It's simpler to just declare McCain the winner in Washington

[tongodeon]

So this is interesting. Saturday was the Washington, Kansas, and Louisiana state Republican primaries. McCain lost handily in the eastern states: Louisiana and Kansas. Polls closed in Washington and the votes started getting counted. McCain and Hucabee traded spots as the leader and with 87% of the precincts reporting in... nothing happened.

Comments

[mister_borogove]

Holy crap. The people running the caucus don't understand how caucuses work?

[rwx]

they do, it's just wacky. see my comment. the problem is that it isn't determined.

[delia_deville]

The thinking seems about right.

Same idea, different Washington.

[rwx]

yeah, most people are surprised enough to find out we have a republican party in this state, let alone that it has both a primary and a caucus.

[rwx]

The scary thing is that Snohomish county is probably right. Due to the way the republican primaries work, they really are voting for delegates to the state caucus and not for the candidate directly -- republican delegates aren't bound to vote for particular candidates at the state convention.

I think the state republican chairman's math about why he called it is pretty convincing, but it's all pretty wacky. at least the primary in Washington will be done by professionals and will probably be done right.

Anyway, in conclusion, there is no actual way to tell who will eventually get the votes from the republican caucus until the state convention. That's the real underlying issue -- any attempt to report results are making assumptions that the delegates will actually carry through on their initial opinions.

[mister_borogove]

That's, uh, arcane.

[tongodeon]

Voter disenfranchisement is wrong no matter who does it. Fraud is wrong no matter who does it. I don't want to see anyone mistreated, including my political enemies.

Now if the WSRP revises their primary regulations to say "we're going to hold a farcical, masturbatory exercise before nominating our candidates in private, regardless of the vote count or whether we even choose to complete one" then you're right - it's their primary and they can make the rules however they want. But I can't condone their actions if they're violating their own rules and misleading their own constituents.

[tongodeon]

it's not like the WSRP caucus is an actual election for public office

The WSRP caucus elects delegates for the Republican National Convention. I don't want to get into a semantic argument but I'd say those publicly elected delegates are "public officials".

Would you get your nose out of joint if the secretary of the IEEE 802 working group pulled a similar move to prevent an accurate count of membership votes on a letter ballot?

I would. I might not have the legal grounds to do so any more than I'd have the legal grounds to contest a stolen Colombian election, but I feel strongly that transparency, accountability, and procedural standards are important. Procedural standards, transparency, and accountability are what keeps everyone honest.