Opinion: Yes, the Democrats are still counting votes in Texas

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With most states having already finished with their primaries or caucuses for the 2008 presidential race, Texas Democrats are the clear front-runner for most poorly run contest of the year.

It’s been more than a week now since the Democrats in the Lone State State conducted their much-publicized two-step process -- a primary by day, a caucus by night. And the second part of that dance card remains a muddled mess.

The Associated Press has been keeping tabs on the sluggish vote count and reported Tuesday that results from barely more than 40% of precinct caucuses had been reported to the state.

Barack Obama led Hillary Clinton, 56% to 44%, and if that holds up, the Texas delegation should be pretty much split down the middle (assuming they get this figured out by the time the national convention convenes in late August in Denver). Clinton won the primary narrowly, giving her 65 delegates to Obama’s 61.

The basic problem surrounding the caucus operation was that vastly more numbers of participants showed up than officials were prepared for. One would think the stream of stories about record-shattering turnouts in some of the Democratic contests preceding Texas might have led to better preparation, but apparently not.

The AP story has some delicious detail on some of the other obstacles impeding the vote count. For instance, in Hidalgo County, along the border, the tally ‘has been stymied by the disappearance of county Democratic chairman Juan Maldonado, who changed his cell phone number after losing re-election and wasn’t available for several days at his business.’

You can peruse the rest of the story here.

-- Don Frederick