What Time Will Wyoming's Caucus End?

Before New York holds its crucial primary on April 19, Wyoming Democrats will head to the polls to participate in their caucuses. The complete lack of polling in the state makes it hard to predict what the outcome will be, but if you’re planning on casting your vote, you probably have more pressing questions on your mind — namely, when do the Wyoming caucuses end?

There’s actually no set end time for the caucuses. This is due to the quirky and often lengthy caucus format, which requires voters to show up, make their candidate preference clear, debate with the rest of the voters, take a vote, debate some more, and so on. It’s a multi-step process, and the duration of any given caucus depends in large part on the personalities, political beliefs, rhetorical ability, and general patience of the people who happen to attend.

On the other hand, if your question is, “What’s the latest I can show up to the caucus and still get to participate” as a state delegate, that’s easy: 11 a.m. Anybody who’s in line by 11 will be allowed to join in on the fun, and anyone who isn’t won’t. So, if you’re a Wyoming Democrat who wants to take part in the democratic process, check here to find your local caucus site.

It’s next to impossible to guess how Wyoming will vote on Saturday, because there hasn’t been a single poll of the state’s Democrats this cycle. That said, Bernie Sanders has reason to be cautiously optimistic about his odds. He generally does better in caucuses and states with high white populations than primaries or ethnically diverse states, and Wisconsin is a heavily white caucus state. If history is any guide, Sanders is the front-runner in Wyoming.

Then again, it would be foolish to take anything for granted, as we’ve learned time and again this cycle. Iowa, after all, is also a caucus state populated mainly by white people, and it narrowly went for Hillary Clinton when it voted in February. Clinton could conceivably nab Wyoming, too.

But the odds are against it, and I mean that in the most literal sense possible. The betting markets give Sanders a 97 percent chance of defeating Clinton in the Wyoming caucuses. That’s not an assurance of anything, of course, because people often make bad bets, but it’s the closest thing that exists to an actual poll of the state.

How long you'll be caucusing for really depends on how long others plan on debating the candidates, so we'll just have to see how close of a race it really is.