Re: Iowa's caucuses
Overview<br /><br />Iowa uses caucuses to determine who will be a political party's delegates to the national convention and which presidential candidates will get their votes.<br /><br />A caucus is a political meeting in which voters publicly discuss their preference for a party nominee. They differ from primaries, which are state-level elections in which voters select a preference by secret ballot at the polls.<br /><br />The result of precinct caucuses are a snapshot in time of how a candidate might perform at a later stage, but does not factor in scenarios such as candidate withdrawals from the race, or any deals struck among different campaigns, etc.<br /><br />The Iowa Democratic Party runs and organizes Monday's caucuses. The Iowa Secretary of State's office does not play a role in this process. There are Republican Party caucuses this year, but they will not play a role in the party's presidential nomination process.<br /><br />History has shown that the results of the precinct caucuses are a poor indicator of what will happen at later stages of the nomination process.<br /><br />The Iowa caucuses on January 19 are the first of four steps in the state's Democratic delegate selection process to attend the Democratic National Convention. <br /><br />Here is a look at each stage.<br /><br />Precinct caucuses<br /><br />Date: January 19, 2004<br />How it works: Across the state, 1,993 precinct caucuses are held to elect 13,490 delegates to attend county conventions. At 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET), caucus attendees are asked to indicate which Democratic presidential candidate they want to nominate. In most cases, a caucus does this by dividing attendees into different groups, each group representing a presidential candidate or an "uncommitted" group.<br /><br />The preference groups must be a certain size, usually 15 percent of the entire caucus, to be considered "viable" and to send any delegates to the county convention. A group that is not viable after the initial forming of preference groups must join a different preference group until every preference group is viable.<br /><br />County conventions<br /><br />Date: March 13, 2004<br />How it works: Each of Iowa's 99 counties holds a convention of delegates from the precinct caucuses. These delegates select representatives to attend conventions in each of five congressional districts, plus 3,000 delegates to attend a statewide Democratic convention.<br /><br />Congressional district conventions<br /><br />Date: April 24, 2004<br />How it works: Each of Iowa's five congressional districts holds a convention, which comprises delegates elected at the county conventions, to elect delegates to attend the Democratic National Convention in Boston. These delegates will vote directly for a presidential nominee. Of Iowa's 45 national convention delegates, 29 are elected at these district-level conventions. The remaining slots are filled at the state convention.<br /><br />State convention<br /><br />Date: June 12, 2004<br />How it works: The Iowa Democratic Party holds a statewide convention, comprised of 3,000 delegates elected at the county conventions, to elect 16 delegates to attend the Democratic National Convention in Boston. These 10 at-large delegates and 6 'party leaders and elected officials' (PLEO) delegates will vote directly for a presidential nominee.
