Editorial: Democrats have one chance to cast nominating vote

| The New Mexican

2/1/2008 - 2/1/08

New Mexico's role in Super Tuesday remains a mystery to many — partly because it's so new: Feb. 5's Democratic presidential caucus is only our second. For all the efforts by the party to make it inviting, questions tend to outrun answers.

Most chagrined, it seems, are parents whose kids ask them about it — so to the rescue rides Conor Sánchez of The New Mexican's Generation Next teen pages. In this morning's paper, Sánchez writes about the part the youth of our state could play in choosing a presidential nominee. He also does a good job of telling all our readers what'll be happening Tuesday — and what it means.

For starters, it's not even a caucus, at least not the kind where legislators huddle together to plot strategies — nor the Iowa candidate-choosing kind, where folks also meet face to face.

Ours, for all practical purposes, is a primary election: There'll be 184 polling places around the state, each covering several precincts. The New Mexican will publish the locations Sunday. If you're a registered Democrat as of Jan. 4, you go there and make your paper-ballot choice for president. The list includes candidates who've dropped out — so to make your vote count, choose between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Your votes will decide who gets how many of 26 state delegates to the August national convention in Denver. Another 12 will go to the convention unpledged — appointed by the party according to a formula far too bizarre to explain here or in Sánchez' report. See our newspaper Sunday.

However Byzantine the procedure, Tuesday's event is Democrats' only chance to be part of the nominating process. Democratic presidential candidates won't be on the June 3 primary ballot. Republican contenders will be — whether or not their party's nomination has long been decided.

So if you're a Democrat and haven't voted early, as few did, get out and make your choice Tuesday — noon until 7 p.m.