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March 21, 2016

Election 2016: Voters In Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Washington And Utah Cast Ballots This Week

This week, voters from both parties go to the polls in Arizona and Utah (primaries will be held on Tuesday, March 22) while Democrats will vote in Idaho’s party caucus on Tuesday, March 22 and in party caucuses in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington on Saturday, March 26. 

To check to see if you are registered, click here. That link will take you to your state’s Secretary of State webpage, which will also have information about polling times and locations. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission also provides resources for individuals who want to check their registration status. Wondering when it will be your turn to go to the polls? Check out our Election 2016 calendar below.

  • March 22, 2016: Arizona and Utah primaries and Idaho Democratic caucus
  • March 26, 2016: Democratic caucuses in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington
  • April 5, 2016: Wisconsin primary
  • April 9, 2016: Wyoming Democratic caucus
  • April 19, 2016: New York primary
  • April 26, 2016: Primary elections in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island
  • May 3, 2016: Indiana primary
  • May 10, 2016: West Virginia primary and Nebraska Republican primary
  • May 17, 2016: Oregon primary and Kentucky Democratic primary
  • May 24, 2016: Washington Republican primary
  • June 7, 2016: Primary elections in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota and the North Dakota Democratic caucus
  • June 14, 2016: District of Columbia primary
  • July 18-21, 2016, Cleveland, OH: Republican National Convention
  • July 25-28, 2016, Philadelphia, PA: Democratic National Convention
  • November 8, 2016, Election day!

After primary/caucus season, MSCI will work with its members to set up voter registration events for industry employees. Stay tuned to Connecting the Dots in the coming weeks for more information. 

In the meantime, interested in learning which candidates have the most delegates? RealClearPolitics is keeping track. With nominating contests in three states decided, Hillary Clinton has 1,119 delegates and 467 superdelegates on the Democratic side while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has 813 delegates and 26 superdelegates. (The first Democrat to secure 2,387 delegates will win the nomination.) 

For Republicans, Donald Trump leads with 678 delegates. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has 423 and Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) has 143. (Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race last week, also has 164 delegates. Carly Fiorina and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky also each have one delegate, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) has four and Ben Carson has eight, but these three candidates also have suspended their campaigns.) A GOP candidate needs 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination. 

On the Republican side of the aisle, there is, of course, increasing debate about what will happen at the party’s convention in July if no candidate has a majority of the delegates, or only has a very slim majority. If there is a contested convention, what would happen to the delegates awarded to candidates (Rubio, Fiorina, Bush, Carson and Paul) who have already dropped out of the race? 

Well, there is no clear answer for this question either on the Republican side. Each state party’s rules determine how candidates’ delegates will vote at the convention (state delegations cast ballots for their favored nominee on the floor of the convention hall) and, due to unique state party processes, it is not currently possible to determine how all of these delegates will vote. For example, Iowa, which was the first state in the nation to hold a caucus, requires delegates to stay with their candidates through at least the first ballot at the convention while New Hampshire, which is home to the nation’s first primary, frees the delegates to vote for whomever they choose. South Carolina, the third state to vote this primary season, automatically reallocates delegates. 

Taking Sen. Rubio’s delegates, for example, the vast majority of them – about 100 – could vote immediately for whomever they want so long as Sen. Rubio released them to do so. Another dozen delegates would be automatically reallocated by their state parties and about 50 would have to stay with the senator through at least the first ballot at the convention but, on subsequent ballots, would be allowed to vote for whichever candidate they prefer. 

What all of these numbers mean: the Republican nominee might not be named until July. On the Democratic side, meanwhile, the national party sets rules for how delegates can vote if their candidate drops out. 

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