Republicans around Snohomish County will hold precinct caucuses Saturday. Republicans at those caucuses will choose delegates to the county Republican convention and will discuss issues for the county, state and national Republican Party platforms.
Republicans throughout Washington state are holding similar caucuses Saturday.
To participate, someone must be a registered voter, must sign a party declaration that he or she will not participate in the nominating process of any other political party and that he or she understands that his or her caucus participation is a matter of public record.
Caucuses begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, with registration at 9 a.m. Voters can pre-register at this site:
In most areas of South Snohomish County and in many other places around Washington the Republicans hold “pooled” caucuses, in which many precincts gather in the same place, many at Brier Terrace Middle School, many at College Place Middle School and many others at Mountlake Terrace Elementary School.
Voters can find out where a particular precinct holds its caucus by going to this site:
http://www.snocogop.com/pdf/Caucus%20location%20for%20PUBLICATION.pdf
Any voter can find his or her precinct by going to this site
https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/myvote/
and entering his or her name and birth date.
Delegates selected at the precinct caucuses go to the Snohomish County Republican convention April 9. The County Republican convention selects delegates to the state convention May 19-21 in Pasco. Delegates to the state convention elect delegates to the national nominating convention July 19-21 in Cleveland.
Washington’s presidential votes at the Republican national convention, which will be allocated at the May 24 Washington presidential primary, must support the candidates that the voters in their congressional districts choose in the primary. That requirement applies only first convention ballot. If the nominating process for president at the national convention goes beyond one ballot, something that hasn’t happened since 1976, delegates will be free to vote as they choose.
Washington’s 44 votes at the Republican national nominating convention are allocated so that three follow the vote in each of the state’s 10 congressional districts the others are determined by the statewide vote.
Snohomish County’s state committeeman, Randy Hayden of Edmonds, said this Tuesday: “Unlike the Democrats we will let the voters decide at the polls and will try not to let it be controlled by the 1 percent that shows up to the Caucus.”
Snohomish County’s caucus and convention chairwoman, Olga Farnam, also the Snohomish County State committeewoman said that the caucuses are important for reasons beyond the presidential nomination:
“First of all caucuses are a great way to build the grassroots and to get people involved in the political process from the bottom up. It’s amazing to me how involved the process is and the general public has not idea what it takes to pick a nominee. The caucus is where we start focusing on the platform and where we begin the process of electing our delegates to the County, State and National Conventions.”
Washington Democrats do not recognize results of the May presidential primary. Rather, Democrats use the March 26 precinct caucuses followed by legislative district, county, congressional district and state events.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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