Photo by Deb Gau Lyon County residents checked out candidate brochures and other resources as they arrived at Tuesday’s Republican precinct caucus in Marshall

MARSHALL — There was some definite contrast between precinct caucuses for the major political parties in Lyon County on Tuesday night. While the Lyon County Republican caucus looked pretty traditional, with county residents meeting to cast straw poll ballots and elect convention delegates, the Lyon County DFL caucus was quiet.

“To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. We’ve never done this before,” said Lyon County DFL chairperson Anita Gaul. Because of COVID, the DFL was holding its first contactless caucus, where people could submit non-attendee forms to participate.

At the same time, around 70 people from the Marshall area were gathered at Grace Life Church for the Republican caucus. Marshall was one of three precinct caucus locations for the Republicans, the other two being Minneota and Tracy.

County-wide, a total of 91 people cast votes in a Republican straw poll for Minnesota Governor.

Compared to past caucuses, “It’s a similar turnout for a gubernatorial year,” said David Sturrock, co-chairperson of the Lyon County Republicans.

Sturrock said he was “very pleased” with the number of new people he saw at the precinct caucus this year. It was good to see county residents come out to get involved with politics at the local level, he said.

The gubernatorial straw poll showed candidates Scott Jensen and Paul Gazelka leading out of a total of seven gubernatorial candidates. Jensen received a total of 38 votes, and Gazelka received 20 votes. Kendall Qualls received 12 votes, Michelle Benson received 8 votes, Mike Murphy received 6 votes, Neil Shah received 1 vote, and there was 1 write-in vote for Rich Stanek. Five voters were undecided, Sturrock said.

By around 8 p.m. Tuesday night, Gaul said the Lyon County DFL had received precinct caucus forms from 24 people.

“For a non-presidential year, that’s not bad,” she said. Some people had taken the option to submit a non-attendee form by email, while others physically dropped off a form at the Marshall Adult Community Center.

All non-attendee forms had to be submitted by 9 p.m. on Feb. 1.

The next step for both the Lyon County Republicans and DFL will be the county conventions for both parties. Delegates chosen at the precinct caucuses will be sent to represent their voting precincts at the conventions.

Not all of the people attending Tuesday’s caucus night were there to participate. A number of the people in the crowd at the Republican caucus were student observers. Southwest Minnesota State University students Kaitlyn Proell, McKenna Hinrichs, John Romero and Michele Stai said they were observing the caucus for their government class.

“This will be a new experience for all of us,” Hinrichs said. She said the group’s professor wanted to make sure students got a chance to learn how a caucus works firsthand.