Please explain how this caucus thing works

[troyd1]

Do I need to be registered as a republican? I have always voted that way, but I think I am registered as an independent. What goes on at these things. An explanation or a link to it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[LibertyEagle]

Do I need to be registered as a republican? I have always voted that way, but I think I am registered as an independent. What goes on at these things. An explanation or a link to it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Marianne Stebbins is the Minnesota campaign coordinator. She will be able to help you. Here is her contact information:

Marianne Stebbins
Minnesota Coordinator
mn@ronpaul2008.com

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

Even better is the marianne (at) ronpaul2008 (dot) com address. The MN address seems to get overwhelmed with spam and volunteers often clean it out for me.

To answer your question, we don't have party registration in MN, so come as you are. No need to even register to vote to attend the caucus. You do have to be eligible to vote (18+, citizen, resident of your precinct for 20 days).

The caucuses are the Minnesota version of the primaries. On Feb 5 at 7 pm, you go to your local caucus in your precinct (neighborhood) for a 1 - 2 hour meeting where you can vote for Ron Paul and for Ron Paul delegates.

They are somewhat informal; no need to feel intimidated. Only 10 or so usually show up per precinct, though I'd expect closer to 25 this year.

Email me at the address above for more info. We could use every Ron Paul supporter as a precinct captain, and I can give you that info as well, but don't want to post it here.

[troyd1]

I have found out that with a caucus, each caucus elects delegates to a higher level and then those delgates move up to elect more delegates until there are 41 elected delegates that go to the national campaign. to be precinct captain only entails calling some people that are Ron Paul supporters the day of the caucus to make sure he has support there. You can just show up the day of the caucus, no need to register any special way.

[MN Patriot]

Here is a link that might help anyone in Minnesota get in contact with local Ron Paul supporters:

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/55/

I just joined the campaign, and am looking for ways to help.

[rodo1776]

Please read my posts rodo1776 for some strategy on what to expect at your caucus in Minnesota. the campaign as I can see is not offering you any info. Read it and understand and go get organized. If we don't get delegates at the caucuses we lose. Please organize in advance. Quit putting up signs and handing out literature. Get your precincts organized. that is the best way you can spend your time to get Ron Paul elected.
Please do it!

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

Actually, the campaign has put out a lot of info on the caucuses. Do sign up as a precinct captain so we can send you a list of supporters before the caucus so that you all know whom to vote for when you walk in. Working on your own won't win the precinct if we have two slates voting against each other.

[Tangoland]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=93992

[Lovecraftian4Paul]

I'm still a little hazy on this myself. Will Ron Paul delegates announce themselves as such at the local caucus? If not, how do we know who to vote for?

[Aproz]

I'm still a little hazy on this myself. Will Ron Paul delegates announce themselves as such at the local caucus? If not, how do we know who to vote for?

This is what confuses me also. I see a lot of info on how it works but it never gets specific. What to expect? What goes on during this 1-2 hour meeting? How does the vote work, just a piece of paper? How do we know what delegates to vote for?

To many people it must seem rather simple but never doing it before makes it all seem pretty confusing.

[TexMac]

Here, read this thread:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=72698

[Lovecraftian4Paul]

The linked post was full of good information, but anything more Minnesota-specific would still be helpful.

Anyone know if candidates for delegates at Minnesota caucuses have to announce their Presidential preference, or is it just a big free for all? If the latter is the case, then do we find out who are real Ron Paul delegates beforehand through the meetups and similar groups?

[rodo1776]

The linked post was full of good information, but anything more Minnesota-specific would still be helpful.

Anyone know if candidates for delegates at Minnesota caucuses have to announce their Presidential preference, or is it just a big free for all? If the latter is the case, then do we find out who are real Ron Paul delegates beforehand through the meet ups and similar groups?
e

Once again to help you look at texmex's post or the thread he mentions:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=72698

I wrote that thread and while it mentions Iowa it basically holds true for Minnesota. If you want more detailed info PM me. I attended many caucuses there but do not live there anymore.
Scribbling de stebbings or whatever her name is is the paid Minnesota coordinator as you can see form other posts on this thread. If she can send you detailed strategy i would be surprised. i tried to help Minnesota a while ago and got no response from scribbling and so gave up on helping anymore.
If you have not had the opportunity for real concise actual strategy on how to win your caucus for RP then I'm sorry. That is what I gave money for on the bombs as did others.
It is very difficult and very complicated. Partly it is difficult if you have few supporters. Organization is critical in advance.
So I am now helping in other states that are more receptive to the message and need help. Please ask stebbling for SPECIFIC TRAINING FOR YOUR PRECINCT.
Good luck.

[Aproz]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately it really alerted me to the fact that my precinct is going to bomb. Although a lot of that info is still a bit confusing to me I now realize that organization is key.

There seems to be nothing going on in my area, Zimmerman, MN. I'm not a precinct leader mainly because the whole system scared me because I have no prior knowledge of the process. Although, I have been doing canvasing in my neighborhood, have signs in my yard, and have been talking with anyone that is interested.

With that being said, I seem to be the only supporter in my area except for my best friend. But, he's just ignorant and is only following Ron Paul because I told him to. :rolleyes:

Besides it being late in the process here, I don't think I'm personally up to the task of organizing all of this with my limited knowledge on all of it. I'm still going to attend my caucus but I'm expecting to just get run over. I guess we'll have to see how it goes.

With what I have learned so far now I'm going to make sure to educate myself on all of this so at least I'll be more prepared for our next elections. It's sad that I won't be able to have much impact this time around though. On the plus side I've brought on board 6-7 others at work but we are all scattered around the twin cities and non of them have anymore knowledge on this than I do.

What surprises me the most is that there isn't much said about this subject, it seems the concentration is always just on precinct captains and getting the word out. But, it seems the effort is wasted going into the caucus with nobody knowing the process and how to proceed. It would be much easier to have a simple straight up vote like other state primaries.

[TexMac]

It is a shame. I had no idea things were so disorganized in Minnesota.:(

[Badger Paul]

They are NOT disorganized in Minnesota, they're working their arses off. Arguably Minnesota is the biggest caucus state in terms of both population and land mass combined. It is not easy to organize the entire state because of this and Scribber is trying to do this mostly by herself. Cut her a break.

[Schlickenmeyer]

Firstly, a correction, "Scribbler" is NOT paid.
None of the campaign staff in MN is paid.

I am sorry if you did not get the info you need, I will be happy to send it to you, it is not too late to help.
If you believe in Dr. Paul then you will not let this stop you from helping.
Either call the campaign HQ at 612-886-1990
or PM me here, or email us at minnesota (at) ronaul2008 (dot) com

Please dont think your precinct will bomb with out checking with us, you may have a number of supporters you just dont know about.

Organizing this is not that hard, even late in the game. We can get you up to speed in short order.

I hope you reconsider.

-Steve Rogers
-Ron Paul 2008
-Senate District Coordinator 58 MN

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

I AM hundreds and hundreds of emails behind, and not because I'm not working on it constantly. We have not had the help from supporters that I would have expected. There are a few who have been terrific, and Schlick has put in numerous hours himself. And there are many who have been covering their precinct. Huge thanks to those who HAVE been working.

Now we need EVERYone who wants to get Ron Paul elected to step up to the plate to help with GOTV and other phoning.

If you are signed up to receive RP emails, you should have received several emails from me explaining the caucus process, including one Friday which pointed you to the video presentation on the caucus: www.hopeformn.com/media

Have you read and viewed all of this and are still confused? That's something we need to know.

[Aproz]

Thanks for the info. By getting into this late I haven't seen this info yet. From the little bit I've watched so far it explains a lot. Tomorrow after work I'll watch the whole thing and I'll be signing up for a Precinct Captain.

One question though if someone can answer it... Does everyone in the state vote for the same delegates? Or, are there specific delegate for each precinct? If so, who determines who these delegates are?

Anyways, I'm sure the answers are in the video but I won't be able to watch it until tomorrow evening.

Thanks again everyone.

[A. Havnes]

I'm still trying to spread Ron Paul's name to all the cynical and disgruntled war veterans in my little town! It takes a while to open them up. Meanwhile, my cousins don't want anything to do with him. We're a stubborn bunch, we are! However, I'm finding out that that's not always a good thing...

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

Each precinct -- there are 4,000 in MN -- votes for its own delegates. So your caucus may be a cozy gathering of 20 neighbors who get to vote for, say, 5 delegates. Attendance and number of delegates vary by precinct.

The campaign will send the precinct captain a list of all supporters in that precinct before the caucus to call and give the names of all the other supporters, so you can all walk in with a list of 5 names to vote for, if there are 5 delegate spots. The key is to all be voting for exactly the same people.

[teshuah]

aproz - which senate district or bpou are you in?