Friday, February 22, 2008

A Primary AND a Caucus

Yes, that's right, both kinds. It's weird and baffling, but here in Texas they have both, and this time around you have to do a Texas Two-Step if you care about the result of the election.

[Reference link] It's called a Precinct Convention, and when you vote early, they should ask you if you want to attend it. The process is different for each Party, and if you want to know all the details, click the provided link.

They do it after the polls close, and you will have to go to your own precinct. Early-voting election workers can tell you where yours is. The meeting time for Democrats is 7:15 pm.
Democrats: The Process
On the Democratic side, Texas has a total of 228 delegates, which will be chosen this way: 126 delegates will be chosen proportionately according to the primary vote, 67 delegates will be chosen by the caucus process, and 35 delegates will be "Super Delegates" -- members of Congress, DNC representatives, and the top two state party officials. The caucus process begins at the precinct conventions and is completed at the Texas Democratic State Convention, with delegates chosen from each state senatorial district based on the district's number of Democratic votes tallied in the 2006 race for governor and the 2004 vote for president. Travis County will choose a total of eight delegates on the Democratic side.

The bottom line for everyone is, if you want to have an impact, vote for your preference for president in the primary. For Democrats, if you want to have an even further impact on the race, attend your precinct convention and caucus for your choice.
...and THEN... there are the County and State Conventions:
Democrats: County & State Conventions
Travis County Democrats will meet Saturday, Mar. 29 at the Travis County Expo Center Arena. The Texas Democratic Party will meet June 6-7 in Austin at the Austin Convention Center.

Hector Nieto with the Texas Democratic Party, said obviously the party is expecting record turnout, since Texas may well decide the presidential contest on their side.
This is all new to us, since the last time around when a President was being elected, Kerry already had it pretty much sewn up so there was really no point in getting involved in the rest of the hubbub. This time, we've got a close race so these events could make a huge difference!

2 comments:

Freida Bee said...

Oh, I appreciate all the good info here. I am going to early vote next week and shall ask. I was also a Kucinich suporter. It's less clear to me now, thought Obama is they way I'm leaning, Austin always goes liberal (is that with Obama?), and it will be interesting to see the way the whole state goes.

I am so used to my vote not meaning crap, that this is rather exciting. (Ok, well slightly.)

Blueberry said...

Both candidates are left-of-center, not sure which is really more liberal, but I would give Obama the edge. Ron Paul is going to skew the Austin results like crazy. We are making our little bets on percentages here at the Oasis homestead.