By Vice-Chairman Pam Pollard

We are starting a new series of articles to help answer some of the more common questions we receive here at the OKGOP. Our State Vice-Chair, Pam Pollard, will be answering these questions in the "Ask Pam" series.

This week we will be talking about precinct meetings and will answer the question: Do we have to attend the precinct meeting and why is it important?

March 6, 2012 Oklahomans will go to the polls to vote for their party's candidate for President. Most people do not realize their vote in the "primary" is actually a vote for a delegate to represent their wishes at their party's Presidential Nominating Convention.

Every one has seen and heard of the "National Convention" but most people do not know what it takes to be a delegate to the convention.

In Oklahoma, the process is straight forward and the path is clear.  We hold precinct meetings to elect  delegates to the county convention. We hold county conventions to elect delegates to the district convention as well as delegates to the state convention. The next step is the state convention where we elect delegates to the national convention who then cast their vote for the Republican nominee for President.

But how do we select these delegates? It all starts at the PRECINCT MEETING!

In Oklahoma we have 2 categories of precinct meetings: Biennial and Quadrennial.  The Biennial meetings are held in ODD numbered years and the Quadrennial meetings are held in Presidential election year. This is a Presidential election year so our precinct meetings are Quadrennial meetings.

Quadrennial Precinct meeting are scheduled for next Monday night, February 6.  Some counties will be holding their meetings on a different date so be sure and check our events tab at okgop.com.

As you have heard me say, the delegate selection process is simple if we take one step at a time. Today I want to talk about step 1- the precinct meeting.

We hold our quadrennial precinct meetings in Presidential years for 2 purposes: to elect delegates to the county conventions and to submit planks to the platform. We do not elect Precinct officers this year as they are elected at the Biennial Precinct Meetings.

Each precinct is given an "authorized number of delegates" to their County Convention as determined by the County Executive Committee following the specifications given in the OKGOP Rules.

The next step for the delegates is to attend their County Convention. Each County Convention will do 3 things: 1) elect delegates to the District Convention(s) within the county; 2) elect delegates to the State Convention; and 3) pass a platform that will be submitted to the State Convention.

It is our policy and some counties have adopted very strict rules that if you do not attend your precinct meeting you cannot be a delegate to ANY of the conventions. If you have an extenuating circumstance and not able to attend the meeting, you should contact your County Chairman before the precinct meetings to see what the rules are.

We, as Republicans are strong believers in local control so the most powerful unit of the OKGOP is the precinct. This is where you elect your representatives (delegates) and talk about what you believe should be included in our platform, the list of things we, as Republicans, think is vital to our party.

Presidential Campaigns in Oklahoma are working hard to get their supporters to the meetings. I encourage you to bring your friends and neighbors next Monday and let them see that the OKGOP is the party OF the PEOPLE, BY the PEOPLE and FOR the PEOPLE.

Tags: Ask Pam Series, Pam Pollard, precinct meetings