Democrats registered to vote in San Juan County are encouraged to begin the process of nominating Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or Martin O’Malley to be our next president by attending one of the Democratic Presidential Primary Precinct Caucuses at 10 a.m. on Sat. March 26 on San Juan Island (Friday Harbor High School), Orcas Island (Orcas Island Public School in Eastsound), Lopez Island (Lopez Island Public School), and Waldron Island (Waldron School).

These caucuses are the start of the process to select delegates from Washington State to the Democratic National Convention on July 25-28 in Philadelphia where the official Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates will be selected.

The primary purpose of the March 26 precinct caucuses is the election of up to approximately 105 delegates to the San Juan County Convention. At the precinct caucuses, each of the county’s 19 precincts will elect up to between once and 10 delegates. Exact numbers will be announced soon.

Any registered voter in San Juan County willing to declare that he/she is a Democrat is eligible to vote at the precinct caucuses. You can also vote if you are 17 but will become 18 at any time prior to the presidential election on Nov. 8.

Delegates elected at the precinct caucuses to the San Juan County Convention on May 1 in Friday Harbor will in turn elect a soon-to-be announced number of delegates to the 2nd Congressional District Caucus on May 21 at a location to be announced. At the 2nd Congressional District Caucus, 7 delegates will be elected to the Democratic National Convention on July 25-28 out of a total Washington State delegation of 119, as well as a to-be-determined number of delegates to the State Convention on June 18-19 in Tacoma.

Those San Juan County registered voters wanting to qualify for election as a delegate to the State Convention or the National Convention must attend and be elected at all three of these caucuses and convention.

The state of Washington conducts a presidential primary election on May 24 in which all parties are required to participate. However, the Washington State Democratic Party will not officially use the results of this primary to elect its delegates to the National Convention, instead relying exclusively on the results of the caucus and convention process described above.

We look forward to your participation in the March 26 presidential primary precinct caucuses to nominate our next president.

Call 378-1082 with any questions.

David Dehlendorf

San Juan County Democrats, chair