Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Final 2014 Caucus Information

As you may know the Republican Caucus meeting is coming up this Thursday, March 20th. It will be held at Ridgeline Elementary School (6250 W 11800 N, Highland, UT 84003) in the cafeteria. We will be the only precinct there and so there should be plenty of room for everyone. The formal meeting starts at 7 PM. Candidates and precinct members are invited to come and 6 to meet and mingle. Please come at least 20 minutes early so that we can take care of registration and start on time.

There are some important rule changes that you should be aware this year.
  • You can preregister for the meeting, which will greatly reduce the sign-in process and I encourage everyone to do so. Here is the link: https://voterclick.com/utgop_menu.php. Our precinct name is HI02.
  • You can also use this same link to file for office (chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer, state delegate, or county delegate). As of the moment no one has filed file office. You can also nominate yourself for office at the caucus.The current officers are not planning on running again. If you have not been a delegate before please consider running. It is a great experience and one I believe everyone would benefit from doing. If you have the time and interest please consider running. I have posted "job descriptions" for all positions on our precinct blog, http://www.highlandprecinct2.blogspot.com, along with more detailed information about the Caucus system.
  • Another significant rule change is that Republicans currently residing in our precinct who is unable to attend (can't find a babysitter, has a conflict with another activity, ...) can vote in abstentia. He or she will need to print out a ballot within 24 hrs of the meeting ( from the same link I provided to preregister), write in the names of the candidates you want to support for precinct officers and delegates, (pick up to 3 state and 5 county delegates), put the ballot in an envelop, seal it, sign it, and make a copy of valid government issued ID (drivers license or passport). The sealed and signed envelop along with ID copy can be given to a trusted person who will be attending the caucus. They will give the registration person assigned to deal with absentee ballots. The registrar will compare the signature on the envelop with the ID, give the ID back, open the envelop and ensure that it is a valid ballot (one was printed in the last 24 hours),  then place the ballot in an absentee ballot container and discard the envelop. Please note, one person can bring up to a maximum of three absentee ballots.
  • Those members of our precinct who are living outside of Utah because they are doing religious service or who are serving in the military can also vote by sending an email to both the precinct chair (Rod Mann, mannrw@gmail.com) AND the vice chair (Brent Cook, brentmcook@gmail.com) letting us know their circumstances and giving us a list of the candidates whom they want to support. This will need to be sent 72 hours prior to the Caucus meeting.
If you want to review the complete 2014 caucus rules click here. Let me also mention that while I know that losing is not fun (yes I have run and lost) it can be a catalyst to get better organized next time and actually motivate someone to be more involved. So please don't be afraid to put yourself out there. If your personal  circumstances are conducive to serving (e.g. you are planning on serving a mission in the near future) then find someone who you think would represent you well and encourage them to run. As I said at the moment I know of no one who is absolutely committed to running for any of the offices or delegate positions and I do know that those of us serving do not intend to run again. 


This will be a fun evening. We will have some questions to ask and small prizes to distribute while votes are being counted. We can also discuss local issues while votes are being counted since our precinct is over-weighted on city council, again, with 2 members currently serving (Jessie Schoenfeld and myself) and at least 3 former members (Scott Smith, Brent Cook, and Glen Vawdrey) plus a former mayor (Jesse Adamson).

Have a great week and I look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

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