Caucus Confusion

I spoke to quite a few friends this weekend who are registered Democrats in Washington state and who would like to cast votes for the Democratic presidential nomination. A few of them had already received their absentee ballots for the primary and were planning to send them in. They were shocked when I told them that the Washington State Democratic primary does not count.

Given the mixed messages that abound, how were they to know? I scoured my absentee ballot and it contained no mention of the fact that the primary is simply a beauty contest and its results will not be used for anything. Sam Reed, Washington’s Secretary of State, has an FAQ (PDF) that contains quite a bit of commentary on why political participation is important, Washington is the second-largest state in the west, the caucus system disenfranchises many voters, having a primary helps us get attention from the various campaigns that would otherwise pass us over, etc. Finally, the FAQ gets to the most important question (emphasis mine):

Q: How will the political parties use the results of the Presidential Primary?

Political parties retain the authority to decide if they will use the Presidential Primary to allocate delegates to the national nominating conventions. The political parties may also use caucus results, or a combination of primary results and caucus results.

The Republican Party used the results of the primary to allocate all of the Washington delegates in 1992, half of its delegates in 1996, and one third of its delegates in 2000. The State Republican Party has decided that it will use the 2008 Presidential Primary to allocate 51% of its delegates. The remaining 49% of the delegates will be allocated based on caucus results.

The Democratic Party has never used the results of the primary to allocate delegates. The State Democratic Party will only use caucuses to allocate delegates in 2008.

You’d think that this note would merit a bit more attention, rather than two sentences buried in a FAQ on a website that I’d imagine gets very little traffic.

The Washington State Democratic Party makes this a bit clearer, by warning voters about it on the front page of their website and pointing to the relevant part of their own FAQ:

Why is Washington State having Caucuses and a Primary? The Washington State Legislature was the body who voted to hold a primary. The means that the Washington State Democratic Party, which chooses how delegates are decided, had no participation in the decision to hold the primary, which will cost $9 to $10 million. The Washington State Democratic Party decided to choose their delegates through the Caucuses, as it always has. As a result, your vote for a Democratic candidate in the State Primary will not count toward delegate selection.

But again, I assume that an infinitesimal number of voters who want to place a vote in the primary even know that this site exists.

I’m not sure how I feel about the caucus system (February 9 will be my first caucus experience), and my gut feeling is that a primary with an absentee option would make it vastly easier for voters to participate.

But for now, this is what we have; so please help spread the word that:

• The Democratic primary does not count.
• Only results from the February 9 caucuses will be used to allocate delegates for the Democratic nomination.
• You can find out your caucus location here.