THANKS for attending the 2020 Caucus! Considering that our Caucus structure changed this year because we had the Presidential Primary last Tuesday, with our Caucus basing its delegate allocation on the US Senate candidate preference poll, caucuses in Boulder County ran quite smoothly! Several trainings prior to caucus were offered by the Boulder County Democratic Party — and if you noticed, Boulder County Dems and their rockstar volunteers provided some of the earliest result figures to the state. Longmont Area Democrats were happy to provide as much caucus and candidate info as we could leading up to this important opportunity for democracy. As long as we have it, we should use it — and many of you did — THANK YOU to EVERYONE who stepped up to be or return as Precinct Leaders and those that stepped up to be Delegates to Boulder County Assembly on Saturday, March 28!
2020 COLORADO CAUCUS RESULTS BY COUNTY, HERE.
CAUCUS IN COLORADO IS SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2020!
PRE-REGISTER FOR BOULDER COUNTY CAUCUS, HERE.
PRECINCT CAUCUS SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONS, HERE.
Below you’ll find the materials from LAD’s “Caucus 101: Laying the Grassroots Groundwork for 2020” presented on February 5, 2020. This is not a training, per se, but an overview of why we caucus, how caucus fits into our election year, etc. The Boulder County Democratic Party has Caucus trainings on its calendar throughout February, here.
We will update this page with answers to your questions about caucus (at the end of the presentation), and any other items and links that we hope will be helpful to you as you navigate the caucus process. You can send your questions to longmontareadems@gmail.com
VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED AT CAUCUS! Supersite Chairs could really use your help — it’s fun, we’ll walk you through it, it goes quickly — and it’s a great way to put the “Caucus Fears” to rest! Email us here.
If you’d like to view as, or download a pdf of the presentation, go here.
Otherwise…scroll away, and enjoy!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION IN OUR DEMOCRACY!
Pre-Register for CAUCUS NOW at: bcdp.co/caucus
NOTE: The Caucus vote to determine delegate allocation only includes the 5 Senate candidates that are going through the Caucus process (Hickenlooper, Romanoff, Spaulding, Underwood and Zornio). The other Senate candidates are petitioning onto the June 30th ballot. You can find websites and contact info for each of these candidates, as well as a link to a video of the Longmont Latinx US Senate Candidate Town Hall featuring all nine candidates, by clicking our 2020 US Senate Candidates widget, here.
Boulder County Clerk website, High School Resources
(If you’d like to volunteer at your Caucus Location (Supersite), please email us here.)
Caucus questions? Email us at longmontareadems@gmail.com
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
1) I don’t understand how the results of the two primary ballots relate to the selection of delegates to the conventions and assemblies.
Answer: The results of the Colorado Presidential primary are figured on percentages of the vote for each Presidential candidate in the Primary. Those percentages are then applied to delegate #s for each Presidential candidate as they go through the County Assemblies/Conventions (March 28 in Boulder County) and onto the State Assembly and Convention (April 18 in Denver).
The results of the June 30th Primary are final. The purpose of Senate and down ballot candidates (example State House districts, State Senate Districts, County Commissioner etc) in going through Caucus is meeting the required threshold of Caucus votes to get on the Primary ballot. Some down ballot candidates are trying to get on the ballot through petitioning on only. A specific number of valid signatures are required to get on the ballot through petition.
2)I know we select delegates for the county assembly and state assemblies based on Senate candidate preference, but I don’t know exactly how that impacts the state primary and the selection of delegates for the National Convention. How does the result of the presidential candidate primary fit with selection of delegates? Thanks for your help to explain this to me.
Answer: Voting for your choice of Senate candidates at Caucus is the first step for them to get on the June 30th Primary ballot. The Caucus vote only includes the Senate candidates that are going through the Caucus process. There are only 5 Senate candidates (Hickenlooper, Romanoff, Spaulding, Underwood and Zornio) who are going through Caucus. The other Senate candidates are petitioning onto the June 30th ballot. They have a deadline to turn in a certain number of valid signatures to make it on the ballot. Caucus goers can run to be a delegate for one of those 5 Senate candidates. (It is an election in your precinct small, or “breakout” meetings). The voting process for each Senate candidate in the Caucus must reach a threshold % to continue onto each step (ie County Caucus, County Assembly and Convention and finally State Assembly and Convention.) Delegates for Senate candidates go on through the process to be a delegate for their choice of Presidential candidate at the County Assembly and Convention and finally the State level convention. To reach the DNC, convention delegates have to run a campaign themselves and be elected by the State Convention members to go to the National Convention. At the National Convention the delegates for each Presidential candidate vote and it may take several votes to reach a final Democratic candidate choice for President — who will then run against Donald Trump nationally.
3)What does a Precinct Leader do?
Answer: Precinct Leaders are part of The Boulder County Democratic Party (BCDP)’s Field Team, and their objective is to help elect Democrats on all parts of the ballot. The main thing a Precinct Leader does is GOTV (Get Out the Vote) by dropping BCDP Voter Guides — not to be confused with the state’s blue book — for General and midterm elections, at the same time that ballots are mailed to voters (drop, no knock) — usually 2 weeks before Election Day. “Unwalkable” precincts (rural and mountain areas) have the voter guide mailed to them. The Voter Guide drop is followed by dropping “Vote Notes” at doors (taped to doors with blue painter’s tape, no knocking required) closer to Election Day, which nudges those last voters to drop off their ballots (the Vote Notes have ballot drop-off locations listed, because at that point it’s too late to mail). The time before these GOTV projects is spent recruiting volunteers in your neighborhood to help you make those drops, getting to know the VAN (Voter Access Network) database, with trainings for all of this provided by the Boulder County Democratic Party.
NOTE: If you are not interested in being a Precinct Leader yourself, please find out who your Precinct Leader is, and offer to help. Two hours on a weekend can make a tremendous difference! You can look up your precinct leader, here.
(you’re at longmontdems.org)
email: longmontareadems@gmail.com
facebook: Longmont Area Democrats
twitter: @LongmontDems
