Get out and vote!

If you live in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, or Rhode Island, today's the day for your primary elections!

For the first time in a long time, the Texas primary will play a crucial role in deciding a party's candidate. By this time in election season, the nominees for each party have normally been decided, even if not officially. This year is a different story. With Obama and Clinton so close in delegates, Texas and Ohio are both very crucial.

Being a history major, politics have always fascinated me. This, along with politics always being discussed on Mom's side of the family when I was younger. My grandparents were very political and formed in me a sense of how important it is to be an active part of the system.

That being said, I offer the following information to my fellow Texans.

1) You can vote in either primary today, regardless of your normal party affiliation. You can go back to voting for your own party in the general election since both parties will be on the same ballot.

2) Unlike most states that either have normal elections or precinct conventions (caucuses), Texas does both. So, if you really want to support your candidate, it's important to be a part of the caucus, too.

For example, if a precinct has five delegate positions available, and 20% of the people there support Candidate A, while 80% support Candidate B, then Candidate A will get one delegate and Candidate B will get four. So, even if Candidate A won a majority of the precinct primary vote, Candidate B gained most of the delegates up for grabs at the caucus.

So, there it is in a nutshell. Go out, vote, then come home and watch the results come in. It should be an interesting night!