Election 2008
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 09:58 a.m., February 2, 2008
Updated 09:59 a.m., February 2, 2008
Democrats and Republicans are preparing for presidential caucuses scheduled to be held early in February.
Voters who were registered as Republicans as of Jan. 25 will be eligible to vote in the Lyon County Republican Caucus, beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Anderson Building.
Lyon County Republican Vice Chairman Karen Hartenbower said that doors will open that day at 8 a.m. to allow voters to get checked in.
“I’m looking for a large crowd,” she said. “We can’t just check everybody in at 10 o’clock.”
Voters also will need to bring a picture identification card before they can be stamped as checked-in and eligible to participate in the caucus.
At 10 a.m., the doors will be closed to the public, and representatives of presidential candidates will speak before the vote. Speakers will be timed to ensure that each gets the same amount of time, and no one will allowed to speak negatively about a candidate, she said.
Voting will be done with paper ballots and voting booths.
“We thought this is the best way instead of the caucus where you move around from person to person,” she said.
Ballots will be cast into ballot boxes, to be counted after votes all have been cast. There will be two counting boards and unofficial totals will be announced to the state when the counting is complete.
“They are unofficial totals because there are provisional ballots -- people who have moved and their address is not like it’s registered on the files,” she said.
Any eligible Republican in the First Congressional District can vote in the Emporia caucus.
“The state party has furnished a CD that will have the whole state’s registered Republicans,” Hartenbower said.
Any candidate who wins two of the four districts will take all of the Kansas votes to the Republican National Convention, Sept. 1 through 4 in the Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
“If there’s a tie, the state (Republican party) takes care of that. It’s out of our hands,” she said.
More than 8,000 Republicans are registered in Lyon County.
“I would be tickled to have more than 1,000,” she said.
The Democratic caucus will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Best Western Motel, 3021 West Highway 50, according to an earlier announcement.
Democrats have chosen to conduct their caucus in an alternative manner. Participants will stand in areas set aside for specific candidates, rather than vote on paper ballots. As candidates are eliminated, their supporters may move to other areas to endorse candidates assigned to those areas.
The caucus is open to Democrats and to Independents and Republicans who want to change parties, county party Chairman Jerry Karr said. Voters can register or change political parties at the caucus site on Tuesday.
Eligible voters will need to be signed in or in line by 7 p.m. to be able to participate in the caucus, which is for eligible voters in the 17th State Senate District. The district includes Lyon, Marion, Chase and Morris counties, as well as parts of Greenwood, Coffey and Osage counties.
The caucus here will select eight people to attend the First Congressional District caucus in Hays on April 12.
The delegation to the national convention will include a total of 21 delegates and four alternates elected at the four Congressional District Caucuses. Additionally, seven at-large delegates, four party-leader and elected-official delegates, one unpledged “add-on” delegate and one alternate will be chosen at the state convention in May.
The Democratic National Convention will be Aug. 25 through 28 at the Pepsi Center in Denver.