SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah Republican Party has opted out of the traditional primary election process and is instead requiring in-person voting to nominate a potential presidential candidate.

The Utah Republican Party will be holding a Presidential Preference Poll at the caucus on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024. This poll, to determine the state party’s presidential nominee, will be in-person and restricted to Utah Republican Party members only.

“Those who are unaffiliated or registered to other parties will not be permitted to participate,” a release stated.

In the Presidential Preference Poll, voters will go in person to discuss potential presidential candidates and directly cast their votes for candidates. The voting system for the Utah Republican Party includes Ranked-Choice Voting, where voters can rank each candidate instead of simply picking one candidate to support.

According to the Chair of the Utah Republican Party Robert Axson, this is a similar process to 2016 as people can go in person to vote, but it gets rid of the additional step of primaries.

The Utah Democratic Party will be hosting a traditional Presidential Primary on March 5, 2024, according to their website. Residents will have access to in-person voting, early voting, same-day voter registration, drop boxes, and voting by mail.

This includes voters who declare themselves as Democrats or unaffiliated as long as they are registered voters in Utah. However, they cannot participate in the nominating process of any other party for the same election.

The Utah Democratic Party will then participate in the caucus on Super Tuesday, but only to handle other official business, as the voting was done in primaries.

Another key difference is that Presidential Primaries are run and funded by state and local governments, whereas a Presidential Poll is not funded by the government.

For more information on potential Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, you can visit Ballotpedia’s website.