Democratic caucus Saturday

The Hot Springs County Democratic Caucus will be begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 9 at the Hot Springs County Library meeting room. Doors will open at 10 a.m.

Howie Samelson, the temporary caucus chairman, said there are 278 registered democrats in Hot Springs County, which makes up about 10 percent of registered voters in the county.

"I've never done anything at this level politically before," he said. "I'm doing this because there is a process that needs to be followed and there was no one there to lead that process."

At the democratic caucus on Saturday, those who registered as democrats in Hot Springs County on or before March 25 will be eligible to participate and choose the candidate they support for president.

"It's important for the democratic process and to support the candidate that you feel would be best for the United States presidency," Samelson said.

Participants can choose one of the democratic presidential candidates - Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton or Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente - or choose to be undecided or uncommitted to a particular candidate.

Samelson said Hot Springs County will elect two delegates to attend the Wyoming Democratic Convention on May 28 in Cheyenne. Those delegates may or may not then be elected to go to the Democratic National Convention July 25-28 in Philadelphia, Pa.

There will be a lot of open discussion and then people will physically move into groups to support their candidate of choice, Samelson said.

"If any group gets less than 15 percent of the participating vote, a new vote will be called, eliminating the group that had less than 15 percent," he said.

Based on these groups, two delegates will be chosen as well as two alternates to represent candidates chosen by Hot Springs County at the Wyoming Democratic Convention.

Samelson said it is important to know that once someone is counted, they cannot change their mind. When someone commits to a candidate, they are committed. They also must stay for the duration of the caucus process or their vote will not count.

"We will figure out what the two delegates are going to do and hopefully form an organization," he said. "The other thing I'm going to try to do is get the group to decide whether or not they want to have a real county committee. If the people want that, I'll work with the state to develop a Hot Springs County Democratic Committee."

The committee would be an organized group to promote planks for the party, Samelson said.