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The following excellent information on being an effective delegate was written by Arnold Gaunt. I've noted a few minor differences for other counties. My comments are in [brackets].
Members of all parties need to know their precinct number, and should
follow the instructions below. The information for locating caucus
meetings is specific to the Republican Party. If you belong to another
party, please contact your OWN party. See http://governor.state.ut.us/lt_gover/parties.htm
Introduction
The most important election in Utah this year, and possibly for years to come, will be held on Monday, March 27, at 7 PM. To protect your rights from further attack by anti-gun liberals such as "Republican" Gov. Mike Leavitt, you MUST become a delegate or support the election of pro-liberty delegates to the Republican Party in the caucus meetings on Monday.
How to Become a Delegate
1. Determine your voting precinct. You may determine your precinct in at least three ways.
2. Determine precinct meeting location. The location of your precinct meeting (also called caucus meeting or mass meeting) is decided by your County Republican Party. You may obtain this location from one or more of the following sources.
Another important decision is to decide whether to be a county or state delegate. If possible (i.e. you have the votes and will be able to attend both the County and State Convention) become both. The Convention dates are available at this link <http://utgop.org/event.html>. If you live in Weber County (and possibly another county or two), only county delegates are elected at the precinct meeting, with the state delegates being elected at the County Convention. In this case, obviously it is essential to run for a county delegate position.
It is also vitally important to run for the precinct chair. This position will place you on the Central Committee (decision making body) of the County Party. [In some counties (Utah, maybe others) the Precinct Chair is automatically a state delegate.]
5. Register to vote Republican. To be elected a delegate
or precinct officer in the Republican caucus meetings on Monday, you are
required to be a registered Republican*. The Republican Party enacted
a new Bylaw in November 1999 mandating Republican registration for these
positions. Since more than 80% of Utah's voters are presently unaffiliated
with any Party, it is likely you or others you may support for delegate
or precinct officer positions will have to re-register. Voter registration
forms may be obtained from your County Clerk's office, or can be downloaded
from the following web site (Adobe Acrobat required) <http://governor.state.ut.us/lt_gover/mail_in.PDF>.
All delegates MUST be registered Republicans no later than their Republican
County Convention.
[Voter registration forms are also available at post offices and
the DMV]
Attendees of the caucus meeting who don't run for a delegate or officer position are not required to be registered Republicans*, but they may not be a "simultaneous officer, delegate, candidate, or registered affiliated voter of any other rival political party" (URP Bylaw 9.0). In order to vote at a Republican caucus meeting, any of these conflicts must be cleared by a potential attendee. For example, if a person was registered with the Independent American Party, he would need to re-register unaffiliated or Republican to vote in the caucus meeting.
*[VERY IMPORTANT! In Salt Lake County, ANYONE who wishes to participate in the caucus meeting MUST be a registered Republican! You can register at the caucus meeting, but you must register if you want to vote, speak, or run for a delegate position or precinct office! This new rule was adopted by the SL County Central Committee earlier this month. UTGuns recommends that you register by mail before the meeting in addition to at the meeting!]
6. Attend the caucus meeting. Contact all of your supporters by phone prior to the caucus meeting and secure their commitment to attend on Monday, March 27, at 7 PM. Plan to arrive at least 5 or 10 minutes early to assure seating, provide a buffer if you have difficulty in finding the location, and provide an opportunity for any last second coordination. The meeting agenda is as follows: 1) Welcome, 2) Sign-in, 3) Call to order, 4) Prayer and Pledge, 5) Read the Platform, 6) Collect Donations/Pledges, 7) Elect Precinct Officers, 8) Elect County and State Delegates, 9) Explain Check-a-Buck, 10) Collect e-mail addresses, 11) Ask for Election Judges, and 12) Wrap-up and adjournment.
The critical portion of the meeting is obviously the election of precinct officers and county and state delegates. As previously stated, it is inadvisable for to run more pro-liberty delegates than there are positions available. It is not uncommon for liberal attendees at the caucus meeting to nominate additional conservative delegates to split the vote and allow the liberal delegates to win.
However, should vote splitting occur, little known provisions of Robert's Rules of Order can be applied. First, Robert's Rules require a majority vote (of those qualified and actually voting) to elect someone to an office. So, for example, if there are two delegate positions available for the precinct, 5 candidates running (3 conservatives, designated A, B, and C, and 2 liberals, designated D and E), and 15 total caucus attendees (8 conservatives and 7 liberals), it would require any candidate to receive at least 8 votes to be elected. In this hypothetical scenario, assume the first ballot is taken, and candidate A receives 6 votes, B receives 5 votes, and C receives 5 votes, while candidates D and E each receive 7 votes. Since liberal candidates D and E did not receive the required majority of at least 8 votes (though they had a plurality), another ballot must be taken.
At this point, either the conservative attendees must change their vote, or one of the conservatives must drop his candidacy. Assuming no candidate withdraws after the first ballot, suppose after the second ballot that candidate A receives 8 votes, candidate B receives 6 votes, and candidate C receives 2 votes, while candidates D and E still receive 7 votes. Candidate A is now elected a delegate (since she received the required 8 vote majority), and another ballot is taken with candidates B, C, D, and E to fill the remaining delegate vacancy.
The results of third ballot are that candidate B receives 8 votes, C receives 0 votes, and D and E each receive 7 votes. Candidate B wins the other delegate position, and the liberals D and E are left to rejoin the Democratic Party where they belong..
Another resolution to this situation would be if candidate B withdrew after the first ballot. On the second ballot suppose candidates A and C each receive 8 votes, while the liberals deliver 7 votes to both candidates D and E. Candidates A and C are elected delegates because they received the required majority of at least 8 votes.
The exact verbiage from Robert's Rules regarding the requirement for a majority vote, and multiple balloting, is as follows.
Requirement for a Majority Vote
"A plurality vote is the largest number of votes to be given any candidate or proposition when three or more choices are possible; the candidate or proposition receiving the largest number of votes has a plurality. A plurality that is not a majority never chooses a proposition or elects anyone to office except by virtue of a special rule previously adopted [no such rule exists in the Utah Republican Party Constitution or Bylaws]. If such a rule is to apply to the election of officers, it must be prescribed in the bylaws. A rule that a plurality shall elect is unlikely to be in the best interests of the average organization." (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, pages 399-400)
Requirement for Multiple Balloting
"[I]f any office remains unfilled after the first ballot, as may happen if there are more than two nominees, the balloting should be repeated for that office as many times as necessary to obtain a majority vote for a single candidate. The same is true where two candidates tie for a majority vote for an office. When repeated balloting for an office is necessary, the names of all nominees are kept on the ballot. The nominee receiving the lowest numbers of votes is never removed from the next ballot unless the bylaws so require, or unless he withdraws--which, in the absence of such a bylaw, he is not obligated to do. The nominee in the lowest place may turn out to be a "dark horse" on whom all factions may prefer to agree."
"In an election of members of a board or committee [i.e. an election in which there are at least two positions to be filled, as would be applicable to most caucus meetings], if more than the prescribed number receive a majority vote, the places are filled by the proper number receiving the largest number of votes. If less than the proper number receive a majority vote, those who do have a majority are elected, and all other candidates remain on the ballot for the necessary repeated balloting. Similarly, if some candidates receive a majority but are tied for the lowest position that would elect, all of those candidates also remain on the next ballot." (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, page 433)
A couple of other caucus procedural matters are deserving of consideration. First, the Utah Republican Party 2000 Caucus Meeting Instructional Guide states that there is no vote required to "protest breach of rules". This is accurate, as any qualified caucus attendee may raise a point of order. However, if the caucus meeting chairman rules unfavorably on the "breach of rules", his decision may be overridden by "appealing from the ruling of the chair". If a majority votes to overrule the chair, his decision is set aside and the decision of the caucus body prevails. (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, pages 254-259)
A second VERY important point is that when there are multiple positions to fill (for example, three delegate positions), you may vote for up to the number of positions available, but you MAY vote for less. So if there are three delegate slots available in your caucus, but only two pro-liberty candidates running, VOTE FOR ONLY TWO. By voting for three candidates, you may cause one or both of the two you wish to elect to be defeated by providing a liberal delegate with an additional vote he needs to be successful. NEVER vote for any delegate or officer candidate who is a liberal.
Caucus Meeting Summary
Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 1990/9th Edition, published by
HarperPerennial
Utah Republican Party Description of Caucus Meeting and Delegate Selection
Process: http://utgop.org/
UTGuns Description of Caucus Meeting and Delegate Selection Process:
http://www.utguns.freeservers.com/volunteer.html
http://www.therighter.com/delegate.html
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