The Road to Election Begins with Precinct Caucuses

• Secretary of State site—Gives precinct identity.

• ~ DFL (“Democratic-Farmer-Labor” Party)—Their phone number is (651) 293-1200 (you’ll need precinct identity from the Secretary of State site).

• ~ GOP (“Grand Old Party”) Precinct Finder —This is the republican party of Minnesota

• Green Party precinct finder—Their phone number is (612) 822-6593 (again, you’ll need precinct identity from the Secretary of State site).

• ~ Independent party—Another major party. Alas, we don’t have any contact info for you.

• Hennepin county—You can go here to get some voter info on caucuses in this county.

• the SOS site—Secretary of State site on the election caucuses of 2002.

• More info on caucuses—Here you can get more info on caucuses via the league of women voters site.

Electoral Caucuses are small, local meetings, traditionally held on a precinct-by-precinct level, where members of political parties can come together at the community level to discus platform issues and chose delegates for future legislative and state conventions. Delegates are able to vote on platform issues and nominate candidates for the party.

Basically, precinct caucuses are a chance for you to get elected or to elect someone you know as a delegate to go to your party’s convention. Why is that important? Well, as a delegate you can be one of the roughly 300 people to vote on people who will receive the party’s nomination. Delegates (from precinct caucuses) convene at the party convention to nominate candidates. The person who gets the nomination is usually the person who gets the party endorsement in the primary elections held in September. The endorsed candidate is the only one that appears on the ballot in the general election in November. So, as you can see, if you get elected as a delegate, you can be one voice of 300 heard in picking the person who will win the election because you pick the name that gets on the ballot. After all, a person is not likely to win the election if their name is not on the ballot. Also, precinct caucuses are a chance to propose resolutions which are then voted on and sent to the party convention where they will again be voted on to become part of the party’s platform.

Participants elect the caucus chair, precinct officers and delegates to the next level of party organization—county or district. They also introduce, discuss and vote on resolutions (i.e. statements of position on issues that can be influenced by state or national legislation). These are recommendations to a party for planks in its platform.