Can someone explain primaries to me?

[Heddi]

Okay I'm a total primary newbie. My first election to vote in was 2000 (what can I say---Clinton's first term came before I turned 18, and his second after I turned 18 but I was quite complacent then----not now!)

I live in Seattle, and I *think* i know what primaries are, but can someone set me straight?

Okay---this is what my understanding is:

All of the people who want to run for president apply to the state and get put on the primary ballot.

People in that state vote off the primary ballot for the people they want their state to represent at the Democratic National Convention.

Let's say Person X wins Washington, and Person Y wins New York.

At the DNC, Washington will send a representative of person X, and NY will send a representative of Person Y

And at the convention, they chose which candidate has the most support and make him the official Democratic Candidate who will then appear on the presidential ballot in 2004

Is that right?

Also, how do I find out when primaries are in Washington?

I'm a registered voter, but not a reg. Dem----do I have to register party affiliation to vote in the primaries?

[FlashHarry]

1. And what's the difference between a primary and a caucus?

[Heddi]

2. oh yeah! I forgot about Caucasuses (cauci??)

Gah! I *swear* I took Civics/Government in High School, but we just learned about the Constitution and UN---not about voting (although our teacher did bring in Voter Reg cards for students--that's how I got registered!!)

[demnan]

3. Primaries can be for any candidate

it's a runoff to see which of the candidates of a particular party will get the nomination for that party. You can have a Presidential Primary or a primary to choose the local dog catcher.

When there is a Presidential primary you are actually selecting delegates for the convention.

Now to find out the rest of the info for your state I suggest you "Google" Democratic Party of Washington State or something like that.

on edit:

Oh yeah maybe one is a caucus and one is a primary. I don't know either!

[SeattleDem]

4. March 2, 2004

for the presidential primary in Washington state:

http://www.vote.wa.gov/calendar/month.tpl

Right now, you do not have to register with a party in Washington. We have an "open" primary system, which means even though I am a Democrat, I could vote for a Republican in the primary. That is, you can vote strategically, trying to get the lamest Republican as the opponent and leaving the Dem choice to others. You only get one vote though, so you have to decide what "strategy" makes most sense.

However, there has been some debate whether or not this is constitutional, and it may change in the future. We may end up with a system like other states, where you can only vote in the primary according to the party to which you register. In those states, if you register "Independent", you basically have no say in the primary election.

[goobergunch]

5. Washington data

Caucuses will be held on 7 February 2004 and delegates are awarded based on presidential preference by congressional district as follows:

CD 1 (Inslee): 6
CD 2 (Larsen): 6
CD 3 (Baird): 5
CD 4 (Hastings): 4
CD 5 (Nethercutt): 5
CD 6 (Dicks): 5
CD 7 (McDermott): 7
CD 8 (Dunn): 6
CD 9 (Smith): 5
TOTAL DISTRICT DELEGATES: 49

The national convention delegates elected at the district level shall be allocated in proportion to the percentage of the caucus vote won in that district by each preference, except that preferences falling below a 15% threshold shall not be awarded any delegates or alternates. Within a district, if no presidential preference reaches a 15% threshold, the threshold shall be the percentage of the vote received in that district by the front-runner minus 10%.

Unpledged PLEOs are Democratic congressmen (Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, and Smith), Gov. Locke, members of the DNC from WA, and "Distinguished Party Leaders" (Tom Foley).

2 Unpledged Add-on Delegates will also be selected.

There are 10 Pledged PLEOs who are big city mayors and state-wide elected officials (to be given equal consideration); state legislative leaders, state legislators, and other state, county and local elected officials and party leaders apportioned on the same basis as the At-Large delegates.

Washington has 17 at-large delegates selected proportionally by caucuses in the same fashion as the district delegates.

For details, continue at http://www.wa-democrats.org/delegateselectionplan.pdf