What is the difference between a caucus and primary, open or closed as in the link I provided?

Question

The State of Washington has Caucuses (Open) & Primary. What does that mean? What is Open and Closed referring to?

I noticed that the ability to change your "Party registration" has ended for 2 states and is ending this month for another, and 3 more are ending next month.

If you are Not registered with the right Party for the person you want to vote for, you will Not be able to vote for them in the Primary.

You can only vote for him in the main November '08 election IF your candidate gets on the ballot in the Republican or Democrat Primary - if your candidate is in one of these two Parties.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/primary-and-caucus-information/

Answer 1

Many states don't have caucuses anymore, which is a horrible shame. If people only knew the power the average person could wield at that level, they would never have voted to do away with the caucus system.

I believe that a closed caucus is the only fair way to conduct it. Why should one political party have the right to decide who the candidates will be in the opposing party?

A caucus is where delegates are chosen to represent their precincts at the county assembly. A closed caucus means that only members of a certain political party may vote, although anyone may attend.

At the county assembly, the delegates choose which candidate will represent the party. If more than one candidate for a particular office gets at least 30% of the delegate votes, then a primary is held to break the tie.

Once the winner is declared in the primary, that candidate will now represent the party in the general election against the opposing party's candidate. Once the general election is held, people only have a choices of the candidates that were given to them by others.

Get involved. Get others involved, or this mighty republic we've enjoyed for over 200 years will be no more.

Ok, ok. I'll get off my soapbox before I fall off.

Answer 2

Define Closed Primary

Answer 3

Definition Of Open Primary

Answer 4

I would not be able to tell you for sure without looking at the rules for the selection of GOP delegates in the State of Washington.

Generally speaking, however, there are three systems of selecting delegates to the national convention.

System # 1 is a pure caucus or convention system. In such a system, the selection process begins at the precinct or county level with a meeting in which eligible voters participate and select delegates to the next level. If there are more than two levels, the delegates at the second level select delegates to the third level and so-on until you get to the congressional district and state levels. At these levels delegates are elected to the national convention. Under this system, allocation of the delegates to the national convention are (in theory) based on the level of support for candidates in the caucuses. I say in theory because the Republican Party tends to treat the "straw vote" for the candidates as only partially binding with the delegation elected by all participants with those delegates pledged (but not required) to support the winner of the local caucus at the next level.

System #2 is a pure primary system. In this system, there are delegates associated with and pledged to the candidates on the ballot. As opposed to a meeting held at a specific time of the day, a primary is a regular election with voters free to go to the polling place at any time on election day to cast their ballot.

System #3 is a mixed system. Under this system, some or all of the delegates are allocated based on the results of the primary but a caucus process is used to select them. (This process is the one used by the Democrats in my state).

There are also other variations possible which is why you need to check your state rules.

An open primary (or open caucus) means that you do not need to be a registered Republican to participate. However, you will probably be required to complete a form declaring that you support the Republican Party and its principles (which could pose a challenge to supporters of Representative Paul given the differences between his platform and the 2004 Republican Platform). A closed primary means that you do need to be a registered Republican to participate.

EDIT

I could not find the rules on the Republican Party website. (For some reason state Republican Parties tend to be more secretive about delegate selection than state Democratic Parties.) So I went to the website for the Secretary of State of the State of Washington. According to the Secretary of State, the Republican Party in Washington splits the allocation of their delegation. Half of the delegates will be allocated based on the results of the caucuses and half will be allocated based on the results of the primary.

Answer 5

I think that primaries are the one that actually count. A caucus, I believe, is an informal counting. I could be wrong. I have heard the two used synonymously. Good question. I would like to know for sure myself.

Answer 6

Well, we better hurry up then. Don't you agree? Get the word out, call a news station or e-mail all of them to announce it. Ah Yeah.

Answer 7

They are the same thing, different name.