The Caucus is on Feb. 9th 2008 at the Shelton High School at 1:pm. I hope you all can make it for it is so important to get our vote in for Ron Paul. I was told to be there no later than 12:45pm for the meeting will start promptly at 1:00.
I hope to see you there (voting for Ron Paul, otherwise, disregard this message :p).
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Washington Republican Caucus
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18 comments:
i don't understand... it's a "meeting"?
what?
is that where we vote?
what's the difference between a "causcus" and the "primary election"?
i'm so confused...
but i did put in in my iCal, which is synced to my iPhone!
I thought each party in each state did their own thing.
For example, in Iowa, Dems do the thing where they show up to a place (like a school or VFW building) and go to "their candidates" table to "vote" for them. If they dont get 15%, they are not "viable" and must move to another candidates area. But in Iowa, the reps do a straw poll.
I thought in our state, you show up to a polling place, declare a party and then receive a ticket with that party's candidates on it.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question721.htm
Best explanation of Caucus vs Primary I could find on short notice :p
Essentially, a caucus is just a more "involved and longer" process of doing a primary.
To vote in a caucus you have to show up to a specific meeting place, probably sit for an hour or 2 and listen to every candidates position and then place your vote.
In a primary you just walk up to a ballot box, check a name, and walk away.
The theory is that in a caucus you will only have individuals who are dedicated and informed voting versus a primary system where just anyone can walk up without knowing anything (someone outside the door could offer them $5 say) to go vote for whoever.
Basically a caucus is just a long drawn out voting process designed to weed out the weak :p
so, i'm assuming, based on the title of this post that Washington uses a caucus system, as opposed to a primary election system.
in that case, since the candidates won't be there representing themselves to us on feb 9, who is going to tell me what each candidate stands for?
Here's a link for the Washington process
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/pdf/2008PP/PP%20MFQ%20Updated%20August%202007%20Final.pdf
oops, that got cut up
try this
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections
/pdf/2008PP/PP%20MFQ%20Updated%20Aug
ust%202007%20Final.pdf
Basically Washington uses a hybrid system of both caucus and primary. Since primaries are deemed "unfair" to the elderly, shut ins, etc Washington uses both.
To elect the nominee (which is done at convention) every state sends a certain amount of delegates to the national convention. Typically on the GOP side it's a "winner takes all" type approach where if you win the state, all of that states delegates will be delegates (supporters) of whoever won.
In Washington, they do a similar "winner takes all" approach, only they essentially have (potentially) 2 winners. If you win the caucus, you get 51% of the Washington state delegates, if you win the primary you get 49% of the delegates. SOOO, that means to really get ALL of Washington's delegates you need to win both the caucus AND the primary. Since caucus attendance is about 1000x times smaller than that of the primary (thats the whole POINT of a caucus, to make the pool smaller) your voice has MUCH MUCH MUCH more impact. I would guess that at the Mason County Caucus there could be less than 100 people that show up, that means you alone are worth 1 whole percentage point. If you get 19 friends to come with you, you can practically cause Ron Paul (or whatever candidate you support) to win the Mason County caucus with 20% (if we still have 4-5 candidates at that time).
So basically, showing up to caucus on February 9th is probably MORE important than voting in the primary on the (19th?)... as you get 1 more delegate for winning the caucus, and your vote has MUCH more meaning in the caucus than the primary.
So yeah, Rock the vote for Ron Paul!
(I got that last part backwards, the caucus will only give the GOP candidate 49% of the delegates, the primary 51% of the delegates).
Also note, that the Democratic Party gives 100% of it's delegates to the caucus winner, and completely ignores Primary results. This in effect means voting in the democratic party primary is COMPLETELY 100% POINTLESS, as that vote is like a big poll, but has ZERO meaning. On the democratic side, ONLY a caucus vote matters. On the GOP side, both caucus and primary votes matter.
my wife's family are huge longtime republicans. Last night, my father-in-law was telling me that the attendance at mason county caucuses are generally their family and a very small handful of others around the county. Exceptionally small attendance in our community.
thanks for the explanation.
this brought up a few more questions:
so, can i both caucus AND vote int he primary?
can i caucus for both parties?
does caucusing use up my vote?
Well I will be there this year (along with I know of at least 5 other Ron Paul supporters). I would love it if Ron Paul won Mason county with like... 70% of the vote! HAHAHA!
Now I just need to make sure that Annora has either arrived by the 9th, or waits until AFTER the 9th to show up.
Knowing my luck she will probably show up ON the 9th :p
so, can i both caucus AND vote int he primary?
Yes, you are ENCOURAGED to both caucus AND vote in the primary.
can i caucus for both parties?
NO, if you vote in either the primary or the caucus of a party, you can ONLY vote in that party on that year. In other words if you caucus for the GOP, you can ONLY vote in the GOP primary. If you caucus for the Dems, you can ONLY vote in the Dem primary.
does caucusing use up my vote? No, if you caucus you essentially have double the votes, since the caucus and the primary are 2 separate votes. And like has been mentioned by Jeremey, a caucus vote is like 1000x times more important than a primary vote, because so few people show up to caucus your 1 vote means so much more.
So for anyone that feels like "my vote doesn't matter, I am just 1 in a billion"... go caucus, literally your _1_ vote could be the difference between a candidate winning and losing the election.
Also note, primary/caucus votes have ZERO impact on your status for the national vote.
In other words you could go caucus/primary vote for Ron Paul in February, then if he didn't win and you really wanted to go back Hillary Clinton in the national presidential election, that is perfectly acceptable.
But what DOES have impact is like in the race for the governor. If you go caucus/vote in the primary for the dems, than that means you CAN NOT vote in the GOP primary for governor. We know that Gregoire will be the Dem nominee (incumbent) while the GOP side still has yet to name who will run against her (last I heard Rossi is planning on running again). So if you do caucus/vote in the primary for the Dem's, you will not get any say in who runs AGAINST Gregoire for WA state governor. Now if you support Gregoire then this is no big deal, if you don't support her... well then...
At least that is my understanding of how party affiliation with respects to primary/caucus voting goes. I may be wrong and it may strictly be limited to that specific race you vote in, in other words you can't vote in both the Dem and GOP Presidential primary but you could vote in the Dem Presidential Primary and then the GOP Governor primary... but thats not how it works as I understand it.
So if you have 6 for ron paul, I should round up my 15 for Dobby, I mean rudy giuliani.
Really, I think you talked me into it. I plan to wear my communist sweater, so don't wear yours. I would hate to end up dressing the same.
McCain 4 ever
This has been my understanding of a caucus:
“What is a Caucus-race?” said Alice; not that she much wanted to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
“Why,” said the Dodo, “the best way to explain it is to do it.” (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)
First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle ("the exact shape doesn’t matter,” it said), and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there.
There was no “One, two, three, and away!” but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out "The race is over!” and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, “But who has won?”
This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it stood for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence.
At last the Dodo said, “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”
This way sounds more fun.
Was I at your table (Airport) ?
It was nice to see such a huge turnout y'day - my goodness, I figured that maybe a handful would be there, and indeed, at 12:30 when I arrived, it looked like maybe a dozen in that huge space. However, in that next half hour, the place got PACKED - YAY for all who came to participate.
Last time I was at a caucus, it was populated by ppl a LOT older than myself - with very different concerns.
Now what do we do since Romney (not that I supported him, I should clarify) apparently got "kicked" y'day?
According to what I've read, I still can't determine if the delegates that Romney HAD now need to support a different candidate, or if he's still viable, what with so many states LEFT to "primary" - can someone let me know about this?
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