As the field of presidential contenders narrows, the Kentucky Republican Party is gearing up to make sure voters understand how to choose their candidate at next month’s caucus.
The March 5 event is the first caucus held in the Bluegrass State in more than three decades.
The first requirement is that residents had to be registered to vote as a Republican by Dec. 31, 2015 in order to participate in the caucus.
Executive director of the Republican Party of Kentucky Mike Biagi says then it’s just a matter of finding the county caucus site.
“Those Republican voters can find out where to vote by going to the Republican Party of Kentucky’s website rpk.org and click on caucus. There’s a search tool for any voter to look up where to go vote, because they’ve been assigned to a single caucus location.”
One big difference is that candidates will have representatives at the caucus site who are allowed to speak with voters. That’s a change from the usual distance from the voting booth required in more traditional elections.
Voters can have as much or as little interaction as they want.
“The voter only really needs to come in, show an ID, sign in, get a ballot, cast their vote, and be gone, if that’s all they really want to do,” says Biagi. “So it can be an in-and-out, two-minute process, or they can kind of enjoy the caucus and maybe engage some of the people there from the presidential campaigns or from the local party.”
Most counties will have one caucus location, although some may conduct a regional caucus with neighboring counties.