KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- Republicans residing in Adair County got together Saturday to handle some serious business.
About 85 Republicans attended the Adair County Caucus in order to select delegates. Those delegates may get the chance to select the party's candidate for President.
In order to attend the caucus, the attendees had to be a registered voter, show proof of identification, and sign a pledge stating they were a "strong and faithful Republican."
In order to be selected as a delegate or an alternate, the person had to be present during the county caucus. While there, they had to nominate themselves to be a delegate and then someone else had to approve the nomination. Once approved, the prospective delegates gave a short speech as to why they should be selected. Many of them chose to indicate which candidate they were in support of. After that, everyone in attendance participated in a plurality vote in order to select nine delegates to go the State Convention, nine delegates to go the the 6th Congressional District convention, and alternates for both events. The same person could be elected to attend both events.
At the state level, the delegates' names are entered on a slate. The winning slate, which will contain 25 delegates, gets to go to the national convention and select the party's candidate.
During the 6th Congressional District Convention, delegates have to state the candidate they're supporting, and then after a vote, three of them are selected to attend the national convention.
Tom Hensley, the newly elected Adair County Caucus Chairman, said the 2012 state convention will be the most meaningful.
"The Primary did not count in a sense it did not commit our delegates to vote for any certain person at the national level," said Tom Hensley.
"Then it becomes the business of the convention to elect 25 people who are committed to a candidate. So I envision at the convention, it will be a lot more fun because there will be something to talk about other than platform."
The 6th Congressional District Convention will be held on April 21, in Chillicothe, Mo. and the State Convention will be held on June 2.
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