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Understanding a Precinct

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What is a Precinct Committeeman?

A Precinct Committeeman is the only party official who is directly elected by his party's voters. A Republican Precinct Committeeman represents the Republican Party directly to the people of his precinct and the surrounding community. It is his job to make sure that the voters, especially Republican voters, within his precinct are informed on issues and candidates, that they are prepared to vote, and if necessary provide a means for them get to their polling place.

What responsibilities does a Precinct Committeeman have?

As a Precinct Committeeman you might be asked to circulate petitions and solicit signatures on them. You might walk through your precinct, or a part of it, with an elected official or a candidate for office, introducing him or her to your neighbors.

Every precinct in the county is different, and will have its own unique requirements. There will be some obvious differences between rural precincts and those within incorporated cities. You, the local Precinct Committeeman, will be able to obtain the best results within your own neighborhood and precinct.

What are the basic tasks of a Precinct Committeeman?

1. Elect a Precinct Captain who will assume overall precinct leadership.
2. Divide the precinct into smaller, bite-size areas and assign portions of the precinct to each Precinct Committeeman.
3. Recruit volunteers from the precinct, and assign specific areas to them for door-to-door and telephone work.
4. Have Voter Registration Forms available in your precinct. Regularly check for new move-in's, and for families who will have members turning 18 years of age before the next election.
5. Maintain up-to-date records of the current Republican, as well as other, residents of your precinct.
6. Regularly attend precinct meetings. These meetings are to plan strategy, update records, and other organizational purposes.
7. Attend Shoshone County Republican meetings. These meetings will be good opportunities to trade information and ideas.
8. Assist your Precinct Captain in recruiting Election Board workers.
9. Assist your Precinct Captain in establishing election day Get-Out-The-Vote committees and a Precinct Election Headquarters.
10. Distribute election information and candidate literature to the voters in your precinct.

Among the most useful tools we have available as Precinct Committeemen and Captains is frequent contact with our neighbors. Organization at the grass roots level is what puts the votes in the ballot box!

What assets are available to make a Precinct Committeeman's life easier?

Block Workers are the volunteers who have been recruited to help you keep track of small areas of the precinct. Often, just their own block. Good Precinct Committeemen find good block workers! They will make your life easier.

Election Board Workers are people who work as poll watchers or election judges on election day. (Note to Dan & Chuck: This needs better definition of what these folks do.)

A Precinct Committeeman's Glossary

• Official Roster is the full list of registered voters within the precinct, complete with as much ancillary information as can be acquired, such as phone numbers, etc.
• Perfect List is the list of voters who have been called or otherwise contacted to verify their information found on the Official Roster.
• Walking List is the list of registered voters which has been organized by street number.
• Yellow Sheets are the list of all persons who have actually cast a ballot on election day. These are the nuggets among the dross.
• Block Worker is a volunteer, usually recruited by the Precinct Committeeman, who is assigned to work a small geographic area within the precinct.
• Phone Bank is a group of volunteers who make phone calls to assist in name recognition, encourage the get-out-the-vote program, or to help identify problems.
• Precinct Captain is a Precinct Committeeman who has been elected to lead in the organization of a precinct.
• Absentee Ballot is an election ballot which may be requested by mail and voted by mail. Some voters may need assistance from precinct workers to properly complete the absentee voting process. Often ACORN volunteers will show up unexpectedly to help in this process.

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What is a Republican?

The dictionary defines a republic as:

" ... a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote, and in which that power is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to the citizens and governing according to law."

America has a republican form of government. Republicans believe strongly in and support that kind of government. We believe that smaller government is better government. We also believe that you will spend your hard-earned money more wisely than will bureaucrats in Washington, DC or Boise, if given access to it through taxation.

... the more things change ...

"Make no bones of this. Don't try to sweep this under the rug. We are at war ... And yet the president, who is the commander in chief of our forces, refuses to say-refuses to say, mind you-whether or not the objective over there is victory, ..."

That quote is as fresh as today's headlines. There is a timeliness to it; an urgency, even, as it calls for our attention. It sounds like it could have been delivered today about the current "commander in chief."

In fact, it was spoken 45 years ago by Barry Goldwater, in his 1964 acceptance speech for the Republican Party's nomination for president. The object of his remarks was another Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson. The war to which he referred was raging in Vietnam.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Republican Party
of
Shoshone County Idaho

- what do we believe in?

- an America that is strong enough economically, socially, culturally and militarily to take care of itself, and to stand beside other nations who share our commitment to freedom and liberty.

- that all people are endowed with certain unalienable rights. That without 'life,' 'liberty and the pursuit of happiness' is an empty phrase.

- that a strong America is and will be a peaceful America.

- that Americans of all walks of life can decide better than government how to spend their own income.

- that no arm of government is stronger than the people who elected it.

- that no elected representative is above the law.

- that trust must be the hallmark at all levels of government.

"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

-- Frederick Douglass,
civil rights activist,
Aug. 4, 1857