For as long as most people of voting age can remember, the Presidential primary in Kentucky has been held on the regular primary election day when all other offices on the ballot appear. However, apparently beginning in 2016, there will be a major change in the way Kentucky Republicans vote to choose the Presidential nominee.

Kentucky Republicans made political history and altered the state’s election protocol on August 22 when the state’s GOP leaders voted to switch from a primary election to a presidential caucus for next year’s election, according recent reports, including a recent published report in the August 26 edition of the Wayne County Outlook by news writer Casey Tolliver.

Clinton County Clerk Sheila Booher, as well as apparently most county clerks across Kentucky, were somewhat caught off guard with the news of the Republican party change to the caucus system.

When contacted last week, Booher said she had only heard secondhand about the matter from a Wayne County resident and on Monday, after calling several other county clerks in Kentucky, they too had no information, other than media reports, about the change to the caucus system.

Booher told the NEWS on Monday she and the other county clerks didn’t know how it would affect next spring’s Republican presidential election but will continue to seek information on what effect it will have on county clerks and the voting process, hopefully giving more information in the coming weeks.

Although there are still questions among county clerks and state election officials as to exactly how the process is going to work, the state Republican move has garnered national media attention, both from television news networks and the internet.

In fact, GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump has already brought the political aspect into the picture, having tweeted statements about Sen. Paul on his twitter page a few days ago.

Paul, the freshmen senator from Kentucky, is among a large 16 person field in the race for the Republican presidential nomination next year, and in latest national polling, is lagging far behind some GOP contenders, especially Trump.

State Republican members were called to vote on the issue at the request of U.S. Senator Rand Paul after Paul petitioned the Republican Party of Kentucky for the caucus so he could simultaneously seek re-election to the senate, a seat he currently holds, as well as to make a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Kentucky law prohibits candidates from appearing on a ballot more than once during the same election.

State Republican leaders met at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Frankfort Saturday, August 22, where they approved the caucus request by a 111-36 vote.

The caucus will be held on March 5 of next year, with the stipulation that Paul is culpable of the cost.

Paul is required to come up with a down payment of $250,000 to pay for the caucus. He told reporters he would undoubtedly be able to raise the money by the September 18 deadline.

The total cost of the caucus is reportedly $500,000.

A presidential caucus will permit Republican voters to cast a ballot for Paul as a candidate for the presidency on March 5 and then also vote for him again in his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate during the primary election on May 17.

After the vote, some committee members noted their decision was not motivated by Paul’s candidacy, but more as an effort to increase Kentucky’s relevancy in presidential elections.

Some insisted this was about more than just Paul trying to skirt the law and run for more than one office at once.

Sara Beth Gregory, a Kentucky Executive Committee member from Monticello, who was among those who voted in favor of the caucus, said it would thrust Kentucky into the hierarchy of national politics.

The Outlook article quoted Gregory as saying, “Rand Paul was kind of the catalyst for pushing the idea, but it’s really exciting in that it opens the possibility of Kentucky getting more attention from all these other presidential campaigns because voting in early March, we are much more relevant to the process than when we are usually voting in May when, every time since I’ve been alive, the nominee has already been decided by the time it was Kentucky’s turn to vote. So, this moves us up and gives the candidates all really an incentive to come to Kentucky and campaign here and give Kentuckians a chance to get engaged with them in their campaigns.”

The switch from primary to caucus could change the way elections are held across the state.

“It will be a little different. Voting will be March 5, which is a Saturday, instead of being on a Tuesday in May.” According to reports, there will apparently be one specific location to vote, as opposed to all precincts that people are used to.

Similar to primaries, the caucus procedures will also offer an absentee voting process.

“There will also be an absentee process for anyone who is going to be out of town, and for military members,” Gregory said. “Really, just for anyone who would like to use the absentee process instead of being there to vote on March 5. The absentee process for this will actually be more open than it is currently.”

The Kentucky GOP’s recent foray into caucus development also garnered the attention of Republicans at the national level, according to the published report.

According to Gregory, the Republican National Committee took notice of how the process was handled and determined Kentucky was a paradigm of how to create a caucus.

“It was reported at the meeting the Republican National Committee said this was the best set of rules for a caucus they had ever seen,” she said.

Sen. Paul, of Bowling Green, the freshmen Senator from Kentucky, is among about 16 Republican candidates for President and currently is among the lower tier of candidates nationally in all polling. He is also a candidate for re-election for U.S. Senate and will no doubt face opposition from the Democrat party in next November’s general election and may have opposition in his own party in the May primary.