Colorado Republicans kick off the process that eventually leads to designation of party standard bearers for state and national elected offices at the Feb. 7 precinct caucuses.

For many years, the Colorado party caucuses were held in March. While the Democrats will gather on March 6 this year, the Republicans will hold their caucuses on Feb. 7.

“Our party set the Feb. 7 date for precinct caucuses that include the presidential preference poll because we felt Colorado voters should have an early say in selecting the presidential candidate,” said Chuck Popistein, state party executive director. “We do expect some or all of the candidates will visit Colorado. We already have some activity as Ron Paul has offices in the state and the Romney campaign is active.”

There are about 730,000 active Republican voters in the state. Because of the interest in who will be the party’s presidential candidate and because the caucus includes a presidential preference straw poll, precinct caucus attendance is expected to be high.

A precinct caucus is a grass-roots assembly where party members who live within the precinct's geographical boundaries meet for a discussion of issues and candidates and to begin the party selection process for party candidates for state and federal offices..

Each of Colorado’s 64 counties is divided into voter precincts based on population and geographical location. While the final redrawing of precinct boundaries is still under way, estimates are there are about 3,500 precincts in Colorado.

Any resident living in the precinct can attend a caucus but, to be part of the decision-making process, the individual had to be a registered voter or declare affiliation with that particular party.

Because there are hundreds of precincts in each county, the best way for an individual to find the location for his or her precinct is to go to their county party’s website.

The website for Arapahoe County Republicans is www.arapahoerepublicans.org and, for Douglas County, the site is www.dcgop.org.

Frequently, caucuses are held in schools, community meeting rooms or private homes. Larger venues, such as a school auditorium, may be the site for several separate precinct caucuses.

“The precinct caucus is democracy in action,” Centennial resident Louise Brainard said. “I have moved around in Colorado over the last 20-plus years but I have made it a point to attend a Republican caucus. I really enjoy the process even though sometimes there aren’t very many of us at the caucus as there probably should be. I don’t think that’ll be the case this year considering all the hype about the presidential candidacy races that has been going on for months.”