So Fox News said last night that the results of the Washington State Republican caucuses were too close to call. Then they said that the vote counters were packing it in for the evening and were going home to go night-night. And I was perplexed.

This morning I went online to find out what happened, but there were still no results. So I did a little looking around on Google and came up with a gem of a Web site called WashingtonVoter.org. They have a little Frequently Asked Questions thing on the site that explains the various nomination processes currently in use by the State of Washington.  Here’s one of the items on this handy little FAQ:

Question: Can I go to a precinct caucus on February 9 AND vote in the presidential primary on February 19?

Answer: It is the parties’ right to decide how they will use the primary and the caucuses to apportion delegates to their nominating conventions. So long as voters who participate in a caucus affiliate with the same party on the primary ballot, they may take part in both processes.

Currently, the state Republican Party will use the presidential primary to apportion 19 of its 40 delegates to the national convention, and will use the caucus results at the state level to determine the allocation of 18 of its delegates. The remaining three delegates will be filled by party officials.

Currently, the state Democratic Party will not allocate any delegates to its national convention based on the results of the presidential primary. Delegates to its national convention will mostly be chosen through the caucus system, with a few delegate positions reserved for party officials.

Ah! Now it makes sense! NOT!

They have both caucuses (cauci?) AND primaries in Washington State. How novel!

And how utterly absurd.

But now I understand why the Republican bean counters called it a day and went home early last night. It’s because last night’s results don’t amount to a hill of beans (sorry) without the results yet to come on the 19th.

What a laughable and unnecessarily complicated state of affairs!

On second thought, let’s not go to Washington State.

It IS a silly place.

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