Tomorrow three more states, Hawaii, Idaho and Utah, will cast votes in the race for the Democratic nomination. These states seem to have been forgotten by everyone except Kucinich.
Hawaii
According to CNN, 20 delegates are up for grabs in Hawaii's Democratic caucuses.
Hawaii's Democratic caucuses are open to all registered voters who are willing to declare themselves Democrats.
Idaho
According to CNN, 18 delegates are up for grabs in Idaho's Democratic caucuses.
Utah
According to CNN, 23 delegates are up for grabs in Utah's Democratic primary.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the Utah State Democratic Party is funding the primary, which is open to all Utah residents who are U.S. citizens and who will be 18 years old by the 2004 general election. Voters must publicly declare themselves to be participating as Democrats and that they will not participate in the presidential nominating process of any other party.
The New York Times reports that Kerry is expected to win all three of these contests. The Times article tries to explain the lack of interest in Tuesday's contests:
The neglect is due in part to the number of delegates at stake: only 61 (23 in Utah, 20 in Hawaii and 18 in Idaho), which look like a speed bump on the road to Pikes Peak compared with the 1,151 at stake on Super Tuesday, one week later.It is also due in part to the fact that none of these three is a so-called swing state, likely to become a general-election battleground. Utah and Idaho have not voted Democratic in a presidential election since Lyndon B. Johnson's victory in 1964, and Utah gave George W. Bush his largest majority in 2000. Hawaii has been just as reliably Democratic over the last three decades, with the exception of Ronald Reagan's re-election in 1984.
In addition, party leaders believe that Feb. 24 all but vanished from the campaign calendar because of a recent perception that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts had the nomination nearly sewn up.
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