OLYMPIA — Tens of thousands of Democrats in Washington state will meet at schools, libraries and community centers at statewide caucuses this weekend to voice their preference for their party’s presidential nominee.
Party officials expect a strong showing at the caucuses that begin Saturday morning, even though the Democratic nomination process has lacked much of the drama of the Republican contest. Results are expected by the afternoon.
Washington has 118 delegates at stake, with 101 to be awarded proportionally based on the results of Saturday’s caucuses. The remaining 17 are technically unpledged party and elected leaders, though a majority of them — including Gov. Jay Inslee and the state’s congressional delegation — have already said they support front-runner Hillary Clinton.
The caucuses, which fall on the same day as Democratic caucuses in Alaska and Hawaii, come nearly a month after Super Tuesday. Delegate-rich New York, Pennsylvania and California are among more than 20 states that still have primaries or caucuses to hold.
“Whatever happens, Washington is not going to be a game changer,” said Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University.
Clinton has taken a strong lead in the delegate race, having won 1,223 pledged delegates so far in primaries and caucuses, according to The Associated Press’ count. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has won 920 delegates.
When factoring in superdelegates — party officials who can back any candidate they wish — Clinton holds a 1,690-946 lead. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.
The race has been competitive enough to draw the candidates to Washington state in the past week, with Sanders holding rallies in three cities Sunday, and Clinton and her family holding events as well. Sanders returned to the state Thursday for rallies in Spokane and Yakima, and another rally is set for Friday in Seattle.
“Washington has typically been treated as a cash machine for the campaigns and not much else for the last few campaign cycles,” independent pollster Stuart Elway said. “To have them here as campaigning candidates is bound to increase the interest in the whole process.”
Sanders has raised $2.6 million in the state, while Clinton has raised about $2 million.
Washington has both a presidential primary and a caucus system, but Democrats ignore the primary and use only the caucuses to allocate their delegates to candidates at the national convention. Republicans will award 44 Republican National Convention delegates based on the May 24 primary.
Fourteen will be awarded proportionally based on the statewide vote, and 30 will be allocated proportionally based on the results of the vote in each of the state’s 10 congressional districts. Republicans held precinct caucuses last month but mainly focused on party platform and electing delegates to county and legislative district conventions.
More than 90,000 people have registered for the Democratic caucuses as of Thursday morning, though it is not required to participate, state party spokesman Jamal Raad said. In addition, about 35,000 people voted in advance because of conflicts with work schedules, religious observances, illnesses, disabilities or military service, Raad said.
The party had a record 250,000 people turn out for the caucuses in 2008, when President Barack Obama handily beat Clinton.
Even if that number is reached again, it’s a fraction of the state’s 4 million registered voters. But Raad said the caucuses serve as both a party building and community building event.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to get folks motivated and ready for the big election,” he said. “This is more active participation.”
At a glance
A look at the Washington state Democratic caucuses
OLYMPIA — There are 118 Democratic delegates at stake in Washington, with 101 to be awarded proportionally based on the results of Saturday’s caucuses — with 67 allocated based on caucus results in each of the state’s 10 congressional districts, and the other 34 will be proportionally allocated based on congressional district results. The remaining 17 are technically unpledged party and elected leaders, though a majority of them — including Gov. Jay Inslee and the state’s Congressional delegation — have already said they support frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
How the delegates are allocated: 27,170 delegates will be elected Saturday to move on to the county and legislative district caucuses. Because Washington state has a proportional allocation system, a portion will support Clinton and a portion will support Sanders. The legislative district caucuses will be held April 17, and the county conventions will be held May 1. At that point, that 27,162 number will be whittled down to 1,400, likely reflecting the same proportional support of the larger overall number. Those 1,400 delegates will go to the congressional district caucuses. On May 21, at the congressional district caucuses, 67 delegates will be chosen to go to the Democratic National Convention, very likely representing the same ratio of Sanders-Clinton supporters as on the March 26 caucuses. At the state convention June 17-19, 34 additional delegates (pledged party leaders and elected officials, and at large delegates and alternates), will be chosen and bound based on the ratio of support determined at the May 21 congressional district caucuses.
How does the caucus work?Any registered voter can attend, but they must publicly attest that they are a member of the Democratic Party. There are about 7,000 precincts statewide, and each location [—] ranging from schools to churches to community centers [—] will have anywhere from five to 20 precincts at their site, according to state Democratic Party spokesman Jamal Raad. Caucuses start at 10 a.m. and usually take no longer than two hours. After the precincts gather and a captain is selected, the first tally of support is counted and announced. Caucus goers are then able to try and convince undecided voters or to sway others to their candidate of choice before a second tally is counted. The results of that second tally are used to allot delegates to each candidate, and each group of caucus goers choose the delegates to move on to the county and legislative district caucuses. There is also discussion of resolutions for the state party convention in June. Results from the caucuses are expected sometime Saturday afternoon.
What do Republicans do? Unlike Democrats, who are allocating all of their delegates from the caucuses, Republicans are using the statewide presidential primary May 24 to allocate all of theirs. Voters will have the option of voting for the Democratic candidates in that May 24 election, but their vote won’t count for anything other than a statewide straw poll. There will be 44 Republican delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer, 30 of whom will be allocated proportionally based on the results of the 10 congressional districts, and 14 to be awarded proportionally based on the results of the 24 statewide vote.
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