Since there has been so much discussion on this site about delegates, its worth knowing that both campaigns are taking the entire process quite seriously. The Clinton campaign had national staff (Karen Hicks, Terry McAuliffe) in for the county convention and held organizational meetings to put together at least the appearance of a  floor operation. (I don't know how well those whips would have functioned if actual floor voting had taken place). Obama's campaign was very well organized but didn't have actual floor whips in evidence.

The key issue was over the credentialing of alternates as delegates. At 10:30 am, the rules stated that credentials for delegates who had not yet signed in would be given to alternates. County party rules allow an unlimited number of alternates to attend and to be credentialed in place of delegates who do not show. In principle, alternates should replace delegates from the same precinct and from the same presidential preference.

However, two things led to the chaos. First, the county party did not, as it should have, make pre-registration for delegates or alternates very easy. This could have and should have been done online; instead, a pdf form was posted on the website but had to be mailed in 7 days in advance of the convention. The county party apparently never sorted out the actual list of elected delegates from those precincts who did not report results from January 19th (this non-reporting due in part to the selection of precinct caucus secretaries based on presidential preference (ie, a majority voting for someone from their own preference group) rather than selecting the volunteer who had been to the county party's training). The party also never, because it did not have adequate pre-registration, assigned alternates to a particular delegate slot (in the same precinct and preference group), which would have facilitated the credentialing.

Second, the turnout of alternates was massive. The Clinton campaign used mass emails, pre-recorded calls as well as phone banking from predictive-dialer call centers to contact not only every elected delegate but also their entire contact list, in hopes of holding their delegate slots in case of no-shows (and presumably trying to pick up slots in case of Obama supporter no-shows) and of making a strong showing on the convention floor.  The Obama campaign, as far as I know, contacted their precinct captains who in turn contacted their delegates to ensure turnout; and they phone banked elected delegates not on their own supporter lists (like me).

This massive turnout lengthened the lines, which in and of itself would not have been a problem. However, with even those  who had pre-registered being forced into the same line with unregistered delegates and alternates, the line became enormous -- disrupting gaming operations on the Bally's casino floor and making it impossible for delegates to pick up their credentials by the mandated hour of 10:30. On top of which, by 10:30 so many alternates had entered the convention hall that the Fire Marshall ordered it sealed off.

At that point, two interesting things happened. First, the Culinary showed its impressive discipline by pulling all its delegates off the floor. At first this appeared to be a protest, but in fact it was simply to create space in the hall to prevent a crisis. As I saw it appeared very much that both Obama and Clinton delegates (the Obama ones wearing Culinary for Obama t-shirts, the Clinton ones wearing Clinton t-shirts) both responded to the call for Culinary members to gather.

Second, the organizers efficiently pulled the alternates out of the room into a holding room. That much was smart. But then, without any public address system to speak to the hundreds of alternates in the holding room or to those in line, the credentials began to be distributed to alternates, even though many delegates remained in line awaiting their credentials. I've heard lots of versions of what went on for those 20 to 30 minutes but what became clear by 11:30 was that enough credentials had been handed out to alternates without recording precinct or presidential preference that the vote had been irrevocably compromised. An estimated 4000 delegates had been credentialed and another estimated 3500 elected delegates or eligible alternates were still in line.

During this time, the balloting was open; a preference poll was taken among delegates at the sign-in tables (the announced results from Saturday am as of 10am gave Clinton a slight lead, of less than 5%; combined with Friday night's announced straw poll results, the straw poll was almost dead even; Clinton 2080, Obama 2076.) THe actual ballots for delegates however were being collected in cardboard boxes being carried around the hall by hand, leading (inevitably) to rumors of ballot-box stuffing and of ballots being dumped. There was, in short, nothing close to ballot integrity.

Then the party leadership showed its lack of transparency. Claiming the problem was merely one of massive turnout, the convention chair proposed that the convention be recessed. His motion was couched in parliamentary language so obtuse that it was clear even he didn't understand what he was saying. Seated delegates revolted, shouting objections from the floor and when a voice vote was held, the nayes were evidently in the majority. I expected the chair to declare for the ayes and gavel the convention into recess, and I fully expected a riot. (I also used the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of shouting at a democratic convention "The Whole World is Watching!"). In the event, he declared the nayes to be the majority and since the convention had not yet been formally opened, simply left the podium

I left for lunch and only hours later did it become clear that the executive board spent most of the day conferring with the state leadership of each campaign and I'm told, the state and national party offices, to determine that they had no choice but to recess the convention. To get the delegates to accept this, a motion was introduced for a caucus of each presidential preference group. This too was loudly voted down by voice vote (which is why I don't think the floor whips for Clinton would have been able to do much had their been any actual floor votes been taken. Still, the chair this time did declare for the ayes, and in the preference group break-outs, the Obama delegates vented their anger. The Clinton group, by contrast, was much calmer. After about 30 minutes, the full convention (such as it was) reassembled and a voice vote was taken to recess, which passed by a loud majority.