A Guide for Volunteers

First Things First

THANK YOU!

(The caucus would not happen without you!)

 What happens on caucus night?
• Registered Democrats indicate their
preference for president
• The county party addresses some party
business
• Campaign supporters select delegates for the
county convention
When do volunteers need to show up?

• Doors open at 6 p.m. at precinct sites across

Poweshiek County
• In most cases, volunteers should arrive at 5:45
• In a few cases, we might need volunteers to
show up earlier.
 Ten Poweshiek Precincts
• Deep River & Lincoln
• “BCWMJ Townships” (Brooklyn & surrounding area)
• Malcom & Sheridan
• “CGWS Townships” (Outside Grinnell)
• Four Wards of Grinnell
• “JUPS Townships” (Outside Montezuma)
• City of Montezuma
• People can always find their precinct at iwillvote.com
 Four sizes of precinct
By number of caucus participants

1. Small
– Deep River: 9 [2020 chair: Diana Dawley]
– Malcom: 20 [2020 chair: Georgia Plumbe]
– Montezuma: 30 [2020 chair: Bridget Miller]
– “JUPS”: 31 [2020 chair: Garold Nelson]

Will probably need 1-2 volunteers

 Four sizes of precinct
By number of caucus participants

2. Medium

– BCWMJ/Brooklyn: 46 [2020 chair: Jason Roudabush]

– “CGWS”: 55 [2020 chair: Ivy Schuster]

Will probably need 3-5 volunteers

 Four sizes of precinct
By number of caucus participants

3. Large

– Southwest Grinnell: 90 [2020 Chair: John Clayton]

– Southeast Grinnell: 155 [2020 Chair: Jordan Scheibel]
– Northeast Grinnell: 190 [2020 Chair: Tara Shukla]

Will probably need 10-20 volunteers

 Four sizes of precinct
By number of caucus participants

4. ENORMOUS!
– Grinnell College/Northeast Grinnell: 935!
– 2020 chair: John Grennan
– Second-largest in all of Iowa
– CNN will be broadcasting this caucus

Will probably need 30-50 volunteers

 Volunteer Tasks
(Some will vary depending on location)
• Greeter/Traffic Cop
• Signing in registered Democrats
• Signing in observers/press
• Registering new Democrats
• Collecting donations
• Circulating candidate petitions
• Counting voters
• Distributing & collecting presidential preference cards
• Caucus Math Check
• Childcare
• Cleanup
 Questions on Caucus Night
• If a volunteer has a question on caucus night, your
precinct chair should be able to answer it.
• If something comes up we can’t answer, we will
contact Rachel Bly 
• If something comes up Rachel can’t answer, we will
contact state party
 Greeter/Traffic Cop
• Stand near front door
• Welcome people to the caucus
• Try to direct them to their proper location at
entrance
– 1. Check-in for registered Democrats
– 2. Check-in for people who need to register as
Democrats
– 3. Check-in for observers
 Signing in Registered Democrats
• Seated behind table near front entrance
• Help people find their name on Democratic voter roll
• Have them sign their name
• If they cannot find their name, direct them to next station
register to vote as a Democrat
• New notations this year: Satellite caucus & early check-in
• In larger precincts, we may have you hand out a “ticket”
to voters after they sign in
Democratic
Voter
Roll
 Signing in observers/press
• Seated behind table near front entrance
• Make sure anyone who wants to be at caucus SIGNS IN!
• Even if a person doesn’t intend to vote, we need to have
a record that they attended
• High school students can sign in as youth observers
• Kids under the age of 12 don’t need to sign in if they are
with their parents
 Registering New Voters
• Seated behind table near front entrance
• Iowa driver’s license or Social Security number very helpful to have
• Make sure person marks party registration as DEMOCRAT!
• Independents are NOT allowed to caucus as Democrats in Iowa
• Make sure person signs & dates form
• Some quirks with Grinnell College dorms addresses that we will go
over in that precinct
• Also have person sign new Democrat voter registration sheet
Vot
er
Reg
New
Democrat
Form
 Collect Donations
• We collect for both the state and local parties
• Smaller precincts: Can have collection envelope at
voter sign-in and ask people for donation
• Larger precincts: Good to have a separate
volunteer who can circulate through crowd and
ask politely for donations
• If asked, you can explain that the county party uses
the money to do things like rent caucus spaces,
advertise the caucus in the newspaper, etc.
Finance
Envelope
 Candidate Petitions
• We circulate petitions for both the state and local
candidates
• Smaller precincts: Can have petitions on table near
voter sign-in and direct people to sign them if they
want.
• Larger precincts: Good to have a separate volunteer
who can stay with petitions and encourage people to
sign them.
• Petitions will be for 3-5 US Senate candidates & local
candidates (Diana Dawley, Tom Kriegel, Ivy Schuster)
Nomination
Petitions
 Counting voters (Part 1)
• After presidential preference groups have formed, we
must count people in each group.
• Precinct chair can do this in small precincts.
• In large precincts, helpful to have volunteers
complete counts.
• Might be slightly easier than 2016 since we have
more candidates?
 Counting voters (Part 2 )
• Counting is a good volunteer task for high school students
who cannot vote (other volunteers will likely want to stand in
place for their candidate when possible).
• In largest precincts, we will try to get voters to sit either
20/25/30 to a row in bleachers to facilitate counts.
• Precinct captains with campaigns with help verify counts
• We do separate counts for first and second alignments. No
one will be counted twice for the same candidate.
 Presidential Preference Cards (Part 1)

• New at the 2020 caucus

• Intended to provide a paper trail of what
happened in the precinct
• Can be used as part of an audit of a precinct
(extreme cases only)
• In larger precincts, we need volunteers to help
both distribute & collect PPCs
Presidential
Preference
Cards
 Presidential Preference Cards (Part 2)

• Distributed after first alignment (supposed to

help verify overall count at caucus)
• Distribution easy at smaller precincts
• Distribution not at all easy at larger precincts
• We collect preference cards from voters in
“viable” groups
 Presidential Preference Cards (Part 3)
• Once PPC is collected, a voter can go home if
she or he wishes. Their vote is counted
• Groups that were not viable in first round will
have opportunity to make (or join) a viable
group and fill out second side of card.
• We will need a volunteer to maintain chain of
custody for PPCs once they are collected. Easy
in small precincts, more difficult in large
precincts—good task for volunteer.
 Childcare
• No active plans for the little ones—we will
discuss at our Jan. 28 party meeting
• We will also coordinate with campaigns to ask
about their resources & suggestions
• Caucusing sucks for parents of small children
• One silver lining: People can leave once their
candidate is viable.
• A volunteer task for anyone eager to take it!
 Caucus Math
• Determining “viability” at each precinct
• Formulas differ slightly—15% at most precincts, 16.6%
in Malcom, 25% in Deep River
• After second alignment, determine how many county
convention delegates different candidates receive
[Formulas depend on number of delegates precinct is
allotted]
• Campaigns will be pretty eager to check our math and
make sure we don’t make mistakes
• A good volunteer task for someone who likes math
 Closing Up
• We will work with precinct captains for
campaigns to make sure they select delegates
for county convention
• We will elect up to three members of Central
Committee for county party from each
precinct
• Precinct chair or secretary will report out data
to state party
 Cleaning Up
• We will work to make the space as nice as
when we arrived
• Precinct chairs will coordinate with county
chairs about turning in paperwork, etc.
• We won’t have to do this full-on presidential
caucus again for another 8 years (WE HOPE!!!)