CNN.com only has the Washinton primary listed as being on Feb. 19. I thought there was a caucus today where delegates are actually being given. Am I wrong about this?
In regular primaries in Washington for statewide office, the ballots have both parties' candidates for nomination. The voter indicates the party whose primary he wishes to participate in on the ballot. Thus not only are his candidate choices secret, so is his party selection.
The national Democratic party does not like this, and has forced the Washington Democratic party to use caucuses to select their delegates. The claim is that they are concerned about Republicans and Greens and Libertarians tainting their primary, but it is really more about being control freaks. In addition, they want to be able to identify Democrat leaning voters so that they can contact them with their GOTV campaign in November, as well as their vote suppression efforts against Republican voters.
In an attempt to accomodate the Democrats' concerns, the ballot envelope contains an oath indicating that the voter did not participate in the primary or caucus of any other party (most Washington voters vote by mail). The ballots of those who took the oath will be counted separately from those who did.
The Washington Democratic party will ignore the votes in the presidential primary. The Republicans will use the votes in their presidential primary to select 51% of their delegates, with the other 49% based on caucuses.
Since most Washington voters vote by mail, many have already voted in the primary. Clallam County reported that over 10% of registered voters had returned their ballots by the first available day. There will be many times over voters participating in the primary as will participate in the caucuses.
