The Texas Primary-Caucus System

Even by Byzantine standards, Texas' system is so convoluted as to be larger than life.

Texas has 228 delegates. 126 will be chosen proportionately to the primary vote, BUT the votes are weighted more towards those districts with a large Democratic turnout in the prior two elections. READ: the more Democratic votes in 2004 and 2006, the more proportional delegates. That is, Houston, Dallas and Austin. In the primary, your vote is, in essence, ¾ of a full vote. The polls close at 7 p.m.

Then, there is a caucus at the same polling place, at 7:15 p.m., where 67 delegates will be chosen. This is the standard caucus system where people pick a candidate and then politic one another if any candidate has less than 15% of the vote.

In addition, there are 35 SuperDelegates. 20 have been chosen, 6 will be chosen at the State caucus (weeks after March 4^th). To date -- Texas Supers who have not yet endorsed (8): Brooks, Crutchfeld, Al Edwards, Jaime Gonzalez, Johnson, Lampson, Patrick, Richie, and Rodriguez. 13 have endorsed Clinton (Cuellar, Jackson-Lee, Lovell, Thompson, Hinojosa, Reyes, Ortiz, Green, Flores, Holmes, Hurdt, Slagle and Wright (yes, that Jim Wright)). 6 have endorses Obama: Johnson, Chet Edwards, Green, Doggett, Charlie Gonzalez, and Mercado).

YES! You can vote twice. And your vote will count twice. If you live in West Texas, or any other part of Texas where there was low Democratic turnout in the past two election cycles, your vote actually counts more (as a percentage of the vote in that precinct) than someone who votes in Houston, Dallas, or Austin, although the Democratic precincts carry more weight in the overall tally.

In answer to the question: why would Texas do this? It was set up so that the Party elite could have as much pull as possible -- they WILL be at the caucuses. And you can be, too, if you have registered by 4 February.