ala's Journal

Keep Hope Alive
Into the fray again. I'm in the convention center again. Right now Jessie Jackson is speaking. "Keep Hope Alive" he chants. We chant back. There is a massive feeling of energy when 15,000 people are chanting.

Our soon to be new CA Treasurer John Chiang (with some help from our California voters) says cheer back loudly. We'll hear you. Can I hear you now?

The more frantic thing that is going on is counting delegates. How does someone become the Democratic candidate for President? Watch tonight. This is when it happens. Right now this is Ground Zero for the action. As we come in the delegates have been instructed to find a Whip. These are people in what our head of delegation, Art Torres, called the CalTrans vests. These are yellow, netted vests that do remind me of the construction trades. They are the voice of the leaders of our delegation. They give out the signs and other items for us to hold, they take messages to solve issues, and most importantly, they corral the delegates when they need to vote.

So how do we vote? On TV what you see is some major elected like a Senator or Governor announcing the States vote. Behind the scenes it is far less glamorous. We are presented with a piece of paper on a clipboard. On it are the names of each of the Presidential candidates. We check our preference and sign our name. Our chief whip is busily counting up all the delegation votes to be sure we have everyone. Not everyone has checked in and people are missing.

It looks quite frantic but in California every vote counts. Later our Senator will be giving a speech and announcing the results. Look for us on TV.

More afterwards. I'm going to listen to some speeches.

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