How to Vote Absentee at Caucus

Caucus is on March 5, 2024 starting at 7pm. It will last approximately until 9pm. We encourage folks to arrive early. 

If you can’t attend caucus in person, however, there is an opportunity to participate absentee. You can participate absentee if you have a scheduling conflict, physical disability or qualify under the UOCAVA process because you will be overseas for the next three months. This post will address specifically the situation where you are in the state of Utah, but you are unable to attend caucus in person or stay the whole time. If you are overseas or out of state and qualify under UOCAVA, please refer to these instructions. 

Getting Your Ballot

First, you should preregister. When you preregister, an absentee presidential preference poll ballot and a ballot to vote for delegates and/or precinct leadership  is emailed to you. You should print out that email and detach the two ballots at the bottom. (You should also preregister if you plan to attend caucus because it will significantly speed up the check in process.) You will need all three parts of this email to fill out your ballot – the email confirmation, the presidential preference ballot and the precinct elections ballot, though you are not required to vote on all roles on both ballots. 

Filling Out Your Ballot 

The presidential preference poll ballot has the names of qualified candidates who are still in the race. Pick one candidate by filling in the oval next to that candidates’ name. Write in candidates are not accepted. The ballot looks like this. 

The ballot to vote for delegates and/or precinct leadership do not have names. It is your responsibility to educate yourself on who is running in your precinct if you will be voting absentee. If your chosen candidate for those roles decides not to run or is not in attendance, they may not be elected without their permission. The ballot looks like this. 

Preparing Your Ballot

To prepare your ballot to be cast you will need three things:

• A copy of your preregistration confirmation email that includes the QR code
• A photocopy of your government issued photo ID (front and back)
• Your presidential preference ballot and/or your precinct elections ballot

Please seal your ballot inside an envelope you will sign on the back and paper clip or staple the other two documents to the outside. These documents will be used to credential your absentee ballot and then destroyed to maintain the privacy of your ballot.

If the address on your license does not match your current address, make sure that your neighbor is aware of the discrepancy if you are not dropping the ballot off yourself. We will use the address on your voter registration (not your license, if they don’t match) to verify that you are eligible to vote in that precinct. You do not have to vote in both elections (presidential and precinct) to vote in just one of them. 

Casting Your Ballot

To drop off your ballot you have four options: 

• You can bring it in yourself; you will credential when you arrive using the same preregistration email 
• You can give it to a neighbor who is a registered Republican in your precinct
• You can give it to a family member who has the same voter registration address as you do and who is also a registered Republican 
• You can give it to your precinct host or chair to bring it on your behalf

This person will bring your ballot in with them, whether that’s you or someone else, on the night of caucus. You or the person dropping off your ballot will want to make sure they hand the ballot to the precinct chair/host early so they have time to credential it before the meeting starts.

How Your Ballot is Counted

We’ve instructed the county Republican parties to have the precinct chairs or hosts open all absentee ballots for their precinct at the beginning of the meeting so they can be counted with the appropriate election. Your ballot will be included like anyone else’s ballot who is in the room. 

The caucus rules also require that ballots are counted in the room in front of participants who wish to watch. Thus, the person who brings in your ballot on your behalf, unless you drop it off yourself and leave, does have the opportunity to watch the counting of ballots, including yours.

A Few Additional Details

• You must give your ballot to someone in your precinct. You cannot give it to someone who lives in a different precinct. 
• You do not have to sit through the entirety of caucus in order to vote absentee.
• If you drop off your ballot, you have to drop it off at your caucus. You can’t drop it off at any caucus.
• Preregistering as an absentee voter will still speed up your credentialing if you drop off your ballot yourself, so keep the email handy.

Check out our Caucus FAQs for the answers to other questions.