By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
On Saturday, politically minded citizens will gather for the 2016 Kansas presidential caucuses. Here is what you need to know to participate in either the Republican Party or Democratic Party caucuses:
DEMOCRATIC PARTY CAUCUS
Event details:
The 40th Kansas Senate District Democratic Caucus, covering most of northwest Kansas, will take place at 3 p.m. at the American Legion Post 173, 1035 Canterbury, Hays. The state is broken into 47 districts for the caucus, generally matching state senate districts.
Registration begins at 1 p.m.
How it works:
“All attendees must register from 1:00-3:00 p.m.. Everyone must be in line by 3:00 p.m. in order to participate,” according the Kansas Democratic Party website. “Eligible caucus goers divide to form Presidential preference groups. If a preference group does not have enough people to be considered ‘viable,’ 15 percent of total caucus goers, eligible attendees will have an opportunity to join another preference group or acquire people into their group to become viable. Delegates are then awarded to the preference groups based on their size.”
“Any person who is eligible to vote in state of Kansas and who will be 18 years old on Election Day, November 8, 2016, may participate in the Kansas caucuses. These individuals must reside in the Senate District in which they wish to participate, and they must be registered as a Democrat. Voter registration and party registration is available on the day of the caucus.”
The choices:
- Bernie Sanders
- Rocky De La Fuente
- Hillary Clinton
- Martin O’Malley (Campaign was suspended on Feb. 1)
The stakes:
To win the nomination for the Democratic Party, a candidate must procure 2,383 delegates of the 4,051 total. Kansas has 33 delegates to be chosen by the Caucus goers and four additional superdelegates.
Superdelegates consist of elected officials and party leaders who choose who to support outside of the caucus process.
Louisiana and Nebraska also hold Democratic Party delegate contests Saturday. At the end of Saturday, 1,130 Democratic delegates will be decided across the nation.
Current totals:
- Clinton has 1,034 pledged delegates; 576 from election processes and 457 superdelegates.
- Sanders has 408 pledged delegates; 386 from election processes and 22 superdelegates.
REPUBLICAN PARTY CAUCUS
Event details:
The Republican Caucus for the counties of Ellis and Rooks will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Hays VFW, 2106 Vine. The Republican Caucus is split by county throughout the state, with some counties grouping into groups of two or three. Johnson and Leavenworth counties have multiple sites.
How it works:
The Chair of the county central committee of the Caucus Chair opens the Caucus by opening the floor to the representative of each campaign for a discussion of positions on issues for no more than 10 minutes. The Chair will then allow ballots to be cast, with each voter being allowed one vote. Ballots can be cast anytime during the Caucus. Any Republican registered to the Party prior to Feb. 4, 2016 is eligible to participate.
Delegates are allocated by Congressional District and candidates with less than ten percent of the vote will not receive delegates.
The choices:
- Jeb Bush (Campaign was suspended on Feb. 20)
- Ben Carson
- Ted Cruz
- Carly Fiorina (Campaign was suspended on Feb. 10)
- John Kasich
- Marco Rubio
- Donald Trump
- Uncommitted
The stakes:
To win the nomination for the Republican Party a candidate must procure 1,237 delegates of the 2,472 total. Kansas has 40 delegates.
Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine also hold Republican Party delegate contests on Saturday. At the end of Saturday 883 Republican delegates will be decided across the nation.
Current totals:
- Trump has 319 pledged delegates.
- Cruz has 226 pledged delegates.
- Rubio has 110 pledged delegates.
- Kasich has 25 pledged delegates.
- Carson has eight pledged delegates.