Obama to Address Caucuses

The leader of the Democratic Party will be addressing the first in the nation caucuses on Jan. 3, the Obama campaign announced via text this morning.

The announcement, and the two days of emailed and twittered tease beforehand, was a handy-dandy way for Team Obama to update its email and phone lists for the new election year.

The live video hookup to most caucus sites, scheduled for roughly 7:10 PM, had previously been billed as a message from "a top administration surrogate." Doesn't get much more top than that.

The Obama video, and the anticipated lower turnout in an uncontested nomination race, is one of the reasons Democrats are "clustering" caucus sites with multiple precincts at one location. In Johnson County the 57 precincts will meet at eight locations.

Also from the Department of Caucus Logistics: if you're changing your registration now, be ready to do it over again on caucus night. Both parties printed their voter lists in mid-November, and (locally at least) both parties are requiring anyone not on the list because of a move or a party change to fill out a registration farm -- even if you present a newly minted voter card. So if you changed registration any time since, say the city election, get there early. You can even bring your filled out form along.

One key difference: Republicans changing on caucus night will have to show ID and proof of address; the Johnson County Republicans are following the election day registration rules. Democrats don't require ID.