Most people think the Iowa caucuses are just the first presidential primary in the nation — a chance for Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to see how they're really doing with voters. And while that's wrong, it's also partly true.
The Iowa caucuses do involve voting and Iowa is the first state to do any voting, but that's kind of like saying hosting Thanksgiving dinner only involves eating at a table. With the caucuses, there's a much more involved and longer process — especially for Democrats.
And to take the Thanksgiving analogy a step further, the word "caucus'' actually comes from a Native American Algonquian word meaning a gathering of tribal leaders.
Here' a quick primer on how they work as we zero in on the Iowa caucus date.
1. No voting booths to hide in, no levers to pull.
Instead of going to voting booths, people gather together at a library or a high school gym or even private homes to speak their mind and support their chosen candidates. In Iowa, there are 1,681 such precincts for GOP voters to gather.
2. For Republicans, the caucus is a pretty simple affair.
GOP voters use secret ballots, and then tally their votes to see who'll attend the party's county, state and national conventions. The Iowa GOP has 27 Republican delegate positions awarded proportionally based on the statewide vote. Overall, Iowa will send 30 to the GOP convention.
3. For Democrats, it gets a bit more complicated
After an hour of hearing candidates' volunteers make their case about why they should vote for them, the precincts hold an unofficial ballot as a test of opinion, called a "straw vote," so-named because you can tell which way the wind is blowing by looking at a field of straw. Sometimes this gets done by a show of hands or by dividing themselves into groups according to candidate.
Candidates who don't get at least 15 percent of the vote are considered out of the running.
In rural precincts where the population is so small they only elect a single delegate, the selection is done by majority vote on a paper ballot.
Those caucusing for these remaining qualifying candidates then seek to persuade each other to support for their candidate and get the most votes.
In Iowa, you can register to vote right up till caucus day, and many do. In rural precincts where the population is so small they only elect a single delegate, the selection is done by majority vote on a paper ballot. Although sometimes that means just a scrap of paper stuffed into a shoebox, it actually works.
Iowa Democrats will elect 29 delegates at the district level. In all, the state will send 52 to the convention.
4. There's another step after the caucuses
Regardless of whether it's a Democratic or GOP caucus, the district results get reported to each of Iowa's 99 counties' conventions, and the county votes get reported to the Iowa state convention.
5. Where it ends up
Finally, the state results are used to determine how the parties' convention delegates are divvied up among the candidates.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/just_how_do_the_iowa_caucuses_work.html
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