Today was a victory for Ron Paul supporters in Jackson County, Missouri.

Further summary is needed to really explain what happened at the end of the caucus that resulted in the Beat Obama slate. I’ve spoken to the Chair, several delegates, and many attendees in order to compile the most accurate report possible.

The Credentials Cmte. reported 1012 people present, but the highest vote — the one for the election of the chair — only had 970 votes. That’s our starting point of voters present: 970.

The day began with approximately 375–400 Ron Paul supporters. Some are confused because over 550 stickers were passed out to ID Ron Paul supporters. However, the team ran out of one type of the Paul stickers and two people were counting. Sticker types were switched and the stickers that did not state Ron Paul were accepted by non-Paul supporters. The sticker counting system failed and was discounted. The door click system was more accurate, and the team’s best count indicated approximately 375 Ron Paul supporters.

Numbers dwindled throughout the day. The best count tracked these walk-outs/early departures: 80 Santorum, 60 Romney, 12 Paul, and 5 Gingrich. By the final vote the total number of people voting was 768.

The final delegate percentages agreed upon by the 768 votes were:
To the State: Paul 73% ; Romney 27%
To the 5th District: Paul: 44% ; Romney 56%
To the 6th District: Paul: 100%
Alternates: Paul 100% to the State, 5th, and 6th.

How did that deal, the Beat Obama slate, come about?

The Romney and Santorum leaders both approached the Paul leaders about two weeks ago. The local Paul team rejected them completely. After 17 March and the debacles seen then, when Romney and Santorum camps approached them again, they discussed a plan B — a compromise slate — at the Monday night Ron Paul strategy meeting open to Paul supporters.

This group of about 25 people who have been leading the Ron Paul movement in Kansas City with their blood, sweat, and tears, decided that between Santorum and Romney, Santorum was the most dangerous “to the concepts of liberty”. Therefore, they agreed to dialogue with the Romney camp about a possible compromise slate. Later in the week leaders of the local Paul strategy team met with the attorneys from the Romney team and hammered out a compromise.

The deal was strictly a Plan B. Plan A was a full Paul slate. If it was possible to pass Plan A, then Plan A would be voted on. If, however, Plan B was voted upon and lost, then the Romney camp would not agree to Plan B and would go to their Plan C — a deal with the Santorum camp. Therefore, the ultimate decision on the floor of the caucus was down to EITHER pass Plan A OR pass Plan B… and no second chances. If they tried Plan A and lost, they would forfeit ALL delegates because Romney would switch to Santorum.

Even if we’re generous and say that 400 Paul supporters were present at the final vote, that 400 was not the 2/3 necessary to pass the vote (51%) and close the meeting (2/3). The Paul camp did not have sufficient votes to pass Plan A, a full slate.

Also important: two men separately nominated the Ron Paul Constitution slate. Neither of them had been to any of the Paul strategy meetings.*

The first gentleman had good intentions. The Ron Paul slate had been distributed to Paul supporters earlier in the day and had been well-promoted by the team. When it came time to nominate slates, the Paul team captains had already determined that the numbers meant that the 100% Paul slate could not pass. They could not tip their hand to the full room and inform the Paul supporters of every detail, and the first man who nominated the Paul slate wanted to help. Team members spoke with him privately to see if he had additional names to add that would flesh out a second slate and safely give two Paul-centric slates. He did not. He withdraw the slate nomination.

The second man who nominated the Ron Paul slate was a Santorum supporter. He was still wearing his Santorum sticker. He was deliberately trying to divide the Ron Paul vote. He was publicly challenged by the Chair to declare whether he had a full slate of delegates for the RP slate he has nominated. The man didn’t, clearly, and he said as much. His slate was therefore rejected as it was invalid.

The Chair, Mark Anthony Jones, asked each of them if they had a full slate of delegates and alternates. They both said they did not. They had not prepared slates with names of delegates.** These were the two Paul slates that were withdrawn/rejected.

The Paul team had to decide between the compromise slate with Romney that was a definite majority of delegates for Paul, or risking getting no delegates for a slate that was incomplete when they did not have the necessary votes to pass it. The Paul team chose to take the compromise and they won the overwhelming majority of delegates for Paul.

The Romney camp would not have voted for a full Paul slate because they knew they could make a deal with the Santorum camp and get delegates. The Romney votes were far too slim to win anything on their own, but were necessary for either the Paul or Santorum camp to get delegates. Paul had more supporters present than the Romney and Santorum camps individually, but not a 2/3 majority overall.

Today was the best possible victory for Paul supporters in today’s caucus given the number of people present. The team did well. The Chair was honorable and answered the Santorum camp’s concerns. Robert’s Rules of Order were followed. Recordings were permitted.

Ron Paul won the delegates fairly and honestly. Well done, Jackson County!

*   Edited: 04:05PM EST, 3/35. Clarified and expanded situation surrounding the nominations of the Ron Paul Constitution slate.
** Edited: 11:00PM EST, 3/24. Possible inaccuracy removed.

The Caucus in Pulaski County, Missouri, on 17 March, unfortunately suffered from corruption. As in so many places, Robert’s Rules of Order were ignored and violated. The Parliamentarian did not enforce Order. Below is list of the major problems reported.

• The Chair repeatedly voted even though no ties happened.
• No rule was made or announced to declare how a slate would be won. Therefore, the default rule should have been, according to Robert’s Rules, a 51% simple majority.
• Votes were cast by secret ballot. Not against the rules, but generally tacky in a caucus.
• The winning slate was a 50/50 Romney/Santorum combination. It had 26 votes. The other three slates had votes of 18, 17, and 2.
• No slate, or even general vote on a motion, had either a 2/3 or 51% majority.
• When attendees objected and made points of order regarding the lack of sufficient majority, the chair declared that the motion was made, seconded, and had received a 32–29 passing vote.

Report from Lara P.

The meeting started off okay, but as the proceedings went along, you could see a “good ole boy” system. No big deal. We had about 1/3 of the registered voter attendees (RP supporters). The county GOP chair was nominated and elected caucus chair very quickly It There was such a majority in his favor, it was not worth contesting. I was nominated for secretary and so was the county GOP secretary. He won 46–18. We managed to get a person on the rules committee and nomination committee. the Parliamentarian was worthless and did not enforce ANYTHING! The caucus chair seemed to be just winging it, and many times, an older gentlemen in front of us, kept pointing out that the chair was not following Roberts Rules on items that weren’t amended by the Rules Committee and voted on. When it came to the point that the slate of delegates be voted on, the chair did not state how the winning slate would be decided and it was not specified by the rules committee. We voted secret ballot and the slate that won was Romney/Santorum (50/50) with 26 votes. The other 3 slates (which were made up of delegates from each party) received 18, 17 and 2 votes. So we stated that according to Roberts Rules that majority is 51% which the winning slate did not have. He then stated the motion was made, seconded and voted upon 32–29 in favor of the winning slate. We tried to make points of order, motions, discussion and he refused to even acknowledge (call on) us and quickly moved onto the platform. The parliamentarian made no decisions but let the caucus chair have all the say. Anytime a RP supporter tried to speak, they were either ignored or shot down with the answer that the motion had been made, seconded and voted. There was never any 2/3 or 51% votes made today that should have been. We even had some who were not RP people state he was in the wrong and violated the rules but he refused to acknowledge it. Also, the caucus chair voted on everything — there were no ties (which is the only time he’s suppose to vote).

Throughout Saturday, 24 March 2012, I’m liveblogging the Jackson County, Missouri GOP caucus with reports from attendees. Keep checking back for updates! If you prefer, I’m also updating Twitter @lorienjohnson!

CONFIRMED: Paul wins majority of delegates in Jackson County, Missouri. Paul 80% Romney 20%!

03:31 PM CST — Beat Obama Slate wins 531 to 237 and wins Jackson County.

03:17 PM CST — Limited Paul supporters abstaining to fight the deal. Paul camp doesn’t believe a deal is necessary.

03:13 PM CST — CONFIRMED: Combined Paul/Romney slate proposed, Paul with overwhelming majority on the slate.

03:10 PM CST — CONFIRMED: Paul did not have majority. It was Deal or Nothing…

03:02 PM CST — Ron Paul Constitution slate withdrawn. Sounds like a deal in progress. http://bit.ly/mocaucus

02:56 PM CST — Romney and Paul camps made deal to shut out Santorum camp, one person reports.

02:51 PM CST — Voting on Slates is next. Some people are leaving.

02:45 PM CST — Rules accepted, 589–100. Many have left according to some reports.

02:34 PM CST — Debate on rules closed, 581 to 204. Multiple Santorum people are trying to privately address Chair.

02:30 PM CST -  Attendees are reporting feeling like the Santorum crowd is deliberately drawing out the process.

02:14 PM CST -  Santorum and Gingrich supporters increasingly loud. They clearly lose every voice vote, but for fairness at their request the Chair has held standing votes. To ensure accuracy and fairness, Chair agreed all votes should and will now be strictly by Standing vote. Every motion.

02:11 PM CST — NAY on Proportional delegates, 411(yea) to 531 (nay).

02:00 PM CST — Loud Nay vote on Proportional delegates. Chair holds standing vote to be certain. @Rakundig reports that the Chair is being very fair.

01:56 PM CST — @TracyWardForKC says: “Now voting on proportional slates out winner take all. This crowd is getting antsy.”

01:55 PM CST — Sounds like all of the campaigns are angling at the moment. No substantive news.

01:35 PM CST — Analysis from a Platte County resident and caucus organizer, Darrel Drumright: Each district has it’s own convention. If you live in the 5th district you would be nominated for delegate to the 5th district convention. If you lived in the 6th district you would vote for delegates to the 6th district convention. They should make a motion to vote on the stage convention delegates first and then divide by district. The caucus today votes for delegates for three different conventions. The 5th district convention, the 6th district convention and the MO state convention. All three send delegates to national.

01:29 PM CST — Some people are so angry that delegates might be divided that they are leaving.

01:21 PM CST — Mark Seitman (sp?) motions to amend rules to divide into 5th and 6th districts instead of voting as county.

01:15 PM CST — Rules Committee now reporting.

01:13 PM CST — All singing God Bless America while waiting for Rules Cmte.

01:08 PM CST — Motion made and passed to suspend the reading of the call to convention to save time.

01:05 PM CST — Munyan elected Secretary, 587 to Finch’s 281. Munyan is a GOP Committeeman and local attorney. Very honorable reputation, and I have met him and heard him speak. Good choice.

12:55 PM CST — Voting on Secretary. Had to iron out minor counting error. Good accountability!

12:51 PM CST — Voting still very slow, people are impatient. Downside to a big metro caucus!

12:37 PM CST — Chair doubling Tellers to increase speed. Secretary Nominees: Ralph Munyan & Jennifer Finch.

12:34 PM CST — Chair called order, appointing committees. Nominations coming in.

12:25 PM CST — To answer your questions, yes, Mark Anthony Jones supports Ron Paul. However, more importantly he is committed to following Robert’s Rules of Order and has met with Parliamentarians to learn the processes. He will honestly and honorably Chair as a neutral entity as required by Robert’s Rules.

12:19 PM CST — 10 minute Bathroom Break agreed amid some limited dispute.

12:16 PM CST — Mark Anthony Jones elected Chair by 596 to 374.

12:01 PM CST — Voting for Kraus for Chair is now being counted. Kraus is the Santorum Chair. This is Will Kraus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Kraus and http://www.willkraus.com/

11:55 AM CST — Will Kraus’ motion was removed. Voting continued. Waiting for report on vote.

11:52 AM CST — 1 section being recounted. Will Kraus is angry and objecting. According to @rakundig, “He was objecting to some fool moving between sections while votes were being counted.”

11:41 AM CST — Voting for Chair… looks like Mark Anthony Jones may have it. Votes are STANDING votes, which is good for accountability.

11:35 AM CST — Kraus motioned for only 2 people to count votes in crowd over 1k. Crowd disapproved so strongly he withdrew the motion.

11:30 AM CST — Tellers elected for each presidential candidate. Aaron Dunn is the teller for Ron Paul.

11:26 AM CST — Nominees for Chair are introducing themselves.

11:21 AM CST — 834 attendees in 5th District, 178 in 6th District. Credentials Report passed. Now taking nominations for Chair.

11:13 AM CST — Still only a temporary Chair, Shirley Simmons. Waiting for Credentials Cmte to present report.

11:10 AM CST — Candidate Reps just finished speaking. Jason Greene gets huge applause for Paul.

10:32 AM CST — Drawing seating lines. Many more 5th district than 6th.

10:17 AM CST — Doors still not closed. Registration started 30 mins late so meeting will also be late.

09:19 AM CST — They’re up to 640 attendees in line now.

08:10 AM CST — Approximately 300 attendees in line.

Special thanks to Andrew, Rakudig, Claire, Tracy, and the many others whose reports made this liveblog possible!

I attended and filmed a press conference yesterday morning.

Jacob Turk announced that he is running for Congress against the incumbent Emanuel Cleaver for Missouri’s fifth district. Turk, a former U.S. Marine, engineer, and small business owner, has spent the past few election cycles getting to know the critical needs and strengths of the fifth district of Missouri while transition from the private sector into the political arena.

Turk is focusing his campaign on issues of on fiscal responsibility and congressional integrity. He is a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights, he opposes regulation of business and healthcare, and he has stated that he supports an audit of the Fed.

The political establishment in Missouri are sufficiently afraid of Jacob Turk that, after he came very close to defeating Cleaver in 2010, the State redistricting was designed so that Turk’s personal residence was specifically placed out of 5th district… the newly drawn district line sits just a few blocks from Turk’s home.

Every vote from every compromised polling location needs to be pulled from the count and disqualified.

A happy little bumper sticker is making its way around the interwebs, thanks to those of us who are immensely displeased with both McCain and Obama.

Case in point! Reports are coming in from Pennsylvania of Republican election judges being expelled from polling places. Let’s be clear: most of the polling judges in every polling place in the country are registered to one political party or another. Rules are in place for many counties about the need for equal distribution of party presence. Most election judges are not aware of court rulings protect their positions. Man. At the 2004 election for which I worked the polls in Greene County (the Republic poll), my job was to verify voter identification and that they were at the correct polling place. Essentially, I helped the ignorant and stopped the crooks. We had both. I stayed overtime in order to help complete the human counting process (humans count the number or ballots received, machines count the specific votes cast). Four elderly individuals were the election judges for that location and year. They would count up to about 50–70 ballots out of the hundreds and hundreds received, and then they’d lose count. They eventually accepted my “how clever!” system of counting stacks of 10 into 100, and then counting the stacks of 100. They were, for the most part, very sweet… but it’s the sort of environment in which a single bold individual can step in, take charge, and twist the process into criminal activity.

This is the election crap that happens here in Latin America, folks. Do you really want it in the States? All parties should be deeply offended by this behavior, and both McCain and Obama should call for the votes in these polling places to be fully discarded.

Western culture can often translate in strange ways when brought to Bolivia. Halloween, for instance. Tonight is the 3rd of November, and this is when Bolivia celebrates Halloween. I’m sure there’s a very sensible reason for this, and I’m just not in the know — even if it’s as simple as bumping it to Monday night lets us all have an extra night off of work. What does puzzle me is the horn honking. Cars are honking their horns like mad tonight, and for all I can tell they’re trying to honk “Jingle Bells”.

Jingle Bells for Halloween.

Meanwhile, Tyson had a great find. Crafted by 21st Century Filth, is the real Hope:

It’s even on my desktop, fresh for voting day.

We heard some fascinating political and legal analysis on current events from a top-notch specialist in Bolivian law. I’m not naming him here simply because I didn’t get his express permission to do so. Kindly, deal with it. I’m posting the analysis, and then we can all go about researching it as we wish.

Prior to the Ambush in the Pando, Evo expelled almost all of the press. That is a significantly contributing factor as to why we have so little visible evidence and sound accounts of what really happened.

Earlier today on a radio station in Cochabamba it was announced that evidence had been found and confirmed that all individuals who fired weapons at the violent clash were Venezuelan troops. This is believable, because it is well known that the Bolivian military is fiercely uncomfortable with attacking other Bolivians. (This matches an article I saw yesterday. I’ll add a link to that here soon. Need to track it down again.)

Legal Consequences of the Pando Conflict:

After the attack in the Pando, the Pando government was disbanded and Martial Law was instigated in that department. Martial Law is limited by the current Constitution of Bolivia to last no more than 90 days. Under Martial Law, no arrests or charges can be made.

Also under the current Bolivian Constitution, no official can be arrested under any circumstances. Let’s backtrack and define this. Until relatively recently, the Constitution defined Prefects of Departments as being members of the President’s cabinet, government officials, whom the President personally selected. Under President Mesa, however, the Constitution was legally amended so that the Prefects are elected by the people of the departments. The definition of a Prefect remained the same: Prefects are government officials and members of the President’s cabinet.

Current context:

The Prefect of Pando has been detained by the national authorities under Evo’s leadership. He has not been arrested or charged. He is informally accused, but legally he is only under armed/guarded confinement. He is not at liberty to leave. When a Bolivian citizen is under confinement, the normal response is a writ of habeas corpus. He has not been arrested or charged, however, so habeas corpus does not apply. But! In situations in which a confinement has been initiated but no arrests/charges have been made, the Bolivian Constitution offers a protection: an automatic visa to leave the country.

The legal Constitution of Bolivia promises the Prefect of Pando an automatic visa to leave Bolivia. That’s Latin American legal systems at work if I’ve ever seen it. His family have today filed the case to have that visa processed.

Evo’s team is arguing that because the Prefect was in rebellion, he cannot be considered an “official of the government”. However, this doesn’t hold up legally:

• The Constitution has no provisions for situations of rebellion. That status does not legally exist.
• The Prefect was elected by the people of the Pando. Therefore, he is an official of the government of Bolivia as designated by the people of his department.
• The Prefect is legally a member of the President’s cabinet, but is not subject to the President’s selection or preference (reserved by the department, as shown in point 2). The Prefect is as much of an official of the Bolivian government as every other member of the President’s cabinet.

Unfortunately for Evo, by placing the Prefect of Pando under confinement he has given him a free exit from the country and from possible prosecution. This is what happens when people do not respect their own laws enough to know their own laws. If you make a law and/or if you claim the authority of a law, then you need to know that law and follow that law. Evo’s team does not, and that’s a significant weakness for his leadership and his factions.

Evo can continue this fight against the Prefect. Attempting to keep the Prefect in the country by denying his constitutional claim to an exit visa forces a case into constitutional courts. In Bolivia, cases can take months and sometimes years. Consitutional cases will get heard much faster than civil cases, but they can take just as long… and that’s a long time. IF this case goes before the constitutional courts, then due to its high profile the new Constitution proposed by Evo, which has not yet been approved and put into place by the people of Bolivia, cannot be approved. Evo can fight to keep the Prefect, but his Constitution will be delayed inevitably, and with it his political ideals.

Ouch.

International Support and the Limits thereof:

We keep hearing about the overwhelming solidarity of the continent, represented now by UNASUR and the OAS, for Evo Morales. That may well be an exagerration, and the inclusion of international authorities may prove to be Evo’s political downfall.

Evo set the schedule for negotiating with the opposition leaders in Bolivia. He picked the dates. At the last minute, Evo attempted to change the negotiations for one day earlier than planned. This would have caused the opposition leaders to be unprepared. UNASUR and OAS said, emphatically, “No.” The schedule had been set, it was not appropriate to change it.

August Referendum — Bogus?

In addition, the international agencies are going through the election results from August with a fine-tooth comb. They are being extremely strict. Under these strict counting procedures, Evo’s “mandate” is adding up to be approximately 32% — that is 35% lower than the 67% claimed by the Bolivian government. A more moderate counting which allows for a reasonable amount of casual error suggests that Evo would have earned the necessary 52% to stay in office, but only just, and certainly not a 2/3 mandate.

A more obvious limitation to the security of the election, especially valuable for those of us who are distrustful of even third-party agencies counting votes (it’s scary, when you think about how easily shaded our counting systems are, regardless of nation!), is that in a normal election every polling location is monitored by a representative of every single party in the election. In those situations, if any of those representatives point out a possible problem, then the whole polling table in question is shut down! In August, however, the referendum did not involve specific parties and a selection between candidates — it was a simple Yes / No vote. Representatives from multiple parties were not present at the polling places, thus eliminating one of the more significant protections of the electoral system in Bolivia.

The international agencies are going through the records and finding thousands upon thousands of voters listed as “Mama AAA”, “Papa BBB”, and so on — clearly fraudulent names. Reports are also being submitted of citizens who appeared at their polling location to vote but were informed that someone had already voted that day in their name! Awkward. Now, be rational, guys. In the United States of America wwe have elections upon which the entire world looks because our elections affect the entire world… and yet, we still have dead guys voting in Chicago. Election fraud in Bolivia? Believable.

The Compromise:

UNASUR and the OAS, however, are not demanding that the August election be thrown out. They’re going much deeper than that. Now that they’ve been invited in, they’re staying. Evo’s “mandate” will stand, but on their conditions. UNASUR and the OAS are demanding that all voters re-register. From now all, every voter must present their carnet (ID) and give their thumbprint in order to vote. That data will correspond with the data in the brand new voter registration database.

The rest of the continent really doesn’t want to deal with a country firing its legally and constitutionally elected President — and Evo’s presidential election was legal and valid. But forcing a just and accountable system of voter registration? That could solve a ton of future headaches.

The Bolivian Economy:

Bolivia’s national bank has been deliberately suppressing the U.S. Dollar. We’ve all seen this. When the dollar was going down, so did the exchange rate — obviously! When the dollar went back up, however, the exchange rate did not rise in turn… it even went down further. The Bolivian economy is still too tied to the dollar to play these games, and games they are. The economy is in a mess!

Worse still is that Evo was depending on high oil prices, circa $140/barrel, to pay for several of his major projects. He banked on being able to sell Bolivian oil for those prices. Unfortunately for him, oil has dropped back down to circa $100/barrel.

People aren’t exactly thrilled about all of this.

Evo’s Path to Success:

Please note: the following is not my idea! This, too, is coming from the brilliant legal advisor. He’s thought of two very simple and, shockingly, obvious answers to almost all of Evo’s problems.

First, regardless of which option he selects, he needs to give the opposition what they want. All of it. Halt the new Constitution. Give them “autonomy”. Stop interfering with revenues. All of it.

Then, he has two strategic options:

• One month prior to the next election, Evo could resign as president of Bolivia. His vice president would become president. Evo would be legally free to run for re-election.
• Alternatively, he could have made all of his concessions to the opposition conditional on an amendment to the current Constitution which would allow him to run for re-election. That’s it.

Why would these work? Because people are dead tired of the conflict. The opposition will not ever be thrilled with Evo, MAS, or any other socialist regime. They will be content, however, if they are given what they want — and that’s a return to normal without the demands of the new Constitution, the stolen revenues, etc. The moderates within Bolivia (who likely outnumber either faction) and the international community will praise Evo for his compassion, his wisdom, and his commitment to peace. His popularity will skyrocket. Due to the new voter registration systems, there would be no reasonable question of the validity of his election and democratic mandate. He would be elected by a huge majority, and he would have the political backing in his second term to force through the new Constitution (or at the very least a slightly milder version) without significant problem.

The strategy is brilliant. Appease the opposition. Get legally re-elected under the current legal system. Earn the love and respect of millions. THEN drive in the nails of reforms. The problem with all of this, though, is that it interferes with pride. Evo is far too proud to make the temporary, and frankly superficial, concessions. He’ll never do it.

So what will happen instead? Evo cannot take Sant Cruz and cause it to fall as it did Pando. The new Constitution will probably fail. Evo will stay in office, but he won’t be re-elected. He’ll be done, nothing foundational will be solved, and both sides — the indigenous people who experience discrimination and cultural abuse, and the property-owners who have to battle to keep their rights — will continue to suffer. A very boring, but very predictable, stalemate.

Bolivia, frankly, is batty. Is it any wonder I love it so?

Yesterday’s election was a curious affair. The day was quite and calm. The evening, though, was a race of numbers in the news. Jim Shultz, a political blogger (strong left bias) based here in Cochabamba, has a good run-down of the election numbers released by the media last night.

I’ve not found out how these numbers that were released were formed. I’m assuming exit polls; but while those are more or less reliable in the States, I see far less credibility for them here. The polling location near us is a government civil registration office a block down the street (one block west of Plaza Cala Cala). The entrance was guarded by approximately 25 armed (by Bolivian standards — the ammo doesn’t always match the weapon) police in a 50 foot radius. More trucks and cars with police were at the near intersections. Directly in front of the doors throughout the voter registration period during the week, but not during the actual vote-taking yesterday, campesinos held a sit-in/sleep-in. The environment was not dangerous, but I would not think it conducive to an honest exit-poll environment which would not share the anonymity of the official ballot.

Regardless of how the estimates were generated and how accurate they are, the world heard that Evo had an overwhelming majority (between 60–68% depending on the paper/blog) and that three governors, La Paz, Oruro, and Cochabamba, were deposed. Cochabamba’s governor is the only one of the three who is refusing to acknowledge the validity of the election.

As of 10:00am this morning according to Los Tiempos, a local newspaper, only 23% of the nation’s votes and 12% of Cochabamba’s votes have been officially calculated. With those calculations, Evo, the president has 52% sanction to remain in office, and Manfred, the governor of Cochabamba, has 55% sanction to remain in office. We’ll see how those numbers stand when all is said and done.

For Cochabamba this week, however, the real numbers may not matter too much.  Everyone heard last night that a) Manfred lost, and b) Manfred is ignoring it. The pro-Evo contingent sees this as an opportunity to champion democracy. The moderates will advocate political action. The more enthusiastic… well…

At the moment, large numbers of cocaleros are marching from the Chapare into Cochabamba and are scheduled to arrive today. We’ve no idea where the goal is. If a direct and possibly violent protest is intended, then the plan will probably be to head for the government offices at Plaza Principal as happened in January 2007. If a strictly peaceful protest is intended, then I’d bet on a repeat of the May 2008 march down Blanco Galindo (the equivalent to a freeway).

If Evo is wise, he’ll try to maintain the flashy international support that a Yes Stay In Office election result provides, and choose the peaceful protest. Evo is consistently not wise, however. Mind you, Manfred shares this particular lack of political wisdom.

So. Peace or Violence? Bolivia is batty, after all, so it’s anyone’s guess.

Our local government must emphasize two key principles: maximum efficiency and maximum accountability. Accordingly, the Greene County system should be conscientiously streamlined. We must carefully research innovative strategies that will best serve the needs of our county. As the election authority for Greene County , the County Clerk must ensure that all elections are thoroughly and properly conducted, and that the fewest possible inconveniences are placed on registered voters.

The County Clerk must at all times seek to function as a non-partisan while serving as a liaison between multiple branches of our county. The County Clerkship is not a position of partisan policymaking, but is instead designed to coordinate the policies of the people with efficient ease. Accountability is vital to the maintenance of our community-conscience government. The management of our records should be conducted in an organized manner that is readily accessible to the local citizen.

As a woman of Springfield , I hold these principles of efficiency and accountability in the forefront of my mind when I serve our community in my daily life. Only with the involvement of an informed community can we achieve the Greene County that serves as a haven for our families, our endeavors, and ourselves.