The city of Prior Lake is
encouraging residents to use a new, free online tool to identify the times and
locations of the upcoming Feb. 5 political party caucuses.

The Minnesota Secretary
of State’s office recently launched the precinct caucus finder and worked with
political parties in Minnesota to create the one-stop, easy-to-use online
search tool.

Prior Lake residents interested in attending a precinct
caucus can visit the city’s Web site at www.cityofpriorlake.com or the Secretary of State’s Web site
at www.sos.state.mn.us and click on the “Precinct Caucus Finder” link.

The caucus finder will
display caucus times and locations provided by the political parties. If a date
and location is not available for a party’s caucus, the Web site directs users
to a link to the party’s Web site for more information.

Precinct caucuses are
free and open to the public. To participate at a caucus, residents must be
eligible to vote in the Nov. 4, 2008 general election and likely to support the
candidates of that political party. A caucus brochure is available for download
at www.sos.state.mn.us/docs/mnprecinctcaucuses.pdf.

The Republican, DFL and Independence parties are scheduled to meet for their
respective caucuses on Feb. 5 or “Super Tuesday.” The DFL and Republican parties
also will have “straw polls” at their caucuses for presidential candidates.

The Constitution Party
will caucus on Feb. 2, and the Green Party will caucus on March 4. The
Independence Party will continue to meet online in a virtual caucus through
March 4.

The results of the
presidential straw polls, as provided by the political parties, will appear on
the Secretary of State Web site at www.sos.state.mn.us.