Fuse Washington

Washington State’s presidential caucus is this Saturday, February 9. It will be the first contest in the nation after Super Duper Tuesday, and most pundits think the race will still be anyone’s game.

In other words, you are about to come face-to-face with a potentially historic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to personally help pick the first major party nominee who’s not a white guy and help replace the worst president in US history.

This is a big deal. And because we're so dedicated to to helping you take advantage of this opportunity, we've taken the liberty of knocking off your possible excuses for not going. Just click your excuse below.

Saturday, February 9. Doors open by 1:00 PM, and delegate selection starts at 1:30 PM. The whole process will take about an hour or hour and a half.

The Washington State Democrats have a handy caucus finder on their website. Just click here to find your caucus.

It’s just like Iowa! A caucus is a meeting of neighbors who come together to support their candidate. There will be more than 6,000 meetings across the state in schools, church basements, and grange halls. When you sign in, you declare which candidate you’re supporting. Then you have the chance to talk to your neighbors about the race and try to win new supporters over to your side. Finally, a final vote will be taken of how many people are supporting which candidate. Those counts will be used to assign delegates to the legislative district caucus, then the congressional district caucus, and finally to the Democratic National Convention.

Learn more about the caucus from the Washington State Democrats.

Sorry to break it to you, but Washington's Democratic Presidential Primary is 100% meaningless – it’s an “advisory vote.” Delegates at the national convention will be decided solely by the results of the caucus. (Although depending on where you live, there may be school levy or important issues on the same ballot, so make sure to vote!)

No problem. You can register to vote right at your caucus.

You don’t have an hour and a half to choose to leader of the free world? That’s OK. Once you sign in with your choice, your vote will be counted toward the allocation of delegates.

Bring the kids with you! Anyone can attend the caucus (although you have to be 18 years old by election day to particpate). Then you can make them write a paper on the democratic process.

For these reasons and only these reasons, you can vote by absentee, BUT you have to submit a form to the State Party by tomorrow. You can download the form here:

Surrogate Affidavit Form

You could become an official delegate for your candidate on the local, county, and state level, and even at the National Convention in Denver. Learn how at:

Delegate Plan

One great thing about caucusing instead of voting is that you don’t have to know. You can sign in as undecided, talk with your neighbors about which candidate they’re supporting, and see who makes the most persuasive case.

Wait, you don't spend every waking second obsessing about every detail of the presidential race? It's ok. You can still catch up:

Barack Obama
National site: http://www.barackobama.com
Washington for Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/wahome

Hillary Clinton
National site: http://www.hillaryclinton.com

Hey, Fuse is a non-partisan organization. And we hear the Republicans are trying to nominate someone for president too! You can learn more here.

Great! Now invite 5 friends to join you!

Questions? Comments? Let us know!