Viva Las Vegas

Last March the Democratic Party of Nevada set the schedule and rules for this weekend's Nevada Democratic caucus. In an effort to enable more individuals to vote, the Party set up special "at large" precincts that would allow casino workers to vote at a number of major casinos.

Six individuals and the Nevada teacher's union have filed suit to block voters working on "the strip" from voting in the special at large precincts. They argue that the way the Party defined the at large precincts and how the delegates will be allocated, the at large precincts will have a disproportionately large say in delegates to the state convention. I won't take you through all the math. Here is a link to the lawsuit.

http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20080112_nevada_lawsuit.pdf

If what is described in the lawsuit is correct, then it certainly does seem unfair. But the timing of the lawsuit is curious. It was filed just 2 days after the Nevada Culinary Union chose to endorse Barack Obama. This is the largest block of voter in the state that belong to a unified group. And yes, most of them work in and around the casinos on the strip.

These new rules have been in place since last March. Did someone really just figure out that the rules were screwy? It certainly seems like the at large precincts were OK when it would benefit the candidate supported by the Democratic Party machine - Hillary Clinton. Now, suddenly, there is a race to block it before it can benefit Senator Obama.

A local television reporter asked Bill Clinton about the lawsuit and its curious timing. Bill Clinton bullied the reporter, and in his best "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky" tone, angrily denied that he had anything to do with the lawsuit. But then he proceeded to articulate the points in the lawsuit and defend the suit as valid and important.

The Democratic Party is going to enforce an ID check at these at large precincts to make sure that only people that work within 2 1/2 miles of the strip will vote in these special precincts. This is only days after liberals, with the passionate support of the Democratic Party, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that voter ID laws would disenfranchise voters and was fundamentally un-American. The honor system is OK for elections but not for the Democratic primaries? That's rich.

Postscript: since publishing this entry the court has ruled ruled against the lawsuit. The casino "at large" precincts will go on as the Democratic Party originally specified.