copied from My Direct Democracy (mydd.com)
Clark County (NV) Democratic county convention recesses without electing delegates
by desmoulins, Sat Feb 23, 2008

Massive turnout statewide for Democratic county conventions in Nevada today (see excerpt below). In all-important Clark County, the county party lost control of the credentialing process (see excerpt below) resulting in a recess without delegates being elected (and potentially jeopardizing the Nevada delegation to the national convention).
I'll post some MyDD-specific analysis from the floor here tomorrow but here's some some detailed local blog coverage .

My Silver State
Where Progressive Nevadans Unite

Clark County Convention: botched beyond recognition
by: Greg Brown
Sat Feb 23, 2008

The Clark County democratic convention fell apart this afternoon, as problems with credentialing of delegates and an inability to ensure ballot integrity resulted in a recess of the convention without any of delegates being elected.

I'll post a full explanation tomorrow of what happened today, what caused this debacle, and what the consequences will be. But for anyone logging in from upstate eager for results from Clark, the answer is ...there are none.

For now, here's a quick rundown of several noteworthy developments, good and bad.

Greg Brown :: Clark County Convention: botched beyond recognition

1. massive turnout (some estimates ran as high as 18,000 people showed up, though the only documented figure I heard was about half that. It does seem likely that over 10,000 people at least tried to attend).
2. smoother operation of registration up to 10:30 this morning. By that point about 4000 delegates had been credentialed (that alone is about 7 times the attendence at the county convention in 2004), and a line of delegates and alternates seeking to check in stretched through Bally's convention center, across the casino floor and out into the parking garage.
3. An unofficial announcement of straw poll results from the preference poll up to that point showed a nearly even convention -- 2080 for Clinton, 2076 for Obama.
4. For reasons that need to be fully explained in a subsequent posting, the county party convention lost control of the credentialing process at about 10:30, beginning a descent into chaos. By mid-day it was apparent that no accurate tabulation of delegate allocation could be carried out, which led to two remarkable developments.
5. A "privileged motion" from the chair to recess the convention was heard, debated and massive rejected by a floor vote. In short, the convention attendees rejected a compromise that had been negotiated by the leaders of each campaign and by the county party. After several hours of waiting, the convention was divided into two caucuses -- of Obama and of Clinton supporters -- so that their leaders could convince them to accept the recess as the only alternative. Although there was stiff resistence in the Obama caucus, D. Taylor convinced the Obama supporters that there was no alternative. Proceeding based on an illegitimate vote could lead to those Nevada delegates chosen by Clark County not being seated at the national convention.
6. The Clark County central committee e-board, which has repeatedly shown itself utterly incapable of holding impartial meetings during the fall, badly botched the seating at the JJ dinner last November, created a national embarrassment over the at-large precincts in January and today almost jeopardized the Nevada delegation's eligibility for the national convention -- now has a period of about 2 weeks to pull together a repeat convention.

I don't think anyone who was the Bally's convention center today left believing that this county party board and staff is capable of doing that.

How we got here and what it mean I'll try to address tomorrow after some reflection and rest.


Turnout Surges at Nevada Conventions By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The hectic scramble for delegates between presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton played out at Nevada Democrats' county conventions Saturday, where a surge of turnout overwhelmed southern Nevada party leaders and forced them to shut down the convention before completing the vote.

An estimated 10,000 people showed up at Bally's Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas for Clark County Convention, the largest of the 17 county meetings held Saturday, according to casino staff. That's roughly 2,000 more than party officials expected.

County conventions are the second step toward divvying up Nevada's 25 pledged delegates to the National Democratic Convention between Clinton and Obama.

In past years, the county convention meetings have been little more than rallies for the party's likely nominee. But with the presidential race so closely divided, campaigns encouraged large numbers of supporters to attend as part of a strategy to defend the delegates won at Jan. 19 precinct caucuses.

Rowdy crowds quickly filled the Las Vegas ballroom to capacity and forced casino staff to close the doors early, leaving hundreds of delegates outside, party leaders said.

"Unfortunately, all those who are eligible ... there is no physical way in this room to allow those delegates in," convention chairman Bill Stanley told the crowd as he asked them to agree to close the convention and hold the presidential vote at a later date.

The crowd initially greeted the notion with a chorus of "boos," but eventually was persuaded after entreaties from both campaigns.

No date for the new vote was set immediately. Clark County delegates account for 72 percent of the state convention delegation. State delegates will meet in May in Reno.

The confusion left the results of any Saturday voting vulnerable to a court challenge. Both campaigns told the state party they likely would raise the issue in court if the vote wasn't redone, according to a state party official who was not authorized to discuss the negotiations.

Vassiliadis said the Democratic National Committee has threatened to reduce Nevada's delegation to the national convention if the matter is not resolved.