Aside from county courthouses, city halls and traditional political spots, North Dakota's Democratic presidential caucuses on Tuesday are being held in less formal locales - some cafes and bars, two private homes, and a Dairy Queen.

"I've got a pretty good-sized kitchen, and we'll be setting up there. The coffee pot will be on," said Bill Anderson, an attorney who lives in the rural Sargent County community of Rutland, in the state's southeastern corner.

Anderson's law office adjoins his home, and his massive pine kitchen table can seat 18 people. Caucus participants will mark their ballots for one of the seven Democratic presidential candidates, then maybe linger for some chat.

Anderson says 80 to 100 people could show up during the afternoon and early evening.

"We expect we'll probably drink some coffee, eat some cookies and have a little conversation that may or may not be about politics," Anderson said.

Almost 100 locations across North Dakota will host Democratic presidential caucuses on Tuesday. Most will be open from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Central time, although some rural locations will have shorter hours.

In Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks and Minot, legislative districts in each city and the surrounding area are hosting one Democratic caucus.

Fargo and Grand Forks are holding caucuses at local hotels. Minot's main location is a room in the Ward County courthouse, while Bismarck Democrats are meeting at a labor union hall.

Most rural districts are having caucuses in several locations. District 4, which includes the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and parts of five counties, is having caucuses in nine communities, including the home of Alan Lee of Berthold.

District 39, which is North Dakota's largest legislative district - it covers six counties, and stretches from south of Williston to the South Dakota border - will have three caucus sites, including the Dairy Queen in Beach and T.J.'s Restaurant in Watford City.

Democrats will be using a small meeting room at T.J.'s for their caucus. "They just called and asked if they could have the room," said Judy Dahl, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Rollie. "I didn't even realize what it was for."

At the Beach Dairy Queen, which is just south of Interstate 94, party activists will be using a former laundry at the building's west end that the business' owner, Glenn Mendenhall, remodeled into a meeting room.

Many of North Dakota's Dairy Queens close for the winter, but Mendenhall stays open by selling food throughout the day - the business opens at 6 a.m. for breakfast - and catering to the local coffee trade.

"In a rural area, you have to grab for every bit of business you can," he said.

Democratic activists are unsure what kind of turnout to expect for Tuesday's caucuses. North Dakota has no voter registration, so the state's number of Democratic-leaning voters isn't known.

Four years ago, about 2,200 Democrats took part in the state's first-ever round of presidential preference caucuses. Vice President Al Gore, the eventual party nominee for president, easily defeated former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley with 78 percent of the vote.

Activists are expecting a much greater turnout on Tuesday, because the Democratic presidential nominating race is more competitive.

Seven candidates are still in the running, including three - Wesley Clark, Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich - who have campaigned personally in North Dakota. Today, the front-runner in the race, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is scheduled to speak in Fargo.

Clark, Dean, Kerry and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., have North Dakota campaign offices, and staffers working to turn out the vote.

Party activists say Tuesday's weather, which is expected to have temperatures hovering around zero degrees, will be a pivotal factor in determining how many people take part in the caucuses.