Florida has their delegates stripped because they tried to hold their primary earlier than the party said they could. I think the Republicans also penalized them, but only by half.
You cannot register in both parties, but in some states you can register and vote as an independent for whomever you want.
BBC and Sky are really trying to explain it as they go. Lots of US talking heads. The BBC coverage is mostly coming from a studio in Washington so they have access to a lot of US political experts/analysts.
A primary is a vote at a poll like the general election. A caucus is an event at which you must openly announce your support for a candidate and gather in groups with your fellow supporters.
For Democrats, delegates are awarded to states based on the numbers of Democrats there. They are awarded proportionally by Congressional district, and some additional at-large ones proportionally by the overall vote in that state. So they do not necessarily correlate with the overall popular vote in a state. Someone else can explain the Republican system, I’m sure.
States vary on whether they require party registration for participation.
New Mexico (and no, I didn’t vote today because when I registered 8 years ago I didn’t state a party and didn’t get around to declaring myself a Democrat in time for today) is called a caucus, but since it’s actually a secret ballot it’s more of a firehouse primary. So they will be able to call New Mexico tonight and if it goes to Obama that could be a great indicator for him due to the large Hispanic vote.
I thought the same thing…I was just about to yell “Bingo!” Maybe the Republicans are turning into self-parodies. I mean, if I were Beth Meyers, I would have to practice that sentence about 30 times before I could get through it without cracking up.
I’m loving it so far. Everybody’s getting some action. First CNN calls Tennessee for Clinton, then Obama, now Clinton again. Maybe they should just wait until they count more than 1% of the ballots, ya think?
This site gives to me the impression (at 5:30 PST) that in those states that have reported any percentage of votes, in most of those states, the great majority of the votes are going to Clinton.
But we’re talking about states in which only, say, 3% of precincts have reported.
But still, the results seem fairly consistent so far.
Yea, but check the exit polls. Obama leads in a fair number of them, or at the very least, they are pretty much equal. In one state it was 50 something Clinton, 20 Obama. A minute later Obama was leading. We’ll see.
Obama is getting trashed in Alabama! ::refresh:: Obama is now trashing Clinton in Alabama. Well, my young heart can’t take this, I’m going out for a smoke.
As I’m sitting here flipping between the channels hitting refresh on the browsers, is it wrong of me to be feeling as anxious as I am right now? It looks like Clinton is winning by alot in most of the states shown so far. This is going to change right?
Please someone reassure me. I’m not entirely liking what I’m seeing so far.