The first presidential caucus, of the primaries, will be taking place in Iowa on February 3, where citizens can go and vote for their desired presidential candidate. 

   According to the Gazette, a caucus is a certain way to vote, and the Democratic Party has been using it in Iowa since 1972 (thegazette.com). National Public Radio explains that the process for Democrats takes an hour or more and the voting is public, voters physically moving around the room to vote for particular candidates. Republicans make speeches and then use an informal secret ballot (npr.org).

   “Beginning no earlier than 7 p.m., Democrats divide into ‘preference groups’ based on which candidate they support,” explains the Gazette. Participants have thirty minutes to decide which candidate group to join, then the groups with fewer than 15 percent are decided unviable, and those people are given another thirty minutes to find a new preference group. During the entirety of the process, participants try to persuade each other to join their preference group (thegazette.com).

   According to the Iowa Democratic Party, “Additionally, Iowa Democrats who cannot attend their precinct caucuses may attend a satellite caucus at one of 99 additional caucus sites across the state and globe” (iowademocrats.org).

   This gives voters who live out of state, have a disability, or are military members a chance to have their opinions reflected in the polls. According to CNN, “Satellite caucus sites held in-state will be rolled up into an additional ‘virtual county’ within each congressional district as determined by location, similar to the original virtual caucus plan. These will take place over phone call” (cnn.com).

   According to a political tracking website, a caucus takes place to determine the top candidate from each party that will compete in the presidential election in November of this year. First, citizens either vote or participate in a caucus to decide what delegates will be sent to a national convention, then the winner of each party’s primary will be decided (votesmart.org). 

   According to the Des Moines Register, “Over half of those [Iowa caucus] winners went on to secure their party’s nomination in that cycle” (desmoinesregister.com).

   “Every caucus winner since 2000, from former U.S. Senator John Kerry to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has gone on to become the party’s general election nominee. This is why so many presidential candidates, especially Democrats, have been campaigning so much in Iowa” (desmoinesregister.com).

   The Iowa election helps set the path for what might happen in the rest of the state, because it is the very first caucus to take place during election season. According to the Washington Post, “Failure to get delegates wouldn’t necessarily doom candidates going into New Hampshire, but if the pattern repeats in New Hampshire, you’ll see lesser candidates dropping out” (washingtonpost.com).