Nevada Boys’ State Deputy Programming Director Ryan Hamilton has been quoted in the Washington Post and published in the Catholic University of America’s newspaper, The Tower.
Hamilton was Vice Chairman of DC Students for Mitt and heavily involved in the campaign in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Nevada. For his involvement, he has also been interviewed by WPTV in Palm Beach, Florida, and The Guardian reporter Jonathan Freedland.
We set out for Florida from the District of Columbia on Friday, determined to be the deciding factor in the Florida Presidential Primary: two buses loaded with Romney supporters brimming with promise and confidence made the 19 hour over night sojourn down through the Mid-Atlantic and into the South. This, like many political trips, was organized on a shoe string and on short notice: a week before we set out, a Facebook posting from a person I’d never met alerted DC-area Romney supporters to the opportunity, and I scrambled to put together a team from our newly minted Students for Mitt chapter on CUA’s campus. After a couple of days of lobbying and pleading, five volunteers representing the CUA dove into the unknown.
We arrived in West Palm Beach to a central campaign office located in what used to be a storefront youth clothing retailer — it had seen several transformations befitting of any campaign office. The outlets were packed with extender pads for phone chargers, most space was occupied by tables and chairs, around and in which volunteers would sit to make phone call goals and try to get in touch with voters to secure their support using scripted statements to voters. The dressing rooms were occupied by Romney materials that were destined for the streets, homes, yards, bumpers, shirts, heads, and bodies of supporters. Stock rooms in the back had been filled with tables and chairs to make ad hoc offices for the officials directing the volunteers in this store.
Our journey didn’t end there; there was an even more outlying office in Coral Springs, and with two George Mason students we saddled up into a blue rental car and made the hour long trip South, toward Miami. We arrived in the most unusual of spaces, this campaign office had been transformed from a hotel suite into a local nerve center with sixteen phones in its bank and support and contact services for about half a million voters. When we arrived, we set right to work calling locals and letting them know that we wanted to earn their support in the Primary contest only a short three days away. We burned up the phone lines the first two days, making more than 6,000 personal contacts via phone, but the work was difficult: it required us to sit for some 9 hours in a small hotel room and try and persuade sometimes openly hostile people to vote for a man that we all believed in, a man for whom we’d sacrificed class absences, labor, and time. The phone banking made up the bulk of our work, but as is the case with most college engagements, we made time for fun. We made a trip to the beach and ate at a beach side restaurant, and I stepped in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in my life. A note must be made about our accommodations: four of the Magnificent Seven were staying in a local supporters home, while the other three (myself included) slept in pull out couch beds in the hotel office, our meals were provided by a local supporter and at times we had to survive on soda and gold fish crackers while we put our shoulders to the wheel. The night before the election came, we spent the last three hours of the night and the first hour of the next day canvassing Coral Springs and surrounding areas with Romney signs, making sure that others who stopped at major intersections knew that Romney was in town and today was the day to vote for him.
We returned the next morning fresh to make calls and head out to polling locations, and we did diligently throughout the day. Exit polls and rumors of internal polls raised our moods and made us hopeful: the earliest polls from Naples and the panhandle showed Romney in a landslide, and it turned out to be true in Naples, an area into which we made many phone calls. Later that night, however, our spirits were significantly dampened by the returns, especially as the night grew on. We boarded a bus back to DC just after the election was called for McCain, and I reflected on the loss.
It was the first time in my life that I’d been behind a candidate who was wounded in a major way, and for whom I thought hope was scarce. I spent the last days of my life putting all of the energy and will I had into his success, and attached myself deeply to him and his victory, it was a reflection on me, and it hadn’t ended well at all. We were hit hard, and the opposition stood before us looming with a height heretofore unseen in the campaign season. The next morning I woke up in a considerably better mood, and my mind had in its rest rededicated itself to winning or to dying on this hill, standing next to the candidate who had inspired me to act, next to the man in whom I had faith and in whom I also believed. I was going to move forward, come what may. I listened to the Springsteen song No Surrender, and felt very good about the upcoming days. I’m finalizing a Students for Romney fund raiser at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and trying to shore up his support there in the straw poll. I’ve also recruited several more people to our cause in the interim, and am attending the DC GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner with several other Romney supporters in hopes of casting winning ballots for Romney in the night’s straw poll. I’m keeping hope alive.
For many it goes without saying a NBS city name is central to a NBS city. PSAs, roll-calls and city chants all begin with the city name, thus the NBS staff takes the selection of a new city name very seriously. For those that don’t know, City’s are always named after form Executive Directors. This year’s city names will include (1) Martie, (2) Anderson, (3) Bill Valley, (4) Jaytown, (5) Howard and a sixth city to be determined by this poll.
Former Executive Directory Craig Adams along with a close group of advisers have selected several city names to be considered. Please cast your vote below and encourage others to participate in this historic poll.
What should the new city name be?
Total Voters: 59
Loading …It’s 9:05am and twelve-hundred Republicans are patiently waiting in the cafeteria of Del Sol High School. Some are beginning to organize themselves into precincts, but many lack the knowledge of what precinct they belong to–let alone what to do once they are organized in their precincts. You hear one angry caucus attendee say, “where is the Nevada GOP leadership, this was suppose to start at 9:00 am.”
Moments latter Erin arrives. Erin has the ballots, maps, and precinct agendas. A group of eager caucus attendees storm Erin and his box, maps are pulled out, explanatory signs are distributed, tap is sent in all directions, temporary caucus chairs grab their packets and move to their rooms. Amongst the volunteers committed to play their part in Nevada’s republican caucus are Boy State staffers Ryan Hamilton and Craig Huntington.
Within 20 minutes the 1,200 republicans have assembled by precinct in roughly 40 classrooms, the caucus is under way. Delegates are elected, platform ideas are proposed and briefly discussed. As the caucus attendees continue to work down their agendas, it soon becomes clear there are no ballots in the packets.
According to the detailed caucus agenda that is placed in every precinct envelope, which provides nearly foolproof instructions for a successful and smooth caucus, the official ballots were to be included in the precinct envelope, but no ballots are found there. It soon becomes clear Erin is distributing the ballots himself to each precinct classroom. The ballots slowly move through the high school.
This is where it gets interesting.
As Erin distributes the ballots, Craig Huntington waits outside the established “counting room,” which is at the moment still being used as a caucus classroom. As a volunteer, he’s collecting the completed packets, which include the completed ballots. He anxiously waits for representatives from the presidential hopefuls that will be serving as poll watchers–he shouldn’t be alone collecting ballots. Soon the first half dozen precinct chairs drop of their packets and head home. The seventh prescient captain is a bit more questioning before he hands over his packet, ”Who are you?”
“Well, I’m Craig Huntington…a volunteer.”
“Do you work for the Nevada GOP?”
“No.” Craig responds, thinking to himself, I’m not even a registered republican. ”I’m just a volunteer, Erin works for the GOP, he should be here shortly. I understand if you don’t want to give me your packet, I wouldn’t. In fact, do you mind staying here with me for a bit, until Erin shows up, there really should be two of us with these.”
The precinct chair agrees, and the two continue to collect packets. Moments latter Erin arrives. The packets are assembled and brought to a newly established counting room.
Inside the counting room, Ryan and Craig meet back-up, a dozen other people also gather in the room. One is the official site coordinator, Erin, two others are poll watchers from the Mitt Romney campaign. The remainder are citizens who seem to all share an energy and excitement about being a part of the democratic election process. They’re set on staying and participating in the counting process.
Over the next 30 minutes, the remaining packets are collected and checked off the list. The two primary highlights from the counting room at this early stage are: (1) watching a young man run into the room and exclaim, “we need more ballots in our precinct” and then run out with a stack of ballots in his hand, and (2) watching several precinct captains, as they turn in there packets, rip them back open (with an observer) to insert additional paperwork.
Soon, the counting begins. Erin sits at a desk in the center of the room with several observers watching the ballots and his tally.
As he tallies, he counts the votes outloud–one for Romney, another for Romney, one for Paul… The secondary counters work, Ryan Hamilton makes a tally on the board for all to see, and several other observers in the room make their own tallies. After the second precinct count, there’s a discrepancy, Erin has 26, Ryan has 27 on the board, a volunteer in the room has 27 on their sheet. You hear, “majority rule…27 it is.” The counting continues.
When, roughly speaking, the 15th packet is opened, no ballots are found. Instead, the caucus goers used small bits of paper. A faint smile is seen across the room–you can’t stop the democratic process, ballots are not needed to cast a vote.
When all was said and done, the tallies were added up, cross-checked and cross-checked again. Erin then pulled out his phone, and sent in our results.
Ryan and Craig were struck by the similarities between the real world, and the world of NBS. It was no different. At NBS a group of staff members and delegate election officials work through ballots, tallying on board and cross-checking with each other. Discrepancies occur, recounts are made, democracy works.
You know what? college really has a funny way of offering completely unexpected adventures. Take for instance; hopping on board an airplane in Albany, with less than a week’s notice, to Baltimore for a Bioethics conference just because a professor said it would be a good idea! Well it turned out to be a good idea.
In case your wondering, Bioethics is the study of moral controversies in science and medicine. And yes, there are entire national organizations that devote themselves to this kind of study; in this case I attended the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Conference in Washington D.C. It was all really cool! Every hour there was several panel discussions going on (sort of like the discussions at Boys’ State). In one room a group of experts would field speak about stem cell research, and in the next room researchers would be discussing the ethical implications of neurological enhancements. I even sat in on the discussion of medicine’s role in the Holocaust.
And better yet, the weekend wasn’t all about academic talk, I had the chance to hang out with some buddies of mine–all from former leadership programs of course.
To my immediate right is Nikita, from the World Leadership Conference. She now goes to GWU in DC.
This is Kevin Carter from Reed High School Leadership who was kind enough to let me stay at his place: American University.
Austin from Nevada Boys’ State and Reno-Sparks Youth Leadership also goes to American U.
And lastly, Marisa Peri from the Class of 07′ student council goes to the beautiful Georgetown University.
My apologies go out to Chris Walker and Ryan Hamilton, I wish I could have visited you guys that weekend; although, I did get to see Ryan in Albany, which was pretty cool. And Chris, I owe you a rain check.
In all, it was a great trip. I can’t even tell you how much fun college can be–I mean, this is only one story from my first semester! There were plenty more last semester, and I’m sure there will be even more to come.
Cameron
