Two parties, two processes

Watching the presidential primaries, are you getting a little confused, such as: How come Iowa had caucuses, and New Hampshire had a ballot process?

After contacting various elections offices in Washington, the following information was confirmed: Following the 2012 presidential election, the Democratic and Republican Parties agreed that the parties in each state would create their own mechanism for deciding their preferred candidate for president. That is why you will see no continuity in how each state determines the candidate it prefers and how delegates support candidates at their party’s national convention.

If you watched the Iowa caucus – live on C-SPAN – you would have seen that two parties within the same state conducted their processes differently.

In Washington, the Democratic Party has decided that it will only consider results from their party caucuses taking place on March 26. They will not consider votes from a primary ballot. The state Democratic Party must receive a special form by March 18 from Democrats who want their vote to count, but are “unable to attend” their precinct caucus.

Washington’s Republican Party has a different process.

Holly O’Connell

Colville