Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren speaks to supporter Cassidy Kirkham, 10, during caucus day at Coronado High School in Henderson, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020.
Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020 | 2 a.m.
The worry ahead of Saturday’s Democratic presidential caucuses in Nevada was that they would be as chaotic as the ones in Iowa, which were tainted by delayed results and reports of inaccurate delegate tallies.
Yet, the biggest hurdle to overcome turned out to be the weather.
It was raining for the first time in months in the Las Vegas-area as voters started to arrive Saturday at Coronado High School to participate in the caucuses. Once the caucus ended for most precincts around 2 p.m., the sun was shining again. More importantly, the process seemed to go off with little troubles, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was declared the winner by 5 p.m.
Over the course of the morning at Coronado, two U.S. senators showed up, one of whom is running for president; at least 10 volunteers helped keep the process running smoothly and hundreds of first-time and veteran caucusgoers made their voices heard at one of the busiest precincts in Southern Nevada.
“It was a little confusing at first, but I expected that because there’s so many volunteers,” said Maryjane Kushlick, a precinct captain caucusing for former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Caucus day in Nevada came less than a week after four days of early voting and almost three weeks after the Iowa caucuses. About 75,000 Nevadans voted early — the first time such an opportunity was available for any presidential caucuses — and the Nevada Democratic Party vowed not to repeat mistakes made in Iowa.
Prior to the noon start-time for Saturday’s caucuses, the first contest in the West and the third in the country, volunteers for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., dominated the parking lot outside Coronado, holding signs in support of her.
Yasmeen Danial, a 19-year-old precinct leader caucusing for Warren, said she was excited to participate in the process for the first time. Warren’s strong debate performance Wednesday in Las Vegas would hopefully give the senator a boost in the caucus, the Henderson native said.
“As someone who’s a woman in America, as someone whose parents immigrated here, I feel like my representation in government hasn’t been as consistent as it is right now,” Danial said. “When I see Warren, I see someone who I can relate to.”
Later in the morning, as caucusgoers started to file into designated classrooms based on their precinct, Danial and other Warren supporters were greeted with a pleasant surprise: Warren herself.
Donning sweats and holding a box of donuts, Warren stopped to thank her supporters and all participants for caucusing. Ecstatic supporters crowded around the senator to take a selfie with her.
“It’s my first caucus, let’s do this!” one said victoriously post-selfie.
Despite fears about Nevada’s caucuses having similar issues as the ones in Iowa, many participants at Coronado seemed in good spirits and said they felt confident about the process. Volunteers had ample opportunities to train with the party prior to caucus day, Kushlick said.
“It’s kind of all meshing today,” she said. “This is the first time everybody is really getting together, but so far it’s OK and we’ll just deal with it.”
Stopping by Coronado to thank people for participating, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said she felt good about the caucuses and inspired by the turnout. About 84,000 people participated in the Nevada Democratic Caucuses in 2016 compared to 100,000 this year, including early voting and caucus turnout, state party officials said.
“I’ve been here, and I’ve been up in Reno. There’s a lot of energy and people are turning out,” Cortez Masto said.
Manning about a half-dozen tables to check in caucusgoers, volunteers began directing participants to classrooms corresponding with their precincts around 10 a.m. The lines to check in were long, but not nearly as bad as they were during early voting, according to Henderson resident Tina Riley.
Riley voted early here and decided to come back for the caucus to make sure it was accessible for people with disabilities, she said.
“It was such a mess that I came out to see if there was anything I could do to help handicapped people: Find them chairs, (or) a place to sit so they didn’t have to stand in lines for hours,” Riley said.
Things seemed to be running smoothly Saturday.
“They look like they have it under control,” Riley said. “People are in the rooms, and they’re getting them processed fairly quickly. It’s much more organized.”
Others had some complaints.
“I’ve been here for over two hours,” lamented Frank Fu, a Tom Steyer supporter, right before the official start of the caucus at noon.
Fu, who said he was registered as a Republican prior to this election season, found Steyer to be the most intelligent and visionary candidate, and stressed the importance of beating President Donald Trump. Asked about the caucus, he said Democrats should switch to a primary.
“If they cannot change it to a simple process, that would be very, very stupid,” he said. “They should make it one vote and that’s it.”
Inside a classroom for a precinct corresponding to the Seven Hills neighborhood in Henderson, participants seemed willing to entertain the process. Two 18-year-old Sanders supporters said that other than the long lines, they didn’t mind having to caucus.
“So far, solid stuff,” Ben Zimmerman said.
At the same Coronado precinct, the caucus was officially called to order at 12:32 p.m. — about a half-hour late — with 50 participants to correspond with nine delegates. Reminding participants to be respectful of one another, the precinct chair laid out the process and told everyone that they would probably be there for an hour to an hour and a half.
“Whether or not you like the process, it’s what we have right now,” he said.
In this precinct, no participants were undecided and former Vice President Joe Biden picked up the most supporters. Including the results of early votes for that precinct, 45 people threw their support behind the former vice president, while 35 voted for Buttigieg and 33 for Sanders.
Although eight people in the room wanted to caucus for Warren, she was deemed unviable, forcing supporters to join another group or remain uncommitted. Six stayed uncommitted, while one joined the Sanders camp and another went for Buttigieg.
Following the second alignment, there was some confusion about how to add the early results for voters whose first candidate was deemed unviable — should those votes realign to their second choice before Warren supporters realign, or after? After some discussion, volunteers concluded that Warren supporters needed to realign prior to adding the second-choice results from nonviable early votes.
The final tally gave Biden four delegates, Sanders three and Buttigieg three. As soon as the precinct chair announced the results around 1:45 p.m., participants started to file out, even though they were supposed to be given an opportunity to discuss “party business” under caucus rules.
“Thank you very much. Go Bernie!” said one Sanders volunteer as he dismissed fellow supporters in the room.
