BOONE COUNTY — Voting for the upcoming Missouri Republican caucus will look a little different than a traditional voting process. Jim Meyer, the Republican committeeman for Missouri’s 19th Senate District, says the Republican Committee has been working for months to update rules for the caucus based on other states’ caucuses.
“Each county central committee is charged with organizing the one or more caucuses in their county,” Meyer said.
Each county will have one location for voters to participate in the caucus, with the exception of a few larger counties, which will have two caucus locations, like St. Louis County. The full list of voting locations in each county is on the Missouri GOP website. Some counties have not yet chosen a caucus location, but each county has to choose by Feb. 16.
Because there is generally only one caucus location in each county, Meyer said choosing the location has proven difficult. Boone County’s caucus will be held at the Family Worship Center of Columbia.
“Some people live in Centralia [and] would like to see the caucus there,” Meyer said. “You kind of have to look at the available potential sites, the cost involved, and then find something that’s centrally located or reasonably so.”
The single location means voters who live farther from the caucus location will have to travel farther to participate. Meyer said he expects between 100 to 300 people to participate in Boone County’s caucus.
“If we’re gonna look at a few hundred people, it doesn’t make sense to have multiple sites all over the county,” Meyer said.
Meyer said one of the biggest challenges is navigating the unfamiliar territory, with Missouri’s last caucus taking place over a decade ago.
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“It is an unfamiliar process for most people,” Meyer said. “I was a voter during 2012 and I didn’t even know or attend that round of caucuses.”
Jacob Authement, a political science graduate instructor at the University of Missouri, said the caucus will be a much longer and more involved process than usual voting processes. He said the extra time commitment will make it harder for voters to get motivated to participate in the caucuses.
“Getting people to the caucus is gonna be a problem of getting them excited enough to vote and informed enough to show up to the caucus,” Authement said.
Authement said Donald Trump commanding most state primaries may also reduce motivation to participate.
Meyer said for the caucus in Boone County, doors at Family Worship Center of Columbia will open at 9 a.m. Everybody voting will have to be signed in by 10 a.m.
Meyer said voters could make the registration process much faster by registering in advance on the GOP website here.
The Missouri Republican caucus will take place on Saturday, March 2.
The Missouri Democratic Party will offer a hybrid voting option, with in-person voting sites available from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 23. For more information on Missouri’s Democratic presidential election process, click here.