No esperéis resultados en Missouri

El voto de preferencia presidencial, no vinculante, ya se clebró en febrero y lo ganó Santorum. Hoy sólo empieza el proceso de selección de delegados a nivel de condados.

Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Missouri already held a non-binding beauty contest primary, which was won easily by Rick Santorum, and so the talk this week was about how Santorum should steamroll to victory on Saturday in the GOP caucuses in the Show Me State.

But, there won't be any results to announce.

Missouri's schedule is fairly typical of a number of caucus states, one reason that Ron Paul supporters have long said that delegate estimates from states like Iowa are not to be believed, as they argue their persistence in these extra rounds of GOP gatherings will result in more delegates for their candidate.

What happens on Saturday is that county caucuses in Missouri will elect people to go to the Congressional District Caucuses - on April 21; those caucuses will then elect 24 of the state's 52 delegates.

Then in early June, the rest of Missouri's delegates will be elected at the state GOP convention.

(...) The difference between Iowa and Missouri in this instance is that Iowa holds a "straw poll" in January at their caucuses - Missouri officials say there will be no such tally this weekend, so you won't see any results on delegates in Missouri until June.

All of that may be one reason why caucuses have gotten a bad rap again this election season - they seem cumbersome and confusing.

So, while you wait this weekend for results from Puerto Rico on Sunday, don't worry when you don't see anything from Missouri - there won't be any results until at least late April.