Don’t forget to go to your Precinct Caucus on March 2

If you care about who runs your country, if you are curious about what positions your party's candidate is taking, or if you want to know what your neighbors are thinking, the precinct caucus is the place to begin. If you are eligible to vote on Election Day, you have the opportunity to endorse candidates and start drafting your party's platforms at the precinct caucuses on Tuesday, March 2, at 7 p.m. You can call your county auditor as of February 11 to find out where your precinct caucus will be held (www.sos.state.mn.us/weblinkcounty.html or call 1-877-600-VOTE).

The agenda of the precinct caucuses is fairly simple. When you arrive, you sign in and vote for which of your party's candidates you intend to support on Election Day. You can vote uncommitted. You will then discuss candidates, platforms and delegates. The delegates are people from your neighborhood who will proceed to the county convention and represent your neighborhood's opinions. Anyone can be a delegate as long as they receive a certain number of votes at the precinct caucus. If your precinct has 100 people showing up and is entitled to 10 delegates and 10 alternates, then it would take 10 people to elect one delegate and one alternate. The number of delegates is determined by how many people in your precinct voted for your party in the last election. Normally, a walking sub-caucus will allow people to break into small groups to elect delegates. Otherwise, if 100 people showed up and 51 of them supported John Kerry, then he could get all 10 delegates if the caucus didn't sub-caucus. If out of the 100 people who showed up, 51 supported Kerry, 20 supported Dean, 10 supported Edwards, 10 supported Clark and 9 supported Kucinich, then, Kerry would get 5 delegates and alternates, Dean would get 2, Edwards would get 1 and Clark would get 1. Kucinich would have to convince one of the Kerry caucus members to switch to Kucinich in order to become viable. If they couldn't, then, that caucus would have no delegates. Perhaps they could offer the Kerry camp the alternate if one of their people joined the Kucinich group and made them viable. At the legislative district convention, the precinct delegates will vote for a new set of delegates to represent them at the state convention, and these state delegates will elect national delegates who will go to the national convention and endorse a candidate for President.

The media is constantly proving itself to be less and less "fair and balanced" (check out www.moveon.org/cbs/ad). Where do you go for information? Do you go to your nightly news? How about the New York Times? Whom do you trust? Do you trust your neighbors? Chances are at least a few of them have been doing their homework on the election. They might have even had a chance to meet with one of these candidates. The precinct caucus provides the forum for this discussion. It allows you to ask questions, listen to political people, and have your voice heard.

If you are still curious and would like more information, copies of the Precinct Caucus brochure are available by calling 651-215-1440 or by going to www.sos.mn.us. You can also contact your party directly (Green, 612-871-4585; Independence, 651-487-9700; Democratic-Farmer-Labor, 651-293-1200; Republican, 651-222-0022).

As Mary Kiffmeyer, our Secretary of State, said, "As the saying goes, 'the world is run by people who show up.' Show up and be heard!"