Washington: Only 33% will attend caucuses. 85% will attend primaries

I am not too sure what caucuses and primaries are, but...
based on those numbers, do primaries encourage democratic process better than caucuses?

Who are these people willing and able to spend time in caucuses? Who are these people who unanimously decide to go out and vote in the primaries?

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReportPopup.aspx?g=4f7f4146-bce7-43fc-9ca8-ad7bd6f68a86&q=45618

The primaries are much more convienient.

That is a gigantic turnout.

Elections in Washington State are now done by mail.

The law requires a primary so it is being held today but no delegates are at statke.

Delegates will be chosen by the caucuses. % 33 attendence at caucuses would be huge in excess of 300,000. I don't think that is realistic.

not go to caucuses if you care about having a voice.

Because we want to encourage a lot of voters to participate in the Democratic process.

but most people don't care enough to dedicate the time. And if you don't care enough, I don't feel bad for you if you don't have a say.

I went to my first caucus last month here in Nevada, and I wouldn't go willingly again. Besides the general lack of organization and confusion that seem rife in other areas (it took over an hour just to get people signed in because no one knew what to do), the system is rigged to exclude some people. About 5 people had to leave to go to work--they said they'd been told in advance that their votes would still count if they had to leave early, but were told at the caucus this wasn't true. Five people may not seem like many in the larger scope of things, but they were disenfranchised only because they didn't work "normal" hours, something that's pretty common in Las Vegas. After this fiasco, don't know that there's anything that would convince me to caucus again.

And then trying to convince you to change your vote to their candidate. Awful really, but there's a bit of fun in it.

expected turnouts for the caucuses. It's today where the delegates are decided, rather than the primary, so maybe that is what's rallying the people -- plus two excellent candidates from which to choose!

Oh, let me guess, the DNC. :eyes:

when and how to conduct a mechanism to select delegates to the national convention.

Memebers of a state's central committe are elected by Democrats who attend the state convention.

Delegates to the state convention are elected by county Democratic organizations.

You can join and influence this process, if you want to.

Most people, however, would rather complain on a message board instead of getting involved. That's just the way it is.

I'll leave that up to the Washingtonians to go after their state organizations. Thanks anyway. :hi:

Somebody yesterday said the Republicans split their delegates, 50% to caucus and 50% to primary. Democrats just caucus. At least that's what I understood them to say.