Allegations of Fraud and Misconduct
at Nevada Democratic Convention

Nevada Democratic Party leaders "hijacked the process on the floor" of the state convention "ignoring the regular procedure and ramming through what they wanted to do."
— Jeff Weaver on Tuesday, May 17th, 2016 in a television interview on CNN

My friend, Mary Schweitzer was at the convention and wrote this report:

Nevada Primary Campaign Poster:

I saw no violence. It was loud and there was booing, but I’ve seen worse at a Duke-Carolina game. The way the Sanders kids were dismissed and insulted, and the way the media has portrayed it, I felt right at home - gosh, it’s just like being at NIH or CDC or FDA! But I felt bad, because they had worked hard and were doing everything right. They were really cheated.

Nevada has a really squirrely primary system. You go to caucuses on February 20, and are awarded x number of votes. They elect delegates to a county convention, and there you have ANOTHER vote, and a chance to change sides (where I was, nobody did, but apparently a lot did down in Clark County, where Vegas is - in Bernie’s favor). Then you elect delegates to the STATE convention. The results of the caucuses were slightly towards Clinton. The results of the county conventions was slightly towards Sanders. The situation was really up for grabs in Vegas.

We knew there was trouble when the Eventbrite system (remember Eventbrite, anybody?) seemed to be eating our forms. Or the State Democratic Party was eating our forms. Eventually everything showed up and I got my ticket as a delegate, but there were 64 people who could not get certified, and we could not find out why. (My internal response - uh oh.) Also, they had set the date of the convention for graduation day for UNLV.

Then we learned the convention committee had met secretly about 10 days before the state convention and completely changed the rules. One of the rules changes was that … you wouldn’t be able to change a rule except with a two-thirds vote of the convention committee.

(I had naively wanted to try to get invisible disabilities/illness on the platform, but they changed the room where the platform committee was meeting and didn’t tell any of us Sanders folks, so I got up at 5:30 am for nothing …)

OK - convention starts. First order of business, make the provisional rules the convention rules. The chair (Roberta) called for a voice vote. The Sanders people YELLED “NOOOO.” Even a HIllary person there admitted the No’s were much louder. I just want to note that the SHOUTING started because the chair only held voice votes. [A student near me asked how that worked - do they have a noise meter? I said, No, it just means the chair is going to call it like she wants. I wish I was wrong.] But after shouting NO, and hearing her said “The ayes have it,” the NO’s changed to BOO’s. Then they started shouting “Robert’s Rules of Order” - as an alternative to what became known as “Roberta’s rules.” (because the chair’s name was roberta)

Next, the students had gotten up petitions - some with 900 signatures - and presented them to the committee on a variety of issues. The committee refused to accept the petitions.

After that, Barbara Boxer got up to speak for Clinton. But they were still booing the committee. They were angry and did not want to move on. They were calling for a recount - that is, an actual vote, a head count, which normally you could call for - but the new rules said not without 2/3 of the committee going for it. So they were booing and yelling “recount” when Boxer got up, but she thought SHE was being booed. So she got very snarky with the Sanders people who were booing. Ok, NOW they WERE booing her. Then Nina Turner got up and calmed everything down in an instant. She did a good job.

Harry Reid (who appears to ahve brain damage, another issue) was not there. In fact, there were no senior party members there at all. Everything was left to this poor woman of little brain and her committee. I knew what world we were in, and it was not good.

NEXT they were to break out into different rooms to vote by congressional district and by candidate for their national delegates. The chair announced that the COUNTY ratios would not be used because there were too many “problems” - they were going to use the caucus ratios instead. THEY THREW AWAY THE COUNTY CONVENTION RESULTS! NO motion, NO discussion, NO vote, NO nothing. So everybody broke out into the groups, grumbling.

Me, I decided I’d rather get something to drink. (Hey- it was a casino - booze was everywhere and it was okay to carry it around) I wanted two pina coladas, but the bartender said - how are you going to hold them? He suggersted a double rum and diet, then when he gave it to me said he added a little more - I looked like I needed it! It did help me get through the rest of the day. Because we were in the theater of the absurd.

Everybody came back, and Roberta announced that Clinton had 30 more votes than Obama. At the same time, the 3 minority members of the committee insisted on giving their report - the 56 people who were disallowed remained disallowed, and they thought they should have a chance to make their case.

Roberta later told the press that the 56 had just not gotten their acts together to register as Democrats before May 1. NO, that was not possible - because you couldn’t be a state delegate if you hadn’t been a delegate to the county convention, and you couldn’t be a delegate to the county convention without having been present at the caucuses Feb. 20, and you couldn’t get in the caucuses without being a registered Democrat. So these 56 state delegates HAD TO BE REGISTERED DEMOCRATS. Later Roberta said that they must have changed their affiliation between the county and state conventions. Really? 56 people?

It was immediately clear that if the 56 Sanders delegates had not been arbitrarily disallowed, SANDERS would have won. So people were pretty angry. But they got their acts together, because next was the platform, and it was very important to them to get the motion passed that we not have superdelegates in the future (like Maine). In this, we were joined by a bunch of Clinton supporters. (And a lot of clinton supporters just went home - it was getting late.)

Chairwoman Roberta said NO, we COULDN’T vote on a specific motion. We could either vote the platform up or down. And guess how? With a VOICE vote. With fewer Clinton people left, and many of them agreeing with us, the NO to vote the platform down was very loud. But - Chair Roberta said that the “ayes” had it.

Could you get any angrier? Now they were shouting “impeach Roberta!” Roberta had a row of big cops in front of her, and she was up on a dais, but she must have been scared of the word impeach, because later she said she was in fear for her life. (Give me a break.) (BTW, I thought it was weird they did no security check; maybe that’s why she was scared.) Mind you, there were always Bernie supporters sitting on the floor in the back playing guitar and just doing peaceful stuff.

So they called for a leader from each group to come in and meet together. We had a nice young lawyer who was also a superdelegate. While they were meeting, the young candidates for minor offices were giving their stump speeches. Then the Bernie rep came back, walked over to the guy giving his stump speech, and asked for the microphone. A committee member LEAPED from the table and grabbed it out of her hand! But he did give it back to the candidate. The candidate was no dummy - he said, “I move for a recount.”

Now - with all this other stuff like a dictatorship, it might be surprising to know that a recount was perfectly legit. (That’s because Clinton has won in other states using that tactic - wait until a lot of people leave then hold a recount.)
Chair Roberta was not pleased. She said “There is a motion on the floor. is there a second?” the kids thought they had won! They shouted “I second it! and started chanting “second! second! second!” Roberta, pretty predictably, said “I didn’t hear a second, so the motion is denied.”

Can you get angrier than angry? Like I said, I thought I was back in Washington. Roberta said, “I move the convention is over” and without waiting for a second or one of her voice votes, dropped the mike on the table and walked out. The committee looked like deer in the headlights, but they left too.

So there you have it. I saw no violence. There was a lot of noise, but it really started with the first voice vote. And gosh, these kids were crushed.

The committee had “won.” They could say they saved Nevada for Clinton. What else did Clinton get? 6 votes - 6 more delegates for Philadelphia (that’s what the 30 votes translated into).

What did they lose? A lot of young campaigners who got a lesson in politics: someone else is in charge, you can’t even vote, you don’t matter, and insult to injury, they’ll tell the press that you were DANGEROUS and they felt THREATENED. I was waiting for them to say we were “vexatious …”

Very sad. Very stupid. Nevada is going to be a swing state in November. And they want to replace Harry Reid (who is retiring) with another Democrat for the Senate. THEY NEEDED THOSE SANDERS DELEGATES. And they could have had them. Even giving in on the superdelegate vote would have helped. But instead, they alienated them. (The girl next to me burst into tears and said “I’m voting for Trump. I’ll never vote for Hillary.” I persuaded her to at least vote to Jill Stein if she wants to protest - but for heaven’s sake, don’t vote for Trump!!)

So there you have it. NOT what the media has been saying, is it?

Mary