learning

I used to have a lot of questions about the primaries etc., but I found a good place with answers: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/

You can go here for some basic information which I shamefully needed.  Click on 1 "Primaries and Caucuses" for a neat map of the US that shows who votes where and when month by month.  And I found out the difference between caucuses and primaries.  I'm so glad I feel like sharing.  In a primary, anyone can vote: you don't have to be registered in a party.  A caucus is when only those registered to a specific party vote for the candidate they want.  What I am still confused about is how a state can have both.  Washington has already had their caucuses, but they will have their primaries next week.  Why don't they just have them all the same? I don't know how the votes are apportioned out.  Too confusing.  Click on 2 to find out when the conventions are.  Click on 3 to learn about the Electoral College...that's for another post. 

When you click here you can look state by state to see the results and counts etc. Lots of confusing numbers.  I'm trying to sort out the basic stuff to esplain it to my kids, but I just can't figure out what the simple figure is.  I guess the simple thing would be to say which candidate won which state, but I know that different states get different number of votes, and in some states the winner takes all, and in other states the winner only takes a percentage of the votes equivalent to what they won.  Sheesh that's confusing if you want to try to count up the votes yourself.  So, I guess we won't do that.