As you have been watching on KGMB9, we are in the a presidential election year. The two major political parties, Democratic and Republican, are selecting who will be representing them in the general election on Nov. 4, 2008. These candidates are selected at the Republican and Democratic national conventions by delegates selected at the state level. The Democratic National Convention will be held from Aug. 25-28 and the Republican National Convention will be held from Sept. 1-4. The delegates for the national conventions are chosen by each state by a caucus or a primary.

What is a Caucus?

A caucus is a meeting open to all registered voters of a political party and each party holds their caucus a little differently. Republican's hold their caucus by having everyone at the caucus place a vote for their selected candidate and a majority winner is named.

Democrats break the caucus participants into groups based on who they are supporting. If a group supporting a candidate is below a 'viability' threshold of 15%, the candidate is eliminated. The people in that group then can then move to another group that is still 'viable.' Debate and posturing are a part of the process as each group tries to pull more people to support their selected candidate.

The votes in each caucus are counted to determine how many delegates to a county convention each candidate will get. These county delegates then select delegates for their state convention, who in turn select delegates for the parties national conventions.

Both parties in Hawaii have caucuses. The Hawaii Republicans have their caucuses from Jan. 25 through Feb. 7, after which the Republicans will compile their votes and select delegates at the state convention, May 16-18, for their national convention. The Hawaii Democrats have their caucus on Feb. 19 and have their state convention from May 23-25.

What is a Primary?

The majority of states have primary elections to determine delegates for the national conventions. There are two types of primaries: open and closed.

In a closed primary, voters may vote only in the primary of the party in which they are registered. In an open primary, registered voters can vote in any party's primary, but only one.

Delegates pledge to vote the preference of their caucus or primary. However, they are not legally bound to do so. Candidates can remove delegates they feel may be disloyal and it is rare for a delegate to not vote for the candidate they have given their pledge.

How Many Delegates Does a Candidate Need?

Each party has a different number of delegates to their convention.

For the Democrats, there are 4,049 total delegates. Of that, 796 are superdelegates made up of elected officials and party officials. These superdelegates are not bound by primaries and caucuses. The Democrats also use a proportional system for each state, meaning each state divvies out candidates by percentage of the votes from the caucus or primary. The candidate needs 2,025 delegates to be named the presidential candidate for the Democrats.

On the Republican side, there are 2,380 delegates with 123 of them members of the Republican National Committee. The Republican party also allows states to use a 'winner-take-all' by state or congressional district or a proportional delegate distribution. The Hawaii Republican Caucus is closed. 1,191 delegates are needed to be the presidential candidate for the Republican party.