Idaho GOP caucus requires planning from local party leaders

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Idaho Republican voters will gather throughout the state on Saturday. They're choosing which Presidential candidate they want to see on the ballot in November.

A caucus is replacing the typical Republican Presidential Primary this year. A lot of work is involved in the planning, even for just one county.

Bannock County Commissioner and Bannock County Central Committee Legislative District 29 Chair John Crowder is also the Republican Caucus Coordinator for Bannock County. He's been organizing the Bannock County Caucus since November, and he had decisions to make from the start. He used feedback from people who attended the last Caucus held by the GOP in 2012.

"Bannock County is a big county," said Crowder. "It covers a lot of geography. Apparently, the last time they did a caucus in 2012, they had everybody in the county meet up at Holt Arena. And I did not want to do that. People didn't like that. You had a lot of people traveling a long way. So what I determined to do right away was, I was going to have locations throughout the county, and make it as convenient as possible for the voters to get in there and be able to cast their ballot."

Crowder also said the planning process involves calculating the number of registered Republican voters versus expected turnout.

"It's funny how this worked, because the state party said expect 10% of the registered voters. And I thought, 'No way - this is is too exciting and too contentious. Of course, when I started working on this thing, we had Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie. All these people were still running. And so I was estimating 30 to 50%. So, I really had picked locations where you could get in 30 to 50% of the precincts assigned - but then as time has gone by and people have been suspending their campaigns, I have revised my estimates down. So I'm actually anticipating about 10% of the registered voters at each location."

When asked what he's anticipating for Saturday, Crowder commented "Well, I'm excited. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but very excited about it. I can tell you that I am going to be happy when it's over, because it is pretty time-consuming. When I'm not doing commissioner work, I'm rushing over to caucus locations to talk to my caucus captains and fill their needs."

For more information on who can participate and where your caucus is located, click here.