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How To Participate In Idaho’s Democratic Caucus

Adam Cotterell
/
Boise State Public Radio
Several thousand people attended a rally in Boise for Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders the day before the state's Democratic caucus.

Democrats will caucus Tuesday night at 40 locations around Idaho. In order to participate, people cannot have voted in Idaho’s Republican or Constitution Party primary earlier this month and they have to be willing to sign a paper saying they consider themselves Democrats.

The Idaho Democratic Party wants people to show up between 5:00 and 6:00 at their caucus locations. The state party website says doors will close promptly at 7:00 MT (6:00 PT) and no one will be admitted after that.

But party executive director Sally Boynton Brown says at locations with a lot of people, anyone in line by 7:00 (or 6:00 PT) will get in. That includes Ada County where Boynton Brown expects about 10,000 people. Those Ada County voters will be split by congressional district into downtown Boise’s CenturyLink Area and the nearby Boise Center. Boynton Brown says other caucuses will be a bit smaller.

“We’ve got a caucus in Camas County that we’re expecting only about 20 people to show up,” Boynton Brown says. “And it’s going to be hosted in somebody’s living room. And so they could probably get it over in as little as 45 minutes, depending on, you know, how much persuading they want to do with each other.”

At the Boise caucus, Boynton Brown says the doors may not close until 7:45. But she expects caucusing at all locations to be done by 10:00 MT. 

“You have to have a minimum of two caucus rounds, giving folks the chance to persuade people, and a maximum of three,” Boynton Brown says. “And so there really is a window of time that that can take place in even if there are a lot of people going back and forth. You can’t go on forever and ever.”

Find Adam Cotterell on Twitter @cotterelladam

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