The Advance

Issue date: 2/16/08 Section: News

Media Credit: heidi feyerherm Caucus goers piled into a room to show their support for their candidate of choice.

Media Credit: heidi feyerherm Many signs such as this one were held high in support of the candidates at the Feb. 5 Democratic caucus.

The cold and snow did not prevent hundreds of registered Democrats from gathering at the Salina caucus on Feb. 5.

Kansas was just one of the 24 states holding a caucus or primary on this "Super Tuesday." All across the United States, there was record turnout of voters in this close race for the democratic Presidential nomination.

In Salina, there were 626 in attendance, many more than were anticipated. As the democrats piled into the Hageman Education Center, they encountered long lines to the registration tables with as much as a 45-minute wait. While waiting for all the voters to get into the room, the energy and excitement could be heard with the chanting back and forth among Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporters. The gathering room soon was overfilled, forcing organizers to create a second space and separate the Clinton supporters and the Obama supporters.

The last time Salina held a caucus, only 31 people were in attendance. In the past, the caucuses in Kansas were held later in the year and usually after the nominations have been determined.

Caucuses are held in states that choose not to fund a primary. The purpose of the caucus is to have all the voters gather with the group that is supporting the candidate of its choice. Representatives from each group are allowed to get up and speak about their candidate. Once the speeches are done, supporters have the chance to change groups if they want. There is a count of all the people in each of the groups, and then if any group does not have at least 15 percent of the people, it must disband and either leave or move to another group. Then, the voters are counted and the delegates are designated proportionally.

The Obama supporters outnumbered the Clinton supporters more than 3 to 1. The final count was 472 for Obama and 140 for Clinton. With a total of 9 delegates for this district, 7 will go to Obama and 2 to Clinton. The delegates will gather in Hays to cast their official votes and elect delegates for the National convention in August. The results in Salina reflected the outcome of the entire state. Obama ended up with more than 70 percent of the votes in the state.

The race between the two remains too close to determine who will prevail as the Democratic candidate for the 2008 Presidential election. There are still more caucuses to be held across the United States, but there may not be a definite winner until the official count of delegates at the National convention in August.

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