The Military and Overseas Tele-Caucus is available to Nevadans who are registered to vote and covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Voting Act (UOCAVA) and any active-duty member of the military who is outside the borders of Nevada on the day and time of the Nevada Democratic Caucus, which will take place on Saturday, February 20 at 11 a.m. PT. This would include:
- Member of the military stationed outside Nevada
- Military family members living abroad
- Member of the Peace Corps
- Member of the Diplomatic Corps
- Students or other Nevadans living abroad
Pre-Registration
On our state party website (NVDems.com), we have a link to pre-register for the TeleCaucus. All fields on the form are mandatory. We will ask for the following information:
- Full Name
- Date of Birth
- Nevada Voting Address (Street, City, Zip)
- Phone Number
- Which of the following most accurately describes your reason for participating in the Tele-Caucus? (drop-down menu)
- Member of the military stationed outside Nevada
- Military family members living abroad
- Member of the Peace Corps
- Member of the Diplomatic Corps
- Students or other Nevadans living abroad
NV Dems will check each registrant’s information using the Nevada Secretary of State Voter File. NV Dems will confirm on a rolling basis that all participants are registered Democrats and eligible to participate. If they are not eligible, they will be notified by NV Dems and asked to complete a voter registration form online at nvsos.gov.
Pre-Registration Timeline
- Monday, February 1st – Sunday, February 14 (Midnight PT)
Email Confirmation
A reminder email will be distributed one week before the caucus with Tele-Caucus dial-in information (phone number and a unique pin) on a rolling basis to everyone who pre-registered the last week. NV Dems will also send out reminder emails the day before the caucus.
Pre-Caucus Logistics
Each presidential campaign will be asked to submit a two-minute recording from their candidate, due by Friday, February 12. A member of the NV Dems staff or a designated volunteer will chair the Tele-Caucus. Two additional staffers or designated volunteers will assist the Tele-Caucus Chair during the call. Tele-Caucus Rules
- Participants must pre-register with NV Dems by Sunday, February 14, 2016 and must meet the qualifications outlined in this memo.
- Participants must be registered Democrats.
- Participants have until February 14, 2016 to register to vote.
- Participants will receive a confirmation email after registering.
- NV Dems will confirm all participants are registered Democrats, and will alert anyone who needs to update voter registration by February 14, 2016.
- NV Dems will notify anyone who does not qualify.
- Participants will remain anonymous.
Participants will receive a reminder email one week out, which will include a dial-in number and a unique pin. Reminder emails will also be sent the day before and morning of the Tele-Caucus. - Participants must be dialed in to the Tele-Caucus by 12:00 p.m. PT.
- Participants will be asked to stay on the line for the duration of the call.
- Participants will be able to press “0” at any time to communicate with an operator and ask questions.
- There are two delegates allocated to the state convention from the Tele-Caucus.
- If more than two viable preference groups still exist after the first realignment process, the smallest preference group(s) must realign.
- The Tele-Caucus Chair will announce the number of eligible attendees and calculate viability using the 25% threshold. The viability threshold will be announced to the group.
- Presidential candidate recordings will play in alphabetical order by last name before the first alignment period.
There will be one alignment period and three realignment periods, each lasting two minutes. Participants will be instructed to press “1” for Hillary Clinton, “2” for Martin O’Malley, “3” for Bernie Sanders, “4” for Uncommitted and “5” for Other. - Once a participant has joined a preference group, he/she will not be able to change a preference group until the next realignment process.
- At the 60-second and 30-second marks, participants will be given an update on preference group sizes and how many more members each group needs to become viable. They will also be given a time warning. The clock will be paused during these updates to ensure participants have a full two minutes to make their selections.
- A 10-second time warning will be given.
- After each alignment and realignment period, the Tele-Caucus Chair will announce the preference group sizes, which groups are viable, which groups are not viable, and how many more people each group would need to become viable.
- Anyone is able to realign during the first realignment process; however, only non-viable groups may realign during the second or third realignment.
- During the first realignment process, all participants must re-enter their preference group, even if they were members of an already viable preference group.
- After the first realignment period, any viable preference group members will be locked into their preference group and will no longer have to key in a response to join a preference group.
During second and third realignments (if a third realignment is needed), participants will have an option to no longer participate in the caucus. - If a third realignment process is needed, then it is the final process, and people must be in a viable preference group after that realignment, or will not be included in counts when awarding delegates. This will be made clear to participants.
- If any participants remain in non-viable preference groups after the third realignment process, they will not be included in counts when awarding delegates.
- After the final realignment process, delegates will be awarded to the preference groups using the following formula: (number of members in the group X number of delegates to elect) ÷ total eligible attendees.
- The number of delegates each preference group receives will be announced.
- Note: the viability threshold and the total eligible attendees will not change throughout the duration of the Tele-Caucus.