Where, When Can Apple Valley Residents Caucus?

It's officially presidential election season after Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, when Mitt Romney to win the state's primary among the pool of candidates.

Apple Valley residents will get a chance to be a part of presidential primary season on Feb. 7, when Minnesota holds its primary, which is also a caucus. Minnesota is roughly seventh in line among states on the primary/caucus calendar.

There will be multiple caucus sites in Apple Valley; you'll be able to search for yours on the Minnesota Secretary of State's website starting Jan. 18.

More information is available online in a brochure from the Secretary of State's office.

Local information can also be found at Second Congressional District Republican website.

What's a Caucus?

A caucus helps a political party gain consensus as to how voters have aligned their political and candidate preferences.

But at a caucus, there’s more going on than just candidate selection. Participants sometimes select county committee chairs that go to a state—and sometimes national—convention.

What distinguishes a caucus from a primary is that at a primary, voters don’t have to be present at one particular location at a specific time. For a primary, voters just go to their polling place and cast a vote, the same as they would do at a general election.

For a caucus you have to be physically present at your designated caucus site, register, show your party affiliation and then participate in the process. Attendees participate directly.

Depending on your voter registration, you can either go to the Democratic caucus or Republican caucus. Each party has its own rules and guidelines it follows.