Today is Election Day in Washington State--kind of.
The Republican primary is all but done, with Donald Trump being the last remaining candidate in the race, and the due to a particular odd quirk in Washington, the Democrats' election today doesn't actually count. All of the delegates were awarded at a convention months ago, and the state Democratic party just ignores the results of the primary.
As it turns out, this is hardly the only bizarre happening in the primary season. On HBO's "Last Week Tonight," John Oliver broke down the strange goings-on across the country--in particular, Nevada's caucus and convention, Washington's entire process, and the Superdelegate system, among others.
Watch here: (language warning)
He's right. The whole process is absolutely absurd and there needs to be some streamlining of rules across the country. I'm inclined to agree with Oliver's suggestion to flood party leaders with letters on Groundhog Day--but it's highly unlikely that anything major will be changed by the time the 2020 election rolls around. After all, look at Maine: after the GOP's nightmare caucus in 2012, Democrats pooh-poohed any effort to revert to a primary. It took an embarrassing, highly-publicized breakdown of the caucus system on the Democratic side in 2016 to finally spur lawmakers into change for 2020.
Still, for the time being, enjoy Oliver's amusing rant and laugh at how crazy all of this is.
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