Washakie County Democrats favor Clinton

WORLAND – Wyoming Democrats met Saturday across the state to participate in county caucuses, with Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont-D) gaining the popular vote with 55.7 percent and 156 votes, over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with 44.3 percent of and 124 votes across 23 counties.

In Washakie County, caucus Democrats nominated Clinton with a total of 26 votes in favor, 21 votes for Sanders, and an additional 11 absentee votes for Clinton. Of the three available county delegates to represent the candidates at the state convention, Clinton gained two while Sanders earned one.

Although Sanders won the state by popular vote, state election rules awarded both Clinton and Sanders seven delegates apiece. According to the Associated Press, under the Democratic Party's system, delegates are divided among the candidates proportionate to the vote. The winner does not take all the delegates, and the loser still earns delegates.

Based on the 56-44 percentages, simple math when applied to all 14 delegates together has the split being 8-6 for Sanders.

However, state party Executive Director Aimee Van Cleave explained to the AP that the math isn't applied to the 14. Rather, the 14 are broken up into three separate categories of delegates, all figured separately when the math to divide the delegates is done. This results in delegate categories with fractions that must be rounded up or down. In this case, Clinton's 44 percent was just enough to make a difference to keep one delegate from going to Sanders.

Clinton had already secured four dedicated "super delegates" bringing her Wyoming total to 11 on Saturday evening.

The four super delegate votes are not bound to anyone and can vote for any candidate they want at the national convention. These four will have to ultimately decide individually whether the statewide caucus vote that favored Sanders will usurp that earlier pledge to Clinton, according to the AP.

At the Washakie County gathering on Saturday, held at the Washakie County Library in Worland, registered Democrats were allowed three minutes to argue for their candidate of choice, before final voting.

The 2016 State Democratic Convention and Nellie Taylor Ross Gala will be May 28, 2016, in Cheyenne, at Little America.

County delegates will then elect delegates to the national convention in Philadelphia, set a platform, and update state party bylaws.