CHEYENNE -- Record turnouts at Democratic Party primaries and caucuses across the country have Wyoming Democrats preparing for similar numbers at county caucuses March 8.

“It has blown things out of the water. We’re trying to look at the numbers from other states and plan accordingly,” Wyoming Democratic Party communications director Bill Luckett said Wednesday.

“It’s a really great problem to have; too many people in Wyoming want to be involved.”

With so many expected to show up, Luckett said he wants to make certain that people know one very important fact: caucuses are only open to registered Democrats. Participants must register by this Friday, and anyone who did not vote in the 2006 general election must re-register. Registration only takes a few minutes, he said, and can be done at the county clerk’s office.

Luckett anticipates having to turn people away on March 8 because they did not register by Feb. 22, or because they have been purged from the system because they haven’t voted since before 2006.

Laramie County is planning for 500 participants, Laramie County Democratic Party communications director Nicole Novotny said. For that reason, it has moved its caucus to the Cheyenne Civic Center, a facility that is equipped to handle the large number of participants.

But the party didn’t have the $2,000 required to make that move until the opening of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign office in Cheyenne, Novotny said.

There, it was discussed that that the original space, the University of Wyoming Family Practice Center, might not be big enough.

“People basically passed around a hat and raised $1,800,” Novotny said. “People are excited about it and wanted to make sure we had appropriate accommodations.”

In other states, parking has been a problem at voting sites that were bombarded by four or five times as many participants as expected. People may have to walk a couple of blocks, said Luckett, but he doesn’t anticipate any additional parking woes than the Civic Center usually sees for events.

Once voters are registered, have set their alarm clocks Saturday morning (registration begins at 8 a.m.) and find a parking place once they get there, they can expect to be herded into a large room with hundreds of fellow Democrats.

The first order of business will be the presidential preference vote, where participants will vote for whichever Democratic Party nominee they like.

The Laramie County Democratic Party will use a ballot system to vote, as opposed to an open caucus, where people are separated based on their preference and heads are counted.

After their votes have been cast, people are free to leave, and many will, Luckett predicted.

But the presidential preference vote is just one of several decisions that will be made that day.

After the results from the presidential preference vote are determined, those who stay will vote from among them for the delegates that they want to represent their candidate at the Wyoming Democratic Convention.

Laramie County gets 55 delegates to send to the Wyoming convention, and those 55 will be portioned out based on the percentages of votes that each candidate gets at the primary.

The 55 that are chosen will go to Jackson in May to decide from all of the county delegates the 18 that will represent Wyoming in Denver at the Democratic National Convention.

While it is assumed that the delegates will vote for the candidate they were chosen to represent, Luckett said there is no law or rule requiring them to vote based on the decision made at their caucuses.

“They are to vote their conscience,” he said.

After voting for delegates is complete, other party business will be attended to and voted on.

If most people arrive early -- closer to 8 than to 9 -- and get registered and ready, it could only take an hour to cast the presidential preference votes, and the whole event could be finished in a few hours.

However, if everyone arrives at the last minute to register, and the votes are debated and drawn out, it could take much longer.

Unfortunately, because caucuses are not controlled by the government but by individual parties, time off from work is not guaranteed like it is for a presidential election.

But because it’s on a Saturday, the party is hoping that won’t be a major obstacle, Luckett said.