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>> this is our monthly conservative conversation. the first thing that we do is have the pledge of allegiance, and if we want to stand up and do this, then we will have gary nystrom lead us. >> i pledge allegiance to the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> we could go around the room and introduce ourselves. we will start with gary nystrom. >> i'm gary. [indiscernible] >> [indiscernible] >> [indiscernible] >> [indiscernible]

>> becky waters. >> about waters. >> -- bob waters. >> [indiscernible] >> and what we are going to do today is have the information on -- there's a lot of confusion on what a caucus is and a primary. we will try to explain this a little better two people and make it a little clearer. the lady that is going to do the presentation for us is eileen westrum. she will start with the things she's going to tell us.

>> so what is a caucus? they wanted to have something on what is a caucus, and that was before i knew c-span was going to come in. people want to know what's the difference between a caucus and a primary. when you want to know something, what do you do? you look in the dictionary. a primary is run by the state like any other election. a caucus -- and i'm reading with the dictionary said -- a caucus is a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction, usually to select candidates or to decide on policy. in iowa, this means the political parties themselves run the caucus, not run by the state or county or anybody. is there anybody in here that has not and to a caucus?

ooh. oh, two. all right, so this is what happens at a caucus. for some of us that have not been to one for four or eight years, it will be a good review. if you attend a republican caucus on january 16, what do you expect to happen? when you arrive at one of the street caucus sites in boone county, you will want to make sure you are in the right place for your voting precinct. there will be maps available at all of the sites appear you cannot vote unless you are at your exact right side. the 15 precincts of our county are divided between two locations. if you live in boone precincts one through five, you go to the mac -- you go to dmac.

if you are in ogden or rural precincts four and five, you go to ogden. you must be in line by 7:00 when the doors closed. if you are registered republican, your name will be found in the list available for your precinct. everyone will need a photo id. if you are not registered to vote in boone county or if you are registered but not registered as a republican, which you can be independent or no party, but you would like to vote, you can register at the site that night. when these requirements are met, you will be given a presidential ballot to be collected after the larger meeting starts. the meeting begins with saying the pledge of allegiance, hearing supporters speak in support of their presidential candidate, and now i think we

are going to do local candidates, too, if there are any in our precinct side. the pallets will be collected and counted and the results shared. there's also elections in your precinct. committee members likely boone county republicans, delegates to the county, and so on. any questions about what happens that day? >> [indiscernible] >> me, too. >> is there three or four republicans running for the same office? don't we have a primary for that? >> es, and this is what has happened in past years. like senate candidates, iowa house candidates, supervisor candidates, chair candidates, other county official candidates

get a shorter period of time versus the candidates or a representative for the candidates. they will receive a little bit longer speaking time, but this gives an opportunity for those candidates to speak. the other thing that happens, if i can add this, is there will be a table as everyone comes into the caucuses after they sign in that will have all the paperwork . any candidate that is running has to have a certain number of names. you can get that number from the county auditor. with andy, he will be running for sheriff again, so he will have to have petition papers signed. i'm not sure the number of signatures. >> 75.

>> 75. and they can be signed by anyone in boone county. you have to be a boone county resident to sign those papers, but it gives those people exposure. between the three areas, we will probably have around 2000 caucus-goers in boone county, so it is a very good opportunity for exposure, for people to meet you. >> yes. wherever the candidate lives in that precinct. >> i have a question. gary can probably answer it. [indiscernible] i will be overseeing the county.

>> you have volunteered to be a ballot counter? i think i have already put your name on a piece of paper. your name will be on the list. >> the presidential candidates have designated speakers who will be given to the people who are running the caucus. in other words, trump campaigners or any of the six that are running will tell who the speakers will be. they can, but normally it is a designee from the campaign who will come and do those. a lot of times, the other ones

are for the county people, it is in-person themselves. >> any other questions? >> yes. >> you need to fill in one of these. this is the same day as registration. you will need your id, of course, but you also need two articles that show your place of residence. you need to bring, like, and bill along, a utility bill, so phone bill -- cell phone bill or some people might have it on their phone, but the place of residence has to be proven. >> if they move to a different precinct, they would have to reregister if they are on a different list? >> yes. some of these rural precincts,

they moved the line. >> [indiscernible] >> you think he is in a different precinct then? >> it depends on when you print the list out. >> when did he do it? >> monday last week. >> oh, i don't know. >> i can check. >> it would be safe for him to bring in two bills that have his name or address on them. >> [indiscernible] >> only if you are in a different precinct when they moved the line. >> i am in a different precinct now that they have moved the line but you are saying because i did not change physical

locations -- >> yes, that is correct. >> that is going to be not just for vote tallying. it's going to be a little bit of a challenge because if everyone remembers two years ago, i think it is a law they had to do this. they had to change the districting, and when they did, they changed the boundary lines of the precincts, which means you are still the same person, but now you are -- right. that can throw it off a little bit. that's why we are telling people as much as you can in advance, check and make sure which precinct you are in so you know where you are going to go. the last thing we want is people to come -- not just we, anyone doing caucuses -- to the wrong location and find out they have to travel 15 or 20 or 30 miles to a different location.

>> that happened a while ago. if you voted in the last election, it's ok, right? >> yes, that is correct. the concern is if you are used to being in -- some people only vote in a few elections. they don't vote in every election, and they know where they are going, but they might think well, i am in precinct three, so that's where i'm going to go, but you are really in precinct for now, so you go to where 4 was because you have not been active in a while. and there is nothing there. >> it was more difficult two years ago. they had not even completed the maps, and we had to have a

caucus, and it was really confusing. so this is better. especially 4 and 5. those are both in the same spot. if you think you are in 3 and you are in 6, you are not in the right spot. if you are wondering about it, bring along two letters that say your address. >> it is my understanding that if you go to the secretary of state website, it will tell a person what precinct they are in. >> yeah. and i think you can go to the county auditor, and they probably will tell you, too. all right, i get to ask a question now. did all of you happen to see the boat by the 15th -- you have to

be 18 by the general election on november 5, 2024. i believe you have a 17-year-old sister that can vote? >> she just turned 18. >> so there's a couple different kinds of caucus and primary types. listen carefully and tell me which one iowa is. are we open that voters may vote either party primary regardless of voter party registration, but can only choose one primary to vote in or is boone close, only voters registered with the respective party may vote in a party primary, or are we mixed, which i did not really understand, semi-open, semi-close, unaffiliated can choose to vote in which every --

whichever primary they want? we are close, yes. -- we are closed, yes. if you are registered with another party and you want to vote as republican, you can come that night, but that's when you fill this out because it will not be correct. since you have to fill this out, you still have to have your proof of address. whenever you fill this out, no matter what reason it is for, you have to have your proof of address. >> what is needed? >> let's see. a cell phone or utility bill. a paycheck. i'm assuming they mean, like, the stub for it. but something more than just junk mail that comes to your house. insurance, yet. anything like that.

you know, the stuff that you get every day. so hang on to it if you think you need it. >> [indiscernible] >> no. i don't think so. >> only because your id can be updated. you could have changed your address. >> yes. all right. ok, so another question -- is iowa -- when you are voting for the presidential candidate, is it proportional or winner take all? proportional means like, if, for instance trump gets half the votes, then he gets half the delegates that go to the national convention. or if trump gets over half of the votes, does he get all of

the delegates? >> 00 >> ooh. -- >> ooh. >> ooh. nobody knows. yet, you can guess. i have a list of all the different states. we are proportional. and how many delegates does iowa send to the national convention? we have our county convention and we have a district convention and a state convention, and at the state convention, we elect a certain number of delegates. how many do we get to send to the national convention? i actually thought it sounded like a lot. >> [indiscernible] >> 40. yes.

you failed on that one. nobody guessed right. >> [indiscernible] so when the delegates are chosen to go to the national convention and they -- so if it was -- say trump did get the percent. 20 delegates would be able to vote for trump in the first round at the national convention, and then percentagewise to the other one. if there is 10%, it would be two. >> i do have a question. does that stand for each

district or just 40 throughout the state? >> it is throughout the state. >> i'm not even sure how they are chosen, but i'm sure there is a process. >> there is a process. i apologize again. i cannot tell you the exact way, but there are some that are chosen at the district to go, and then there are some chosen by the state central committee, and then there's also some chosen at the state convention, so they come from three different areas. protocol usually says that they go. normally, it is your chairman of the party.

there's nothing that says it has to be that way. but that can vary. there's not a rule that it has to be that way. >> ok, so here's some trivia questions. how long has iowa been the first state to host a nominating contest for the president of the united states, setting the tone for the rest of the nation? in other words, when did the first in the nation caucus start? >> 1972? >> yes. you get the star for that. i was surprised. i did not live here then. that is still a ways back. there has only been one instance since 1972 that a candidate finished lower than third and still won their party's

nomination. who was it? >> joe biden. >> yes, it was just four years ago. he did not even campaign in iowa. who won instead? >> pete buttigieg? >> bernie sanders. how many states have a republican caucus rather than a primary? keep in mind, primaries are more common than caucus. eight. and the states are iowa, north dakota, idaho, michigan, missouri, hawaii, nevada, and wyoming. hmm. i think that was interesting.

in general, what percentage of registered republicans will turn out to vote on caucus night? >> not a lot. >> 20% to 30%. we are trying to calculate. 20% to 30% who would be about that big. are participants allowed to wear campaign-related hats, shirts, etc. of their favorite candidates to the caucus? yes. in fact, the candidates can set up a booth. >> are you allowed to dress up like them? >> yeah. [laughter] yeah, you can do whatever you want. several weeks ago, one of the

candidates' representatives was on national tv encouraging people from out of state to come to iowa to vote in iowa caucus. was that accurate? >> no. >> it should not have happened. it's illegal. >> also, he hosted a forum for all those people that came from out of state and explained that they could help with the caucuses by making phone calls and knocking on doors. the governor explained it was not legal for them to actually directly participate in the caucus. >> i think it is important that they can come to the caucus. every caucus allows visitors. >> right. anybody can come. >> but visits a spot on that they cannot participate. >> yes. if there is media people there, you are a visitor.

you don't vote in it. >> [indiscernible] >> no. >> that's even better. they can participate via vote -- via promoting their candidate. they just cannot vote. >> that kind of brings us to some of those political attacks that have been active lately. do they have several -- some of those political actors that have been active lately. do they have a role in speaking at the caucus? >> every candidate that is on the ballot gets the opportunity to have a representative speak for two or three minutes. it is usually designated by the pac itself. we have been at a caucus where it's like, is anybody going to speak for joe whoever he is?

and someone raises their hand in the audience and says i have something to say, and you let them. >> you are probably talking about maybe some other pac that you see around. [crosstalk] oh, no, pac's cannot speak. i did not know that's what you meant. >> c-span.org -- >> [indiscernible] >> anyway, this is the way bone is set up. on the way to the gymnasium, there's going to be the petition signed and there will also be candidates set up with a booth. maybe not all of them, but some of them probably will. i suppose that could include a

pac if they want to be there, too. >> what's the exact number of stages? [indiscernible] >> two or three minute -- two to three minutes. >> it depends on how many candidates there are. right now, there's five. >> oh, ok. >> [indiscernible] >> i think there's five. don't quote me on that. to answer your question, it's probably going to be three minutes, but that can be adjusted depending on the actual number of candidates that are there. let's just say for some reason there are only two candidates, they will probably a lot a little bit longer than that -- they will probably allot a

little bit longer than that. >> today we added that there might be a few local people who want to speak, too. we don't want to keep people there at long time. [crosstalk] when you come into the gymnasium, you will see boone 1, boone 2, boone 3, and all those. you go to your area, and that's where you say -- where you stay, and gary will be the moderator and do his pledge of allegiance and say different things and introduce the speakers. when that is done, then you turn to your own precinct, and you will have people there that are

temporary chairs that will lead your district in doing the vote and so on. all right -- oh, how many states hold their primaries on super tuesday? that is, like, march 5. >> 17? >> well, i count 16. you are guessing? >> no, i counted. >> 16. this is a question that could be interesting. we will see what people come up with. we are a state that has had to fight for our first in the nation status. i think it used to be in february. february 15. and then somebody moved ahead of

us, and then we said ok, we are going to january. hopefully we can hang onto that and don't have to have it for christmas -- before christmas. what are some reasons to choose iowa? what is good about having this in iowa? why do people like this? why are we a better state than some other states? >> you mean just because of the caucus? i think the caucuses are a better gauge than the primary. >> you are asking why pick iowa as first in the nation? >> right. we are a caucus, so that's kind of a good thing, but even if we were a primary, why is iowa just a great place to have it?

>> [indiscernible] [laughter] >> it is a small enough state with the population that is low enough that the candidates have a chance to talk to actual people instead of being totally mobbed. they can go to an iowa town, some of the smaller ones, and have 10 or 12 people there. for some, it might be a problem, but then they can talk to the actual people wear as if they try to in new york state or california, there would be hundreds of people and they would not have any individual contact to get the feedback from the populace and take on some of those views from the electorate that they learned from the smaller crowds. >> that's a very good answer. i have eight more that you haven't found yet. what other things? i can start listing. what do you think?

>> [indiscernible] on a daily basis, we are used to talking and working with people who vote different than us. >> yes. >> it adds perspective. >> that's a good answer. we used to be a purple state. now i think we are more red, but we still have a strong democrat and republican presence. >> that's the other interesting thing. democrats thought taking the caucus away from iowa. we chose the wrong candidate. which is the african-american candidate and the gay candidate. they think we are not diverse enough. our democrats actually pick more diverse candidates than the national organization. >> [indiscernible]

we hear it a lot. there is something to that. to tagteam off of that same thing, the republican party of iowa, which is comprised of 18 different people, 4 from each district, and then the chairman and the cochair all have taken a pledge to stay neutral at the last few caucuses, and the idea behind that is we want every candidate to feel like they are welcome, that they can come and no one has the edge over them or they don't have the edge over someone else. they all get treated the same, and that has trickled down into the majority of the counties also. if you watched where some of the candidates go -- this is another big benefit of iowa. candidates can go to 5, 6, 7 different counties in one day

and have town hall meetings or whatever, and they are treated fairly. they might only be 10 miles away from each other, but it's the idea that we want all to feel welcome when they come here, and that is important. another thing that goes along with that, we talk about some of the small communities. yes, we have large ones like des moines that see larger rallies, but the caucus for these campaigns is very expensive, -- the cost for these campaigns is very expensive, but you look at the cost to go to boone versus the cost if you were in new york city or somewhere else, so the economics come into it all for the campaigns. >> and that has trickled down into our boone county group, too. tell us what you told us in our

meetings all winter and spring and summer about people that come to boone county. >> our meetings, we have people that are in favor of certain campaigns, and that's fine as far as the committee, but we are going to treat every one of them like they are the most important person when they come here. the majority of the candidates still in have been for boone county. they have good crowds. i have always been treated good. but we stress that. after you are running a meeting with three people, you get a pretty good sense of who is that is ok. it makes me feel good and

realize what kind of people we have in iowa because eighth person that might be a nikki haley fan will come listen when mike pence is in. we had a big audience there. this gives people an opportunity to meet them face-to-face, talk to them, look them in the eyes and know what they think. >> i think that is an important reason to come to iowa. if everybody was going, don't go to that one, it would not work. i know with my personal experience, meeting the candidates on a personal experience with them, it really makes you see them as what they stand for, what type of an

individual they are. you are not hearing just their commercials that you see on the tv. all of the time. that can make a big difference with who you think is really the one you want to support, and then, maybe if you see someone else in person you might not think that anymore. yes. >> i want to echo gary. i think that iowa cares. i am not originally from iowa. i moved here in 1999. i am amazed at the amount of people willing to campaign in elections. i think that it shows, the turnout, too, of elections. it is not like that in every state.

all you see is what you get on tv. i am amazed at how engaged in campaigns people are here. >> ok. >> you are under charge. >> no. >> did he say they were meeting other friends? i don't know. i could not hear. thank you. ok. are there many other reasons? i still have some on my checklist here. we are centrally located in the country. that is a plus.

we are -- we have an evenly distributed population. we do not have a desert or mountains. and we have roads to get to all these places. we have no major geographic barriers to cross, like a mountain range. that could make it difficult to get from one side of the state to another. and our capital is in the center of the state. a major town. we take our grassroots duties seriously. from 72 until now we are so used to it just being anything. after one president gets in it's like when will the next start? it does not take long. they are here. if are coming. any other comments?

thank you, eileen. >> this is for all of our friends that might be listening to this. briefly, this is what we would like the rest of the country to know about the republican iowa caucus. you have to be a registered republican living in your precinct to vote in person at the designated site. it is a one evening only event with no absentee voting. we use paper ballots counted by hand. no one out-of-state can vote, though, you can attend as a visitor. >> eileen, can i touch on a couple things? >> sure. >> after i get done and turn it over to the caucus i think we should run over what happens in the actual precinct and how that goes.

basically, once the caucus -- once everything is adjourned to the individual presents there is a chairperson and a secretary. the first order of business they will do is vote. as permanent chair members and secretaries. that way they have someone will conduct to the meeting and the secretary is just as important, if not more important. because they record all the information like addresses, and names. >> you said permanent chair and permanent secretary. i thought it was temporary. >> well, you are temporary until you are voted in as permanent. >> that happens as soon as you are there. you have to have somebody running it. that is why you called it a temporary chair and a temporary secretary. nine times out of 10 they will

become the permanent secretary under the permanent chair. but you have to have a temporary one to get the process started. does that make sense? it looks like a formality, but that is what we have to do. >> they are already chosen. all of the temporary chairs and secretaries are chosen and they know that they will be going to their precinct and that they will nominate themselves. i nominate myself, or somebody can do it for the group. generally, nobody challenges that because nobody wants to be a chairman. or a secretary. >> i think the next thing we need to discuss, because i heard a question about what else goes on in front of everybody. after the permanent one was elected. >> we have what is called a

lincoln bag. we pass it around for donations that come to our boone county funds. after that we will collect presidential ballots. those people that are counters, like cam will be a counter, and we have not found the mall yet but we will designate counters too. they will collect the ballots and we will send them off to a classroom to do the counting. not every caucus does this. but we will. because, we have seven precincts in our room. when they go off to do the counting, that allows the now permanent chair and secretary to start doing business because we

will nominate people for the boone county committee. which if anybody is wondering about how to do that, if i can count ballots, we will make sure his name is on the list. that is one election. another election is people that want to come to the county convention in february. and, there is the platform of iowa to look at if we want to add to that. that is another thing. then at some point in time they will come back into the -- the counters will come back to tell us what the move was. >> can i add one more thing? >> sure. >> i know this will be a question.

how do we know they are being counted properly? the campaigns have already said they want people, and it is in the state bylaws that they are allowed and they should come and watch the counting of the ballots. so, room one will have two counters and they will probably have two or three people standing behind them watching to make sure they are counting properly. this is something we talked about. because we felt historically people in the caucus, one of the most important things they want to do is vote in the presidential election. they don't want to sit there for hours and hours after hours. we want to move this along swiftly. not her yet, but move it swiftly

so business can be taken care of while ballots are being counted and they will bring members back and by that point a lot of the business will be done at the precincts. >> at the state election, the government election, they have something called chain of custody. so, cam will have a pager where he tallies the votes and he will sign the paper and it says i was a counter and it is up to him and his fellow counter to do it accurately. count it twice, then, bring it to the person that will call it in to the state. so, --. >> who is that individual? >> i will do that. >> and rick?

>> and tammy. we are designated. you can either call it in and they say, please don't do that, use an app. it will be an out on a phone. i will have seven precincts to report. i will have somebody to help me. eileen boot >> i have another question about the permanent chair.ary ahe so, that means, at the next caucus. >> just for that night. you do not sign your life away. >> >> one thing that is different between a caucus and a primary is this is grassroots starting up.

at the initial caucus is those that are principate and had the opportunity to submit elements that can be added to or amended in our party platform. the ones received will be sent to the county convention and sorted and voted on and passed on to the state, do the district, then the state convention. whereas, the primaries don't have that element. >> right. and i don't even know, like, in the states that have primaries, how did they choose their counting people? i don't know. this is the book that iowa puts out that is very helpful. they tell you how to set up a caucus. what do you need and how to go on down the line and it is very helpful just to know what to do.

i think that this has been very informative. we thank eileen so much for all her work on this and, like she said, we have this booklet. we have trainings for being a caucus worker. it helps to have these types of sessions so you are not being confused when you are going there and trying to help other people. if -- one little point of information tonight. a lot of you are usually here for our meeting. deanna hyatt will be my second cochairperson. that is because --. i live in the country, 15 miles away. sometimes the weather does not

have be driving in it. so, somewhere here in boone. she has help from home so that she can always get here. that will be good for me too. that way i don't always feel like i have to brave the weather to get here. so, thank you, everyone, for coming. >> i would like to add a few things if i could, please. eileen is the chair of our committee called caucus to convention that incorporates even our county convention. the amount of work that that individual is tasked with is is really avoidable and it takes a lot of planning. this did not just start this week or a month ago. it actually started well over a year ago. eileen has done it enough and has done it several times.

she has had very constructive ideas on how to change the booklet and i think it is important this comes out. she gave the information to me and i took it to the state central committee and some changes were made to simplify it. we previewed that and i know that the county appreciates it. brian, thank you. it is a -- it takes a lot of time. but, that is what it takes to run a really good caucus. and i am proud to say that the planning is what makes things run smoothly. i appreciate that very much. thank you, along with everyone else that has helped. are there any other questions in regard caucus buddy have an idea what is going on? i know some of you said you had not been there, but this is the time to ask.

there is no silly question. we will try to answer as best we can if anyone has any questions. the doors open at 5:30. as eileen said, we shut the doors at 7:00. that might sound a little crazy. but, that is one thing. sometimes people tend to procrastinate and come in at the very end. you have to get there because it's not fair to everybody that came out and that is not boone. the doors close at 7:00 p.m. and then we move right along forward with it. >> once you see a caucus work, it will not be as confusing as reading it out of a book. eileen did such a wonderful job condensing what is very wordy in places in the book. but the book, if you have not done this before, it will give

you the words you need to say and what you have to do. step-by-step what has to be done to make the caucus run on time and with as little confusion as is possible. >> we are very fortunate in boone county that we only need three locations. but, if you take a larger metropolitan area like des moines, it is like 40 or 50 different carcass locations. >> 175 in humboldt county. >> yeah. there are a lot of locations. and that is a struggle. but, that is part of the chairperson's job to find those. and they always find them. that is why it is so vital that the state central committee is

working. part of this goes through steve scheffler, the national committee man of the republican party of iowa. he has worked diligently to try to get and keep that decision made promptly and quickly because a lot of locations, gymnasiums, schools, wherever they may be, often big office rooms, whatever. you have to reserve a lot of that a year in advance or you do not get it. this year we are fortunate because the day we are having it is the mlk holiday. so, there's no school. that allows us to get into the facilities a little earlier than normally. otherwise, there is basketball, whatever sports might be going on. there is a lot of preplanning that goes into these caucuses, a

lot more than probably needs the eye. any other questions? this has been good. good ideas. >> and these do get addictive. once you have been to one. when you get used to the complicated set up you feel good and you go home and it is hard to stop there. once you go, you will continue to go, i promise you. >> ok. thank you for taking the time tonight to come here and be with us. this is a typical group. we have these every month. during the year. we pick subjects we know will interest people in the area. and i guess that is about it. >> thank you. >> thank you. [applause].