OPINION: Caucus saboteurs
Brent Regan
Last Saturday, thanks to efforts by the Idaho Republican Party, nearly 40,000 Idaho Republicans were able to cast their vote for their preferred presidential candidate. This could not have happened without the Republican Party acting after the Secretary of State, the legislature and the governor all agreed to cancel the March Presidential Primary.
What is remarkable is that in five months the party created the entire caucus system from scratch. The last time Idaho held a caucus was 12 years and four party administrations ago. All records of that caucus were long gone. Rules, procedures, instructions, forms, handbooks, Poll Books, post cards, ballots and checklists all had to be designed and created. Methods had to be devised for processing the nearly one million Idaho voter records down to the 580,000 qualified Republicans and then splitting those into the 976 precincts.
The 44 county chairmen and 35 legislative district chairmen worked to establish 210 caucus locations to serve every precinct. Volunteers needed to be recruited and trained. Supplies needed to be identified and acquired. 1,500 custom hand stamps needed to be procured. 210 caucus kits needed to be assembled and packed, each different, ranging from 1 pound to 108 pounds and each of those had to be securely shipped to its unique destination.
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