Missouri Republican caucus is Saturday, Dems vote in late March

Missouri Republicans will hold their presidential caucus on Saturday. Residents must have been registered to vote by February 19 to participate. Democrats head to the polls for a primary later in March.

For decades, Missouri voters have gone to the polls to privately vote in a presidential preference primary, but not anymore. In 2022, state lawmakers voted to do away with that process. Now, voters of each party have to participate in a caucus to choose how delegates are awarded to presidential candidates. Instead of heading to their local polling place, under Missouri’s caucus system, political parties, not the state, organize the system for choosing delegates.

In a caucus, members of each political party meet and divide into groups according to which candidate they want to win. Then the number of voters in each group decides how many delegates each candidate wins.

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“Participating in the caucus allows one individual to make a much bigger mark in the selection process than just their vote because, at that caucus, they actually turn these people from a different candidate to their candidate,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said, according to Fox 4 news.

Delegates go on to represent their state at national party conventions to help the party select a presidential candidate. Ashcroft said one potential positive of this approach is that every political party gets to decide how delegates are awarded. He also noted that with the state no longer running the primary, it will save Missouri about $10 million.

Here are the caucus sites in the Kansas City region:

• Caldwell County – Stagecoach Park Community Center, 1010 Main St, Polo
• Cass County – Harrisonville Community Center, 2400 Jefferson Parkway, Harrisonville
• Clay County – Oak Park High School, 825 NE 79th Terrace, Kansas City
• Jackson County – East Trails Middle School Gymnasium, 1001 SE Bailey Road., Lee’s Summit
• Johnson County – Johnson County Fairground, 386 NW 145 Road, Warrensburg
• Lafayette County – Community Christian Center, 710 W MO- 224, Wellington
• Platte County – Walden Middle School Gym, 4701 NW 56th St, Kansas City
• Ray County – Ray County Community Library, 215 E. Lexington St., Richmond

The Democratic Party will also host an in-person presidential preference primary on March 23 in every county. Votes can be cast in person at a polling place in the voter’s county of residence from 8 a.m. to noon. There will be additional polling places in St. Louis and Kansas City.

–Dwight Widaman | MV

Image: Flikr DonkeyHotey  CC BY 4.0 Deed | Attribution 4.0 International