The Missouri Republican State Committee has announced it expects to host a traditional caucus on March 2 to choose its presidential preference candidate and has set the following rules for the process.

This is Missouri’s first year since the 1980s hosting a caucus instead of a presidential preference primary, according to Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who said the state stands to save $10 million dollars by switching from a state-run primary to a party-led caucus.

Each party will be responsible to set its own rules and conduct a caucus in each of Missouri’s 114 counties. According to a press release, The Missouri Republican Platform will move forward to select the 2024 presidential candidate under the following guidelines.

At 10 a.m. on March 2,  a location in each county to be determined by local Republican representatives will host “good and faithful” members of the party to choose their county’s delegates. In Gasconade County the caucus will be held at St. James Charlotte Church, 2874 Charlotte Church Road, Owensville.

The delegates choice for the 2024 presidential candidate to be sent to the Congressional District Conventions on April 6, and to the May 4 Missouri Republican State Convention in Springfield.

The guidelines to vote in the county’s Republican caucus include:

• Be a registered voter in the county where the citizen resides and plans to vote;

• Sign a document attesting to being “a good and faithful Republican when registering (pre-registeration for the caucus is available at www.mogop.org to avoid long lines. A link to pre-register and caucus location in each county will be posted after Feb. 11 on the MOGOP website).

Gasconade County’s Committee Chair Carol Keller said voters do not have to be registered with the Republican Party to vote in the caucus.

“There was no party registration in Missouri until Jan. 1, 2023,” Keller said. “There are just a handful of registered Republicans and Democrats in the county. You will have to sign a form attesting to being a ‘good and faithful Republican.’”

What to Know About Caucus Day

On March 2, registered voters will be present to participate in the presidential candidate selection by being on-site at a 10 a.m. at a pre-disclosed location. Gasconade County’s Republican Party has four delegates to be determined through the caucus.

According to the rules, registered Republican voters, “will be voting for the delegates and alternates from (the) county who represent the presidential candidate who (they) support to send to the Congressional Conventions on April 6, and the State Convention on May 4, along with approving or declining resolutions to the platform to pass on to the MOGOP Platform Committee to review and incorporate into the 2024 MGOP Platform.”

To prepare for a successful caucus, Keller said the party has held five caucus-training events in the past 60 days with over 300 attendees.

According to the MOGOP, “The Missouri General Assembly did not reinstate the Presidential Preference Primary election at the end of the 2023 legislative session. As a result, the county caucuses will bind the delegates to the State Convention. Each county committee will conduct its caucus under the 2024 Call to Convention. Thanks to the work of the Call to Convention Rules Committee at the state level, the rules should prevent many of the issues previous caucuses have experienced.”

According to the rules of the MOGOP ‘s 2024 Call to Caucus, “There are two objectives and four concerns which guide the work of the rules committee in the creation of the document. These are the same six points which guide the full caucus process,” including to make and keep Missouri relevant; reduce complaints to credentials committees; access, communication, training, and consistency.

A timeline leading up to the MOGOP event shows Feb. 11 as the deadline for each Committee County and City Chair to secure a location for the caucus and report it back to the MOGOP to be posted by no later than Feb. 16 to the MOGOP.ORG website.

By Feb. 21, each County and City Chair will name five members to the Caucus Credentials Committee to judge the qualifications of individual voters in accordance with the rules to the 2024 Call to Convention. Voters must be registered no later than Feb. 21 with the election authority in their counties.

Party chairs will promote the pre-registration portal at MOGOP.ORG.

On Caucus Day, registered voters will convene at 10 a.m. on March 2 for one of two outcomes: Winner-Takes-All or the Plurality Scenario.

Winner-Takes-All allows one candidate with more than 50 percent of the votes to receive all four county delegates. A Plurality Scenario allows the proportional division of delegates based the number off votes.

What to Expect on Caucus Day

On March 2, doors will open as early as is practicable to allow all voters wishing to participate in the caucus to stand in line, sign-in and present their photo ID for the Credentials Committee.

“Doors (in Gasconade County) will open at 8:30 a.m. for registration to begin,” Keller said.

While non-voting groups are allowed to attend, they must be clearly segregated from the voting members of the caucus.

Doors close at 10 a.m. behind the existing line. Those still in line may continue to check-in, but no new voters will be allowed in at that time.

The meeting will open with a temporary chairman and secretary in charge.

Portions of the 2024 Call to Convention may be read.

Temporary officers will read the credentials of the Credentials Committee members and the number of caucus participants.

The temporary chair will preside over the nominations of the permanent chair. The permanent chair will reside over nominations for the permanent secretary to continue leading the meeting. More committee members may be nominated by the permanent committee chair.

The permanent chair will open the floor to candidate nomination speeches that are limited to three minutes. No seconds are allowed or necessary and no candidates shall be nominated unless they have met the requirements of the MOGOP convention. The eight candidates who have met the MOGOP’s requirements are Doug Burgum, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott (whose campaign is suspended), David Stuckenberg and Donald Trump.

The caucus will divide into sub-caucuses (voters will be asked to stand with other voters who support the same candidate).

Any sub-caucus candidate with less than 15 percent of participants in the caucus will be asked if they want to choose another candidate to support as those candidates will be eliminated.

Any candidate who receives more than 50 percent of those present takes all four delegates. If no candidate takes 50 percent of the vote, delegates will be divided proportionally to support.

While participants are being counted, each sub-caucus should nominate a spokesperson for the group who will be responsible for negotiating delegate/alternate distribution with other leaders and the caucus chair in the event of a plurality situation.

The caucus will choose delegates and alternates for the Congressional District Convention. Potential delegates and alternates will be presented and voted on to approve for the slates.

Once selected, the MOGOP Permanent Chair will open the floor to amendments to the proposed platform. All amendments must be typed unless otherwise stated by the permanent chair. Amendments, if any, will be voted and approved to move forward.

After business is complete, the caucus will adjourn.

Post-Caucus

After the Caucus is closed, the local caucus has until no later than March 5 to send results to the MOGOP. Amendments passed will also move forward to the Congressional District Chair within 72 hours.

Additional Information Regarding the Caucus

Once caucus rules are set, they cannot be changed. Penalties include a county losing some or all of its delegates.

Individuals do not need to be present to be named to the potential list of delegates or alternates, but permission is needed in advance and they must be a resident in the congressional district they would represent. Counties split between congressional districts will need delegates and alternates to represent both sides of the counties.

Final selections will be made during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.

Keller, who will serve as the Gasconade County Temporary Chair, said the entire process could take a couple of hours to complete.

“A reminder that if not in line by 10 a.m., voters are not going to make it in. So make sure you are on time,” Keller said.

According to Gasconade County’s Deputy Clerk Lorrie Koelling, assistant to Clerk Lesa Lietzow who is the election authority, there were 1,254 voters who voted Republican in the 2020 Presidential Preference Primary. Former President Donald J. Trump received 1,230 or 98.16 percent of the votes.

The party does not currently offer an absentee ballot for those serving overseas or who are unable to attend the event in person as a traditional-style caucus requires those voting to be present.