Wyoming began selecting presidential delegates on Saturday. But there is no statewide election

WASHINGTON: Although the South Carolina primary has been the focal point of the GOP presidential nomination battle for much of the past month, it isn’t the only contest on Saturday where Republicans will vote for a presidential nominee or where all-important delegates will be at stake. .

More than 1,800 miles away, state GOP officials in Wyoming will meet this summer to begin awarding the first of the state’s 29 delegates to the Republican National Convention, but the contest won’t be unlike the South Carolina primary or any other presidential contest. . So far this year.

Unlike some other states, Wyoming does not hold presidential primary elections where voters go to the polls or cast ballots by mail.

Instead, both state parties use the “caucus-convention” system, which is a multi-step process that begins with local meetings (usually at the precinct level), then to mid-level meetings, usually at the county or district level. She goes in. level (or sometimes both) and then ends with the state party convention.

At each level, participants elect delegates to attend the event at the next level; finally, somewhere at the national party convention, delegates are awarded to candidates and individuals are chosen to fill those positions. Is. The entire process may take several months.

Both Iowa and Nevada are famous for their presidential caucuses, and, while the Wyoming Republican process bears some structural similarities to other caucus systems, there are also some notable differences.

For starters, Wyoming Republicans don’t conduct a statewide presidential preference vote, at least not this year. In Iowa or Nevada, there is a statewide “winner” that is reported based on how participants in the precinct caucuses voted. Not so for Wyoming Republicans. The only presidential result reported from the Wyoming GOP’s caucus process is how many national convention delegates each presidential candidate won.

There are no tables or graphics with raw vote totals or vote percentages, as there are for other presidential nominating contests. The state party has held non-binding presidential elections or caucus votes in the past – Mitt Romney won the vote in 2012, receiving 39% of the more than 2,100 cast votes – but these had no impact on delegates.

Another important difference is that Wyoming Republicans do not hold all of their events on the same day. In Iowa, state Republicans convened precinct-level caucuses on the same day – January 15. This year, Wyoming’s 23 county-level Republican Party committees have held their precinct-level caucuses mostly on different days, with the first going on Feb. 2 and the last county going on Saturday.

Precinct caucuses were open to any registered Republican who would turn 18 by the November election. Those caucus-goers discussed issues of concern to them and then selected individuals to represent their area at county conventions, where participants would vote for a presidential candidate and the national convention would award delegates.

Each of the 23 counties has one national convention delegate at stake. The winner of the vote at a county convention wins that county’s lone delegate. Although these events are generally open to the public, the right to vote for president at county conventions is limited only to individuals who were elected in precinct caucuses.

And, like precinct caucuses, not all county conventions are scheduled for the same day. The first two county conventions will award their delegates Saturday in Campbell and Carbon counties. The rest will follow sometime in the next two weeks. One county, Platte, has not yet scheduled its convention, according to the state party’s public event calendar.

The county convention will award 23 of the state’s 29 national convention delegates. The remaining six delegates will be honored at the state party conference in April.

Here’s a summary of what to expect in Wyoming in the coming days:

Wyoming’s 23 counties will each hold a county GOP convention to award national convention delegates. The first county conference will be held on Saturday, with the remaining conferences taking place over the next two weeks.

Each county convention has one delegate at stake, for a total of 23 delegates. The Associated Press will report how many delegates each presidential candidate has won. There is no statewide presidential vote.

The remaining six state representatives will be awarded at the state convention in April.

Individuals elected in precinct caucuses held throughout the state in February will meet at county conventions and vote on which presidential candidate will win delegates from their county.

Disclaimer: This post has been automatically published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – The Associated Press)