Subject: Medium: The Facts about the Nevada Democratic State Convention on Saturday
From: Stewart Boss <[email-masked]>
To: Stewart Boss <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 12:07:26 -0700

*Medium: The Facts about the Nevada Democratic State Convention on Saturday
<https://medium.com/@nvdems/the-facts-about-the-nevada-democratic-state-convention-on-saturday-106cc5db3d83#.gh2mtrpzm>*

By NV Dems <https://twitter.com/nvdems>

These are the facts about what happened at Saturday’s Democratic
Convention. It’s important that everyone understand what happened and why
it happened so we can come together and move forward.

It all comes down to simple math:

   - Based on the county convention results, Bernie Sanders had 2,124
   delegate slots to the State Convention and Hillary Clinton had 1,722
   delegate slots to the State Convention.

   - On Saturday at the State Convention, after all of the alternates were
   seated, Hillary Clinton filled 1,695 of her delegate slots and Bernie
   Sanders only filled 1,662 at the State Convention — giving Clinton a
   33-delegate margin of victory.

   - Clinton only had 27 delegate positions vacant on Saturday. Sanders
   left 462 vacant. Clinton filled 98 percent of her available delegate slots
   at the State Convention, and Sanders only filled 78 percent of his
   available delegate slots.

   - In plain terms, the Clinton campaign organized and got nearly all of
   their delegates to the State Convention. The Sanders campaign did not.

On the false and wildly inaccurate accusations that there were 64 potential
Sanders delegates in question who were “denied” by the State Convention’s
Credentials Committee on Saturday:

   - Six of the 64 potential delegates were seated as delegates after
   investigation.

   - The remaining potential delegates were ineligible for two main
   reasons: 1) They were not registered Democratic voters in Nevada by May 1,
   2016, and 2) Their information — such as address, date of birth and name
   — could not be found or identified, and they did not respond to requests
   from the party and campaigns to correct it.

   - Only eight of the ineligible delegates even attempted to register at
   the State Convention.

   - The so-called “minority report” about these ineligible delegates was
   not written by the Credentials Committee — it was written by national
   Sanders campaign staff on site. A member of Sanders’ National Delegate
   Operations Team drafted and arranged for a member of that committee to
   attempt to deliver an incendiary report that caused chaos and violence at
   the convention. It was inaccurate, misleading and subsequently discredited
   by the Credentials Committee.

   - The Credentials Committee, the panel that made decisions on these
   issues, was co-chaired by supporters of both campaigns and the membership
   of the committee was also equally divided between supporters of both
   campaigns. This was done to ensure that the entire process was fair,
   transparent and accountable for both campaigns and their supporters. The
   committee worked diligently and cooperatively all day, under incredibly
   trying circumstances, to be fair and impartial in its work.

National Delegates Results

In terms of the final results for National Delegates, Nevada’s 23
District-Level Delegates are allocated based on the percentage of the
precinct caucus vote on February 20. Clinton won 13 of these, compared to
10 for Sanders. The seven At-Large and five Pledged PLEO Delegates are
determined based on the State Convention results. Because Clinton had a
majority of delegates at the State Convention, she carried the At-Large
Delegates 4–3 and the Pledged PLEO Delegates 3–2. So Clinton earned 20
pledged delegates and Sanders earned 15 pledged delegates to the Democratic
National Convention in July.

We understand that the caucus to convention process can be confusing.
That’s why we have said it’s time to re-examine the caucus system
<http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/time-re-examine-nevada-s-caucus-system>.
But everything the State Party did here was fair, transparent and
appropriate according to our delegate selection plan. The convention rules
were consistent with how previous State Conventions have been run in
previous election cycles. And we made sure to include an equal number of
supporters from both campaigns to run the State Convention committees.

The Tone and Tenor of this Democratic Primary

It’s unfortunate that while we were making these efforts to ensure that we
conducted a fair State Convention, the Sanders campaign was deliberately
sharing misinformation about how the convention operates to get people
riled up. And after starting this fire, they had no capacity — and no desire
— to control their own supporters from hurling threats and insults and
being disruptive to the proceedings. We were forced to conclude the State
Convention at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel quickly because event security no
longer had the capacity to control the unruly and unpredictable crowd.

Our State Party chairwoman Roberta Lange has led Nevada Democrats with
honor and integrity since 2011. We’re proud to be one of the most effective
state party organizations in the country, and that’s in no small part
thanks to her leadership. Since the State Convention was adjourned Saturday
night and Sanders supporters posted her cell phone number and other contact
information online, our chairwoman has received thousands of death threats
and threats of violence and misogynistic insults that aren’t fit to print.
Our chairwoman had to be given a security detail throughout Saturday just
to be able to move around the room and go to the bathroom safely. Our
office was vandalized by protesters with hateful insults. This activity is
beyond the pale.

Nevada is a major battleground state in 2016. Winning Nevada is critical
for Democrats to hold the White House and take back the Senate this year.
It is time to fix the tone and tenor of this Democratic primary so that we
can move forward and unify to defeat Donald Trump and elect Democrats up
and down the ballot this November.

https://medium.com/@nvdems/the-facts-about-the-nevada-democratic-state-convention-on-saturday-106cc5db3d83