There is plenty of confusion in Kansas this year.  First off, Kansas could actually play a role in deciding the presidential nominees for both the Republicans and the Democrats.  Normally, our state doesn't matter much because the bigger states with many more delegates than Kansas end up deciding who the parties as a whole are going to nominate.

Kansas has had presidential primaries before in recent years, but a presidential caucus hasn't been held for at least 20 years.  Lots of people are wondering how a caucus differs from a primary.

A primary is pretty much an election that everyone is probably familiar with.  Voters go into the polls and cast the ballot for the candidate of their choice.  The results are tallied up and presented.

A caucus, however, is a little more complex.  At a caucus, everybody is gathered in a room.  Everybody who wants to vote for candidate 'A' goes into one corner.  Everyone who supports candidate 'B' goes into another corner.  Everyone who supports candidate 'C' gathers somewhere else... and so on, until everyone has decided who they want to support.

But that's not all!  After the initial selection process is complete, everyone who is in a corner that has less than 15% of the turnout has a choice.  They either move to support one of the other candidates who DOES have at least 15% of the turnout, or they go home and support nobody.

So that's it!  Now you know the difference between a primary and a caucus.  The results of the Democrat and Republican caucuses will dictate which presidential candidate the delegates will support at their respective national conventions in September.

Ok, you might think we're done... BUT WE'RE NOT!!!  The winner from either party doesn't necessarily win their respective delegates just because he/she won the caucus.  In order to win the Kansas delegates, a candidate must win the majority vote in 2 of the 4 Congressional Districts.  If that doesn't happen, then the delegates won't support anybody and Kansas will be reduced to having nothing to do with the Presidential election once again.

Have you got all this?  Whew... I'm tired now.

UPDATE:

Jon is correct.  To make the situation even further complicating, the Republican caucus is different than the Democrat caucus.  Republicans will only be able to cast one vote.  However, unlike a regular primary election, there will be what is called electioneering allowed.

So if you plan to go to the Republican caucus on Saturday, expect to find many people holding signs and trying to persuade you to vote for a candidate.  They will likely be passing out flyers and other literature about the specific candidate they support.

If you would like more information about each party's caucus, you can visit their respective websites at www.ksdp.org/ or www.ksgop.org/.