decide whom to endorse, if anyone. This year, they did not hold a convention, and, in direct violation of the party bylaws, the Excecutive Committee (the top 20 or so party hacks) voted in private and then announced to all the committee people the endorsed candidates, including those running for delegate.

Because the incredibly corrupt meeting was illegally closed and the delegate slate illegally voted on, according to Robert’s Rule of Order, we had the right to reconvene the meeting and throw out their delegate slate. We did. We voted on and passed our own delegate slate, legally. Everything was done totally by the books. The paperwork has been submitted.
So, now, the state GOP has two slates of delegates on their hands from Athens-Clarke county. They have to pick one.

Santorum won the primary hands down...Paul didn't even run. What right have his supporters to even attend the caucus?

I was at this caucus. I am a Romney supporter and the media has gotten this story wrong, as usual. I'm here to set the record straight.

First, the issue with the fellow who would not put away his camera is separate. Completely separated by probably 15 minutes of calmness and order. The initial commotion caused by enforcing that rule, whether it was proper or not, or against the rules or not, was completely separate from what followed at least 15-20 minutes later. Completely separate.

The real issue occured later, when the St. Charles Central Committee (100% Santorum supporters) had their temporary chairman (Eugene Dokes) up there appointing people against Robert's Rules of Order as adopted. He was appointing people all by himself, dare I say like a dictator, without a vote. And then he even appointed one of his Committee friends (also a Santorum supporter) to be chairman, with a hasty voice vote. When the Ron Paul crowd and our team stood up and called for a point of order and a Division (hand count), he ignored all of us.

There was no collusion between the Ron Paul crowd and our side prior to the caucus, I can say that without a doubt. When we saw how the Central Committee was trying to ramrod all of us, our organizers quickly got with Paul's organizers to protest together against this. And I think we are right in doing so.

So, to recap, the issue was the temporary chairman, Mr. Dokes, was blantantly disregarding parliamentary procedure and Roberts Rules of Order. He ignored all points of order, including one time saying "I'm not taking those now." Well, he has no choice, according to the rules. Then he adjourned the meeting without a vote. The whole thing was a ramrod job by the St. Charles Central Committee. I am so disgusted that this could be happening in America.

Wait... I don't get it...

It doesn't say anywhere that the delegate assignment would be different depending on whether it was a closed or open meeting.

So, what's the big deal?

Ok. So what would have happened if the meeting or caucusing was done correctly?

Are you asking how a presidential caucus works?

Generally, the people elect a chairman and other positions, and then the people elect delegates. The St. Charles caucus didn't even make it past step one.

seems like the point of contention is "was the caucus bound to the Robert's Rules of Order"? or can the Caucus Committee come up with the own rules/agenda? (like no video recordings)

From what I've read, the committee said ahead of time no recordings, people said screw that, and then it was said the no recording rule would be voted on at the caucus.

Remember, for St. Charles, apparently the no recording thing was over with for 15+ minutes before the really serious part happened of the temporary chair not properly following the nomination rules. The no recording thing is secondary to what happened after that.

If the handful of people on the committee can just do whatever they want, then there's no point in 2000+ people being there for the caucus in the first place.

A similar thing happened in 2008 in the same county when the Chair, Tom Kuypers, tried to make the delegates in 2008 illegal because he didn't like the candidate they liked despite it being done according to party rules. There's a video interview of him saying it.

I guess I'm wondering if it is documented anywhere that the caucus was supposed to follow the Robert's Rules of Order.

Even if they weren't, the people are still the ones who agree on the rules and then elect a chair and then delegates.

Here's the rule sheets. Robert's Rules is in there. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php...permPage=1