The Iowa caucuses are not a primary. In fact they’re not even an
election.
The caucuses, which kick off
the presidential nominating calendar, are official party meetings across the
state’s nearly 1,700 precincts. In high school gymnasiums, suburban libraries,
and living rooms, Iowa voters express their candidate preference among their
peers. Sometimes they’ll submit their choices on pieces of paper. In other
instances, they’ll walk to corners of a room that represent their candidate.
The parties calculate their caucus winners in two
different ways. It’s simple for Republicans: They just tally supporters for
each candidate across the state.
Democrats require a threshold — usually 15
percent — of support for a candidate in each caucus. If a candidate doesn’t
reach 15 percent, their supporters are asked to pick another candidate, and the If a candidate doesn’t reach 15 percent, their
supporters are asked to pick another candidate, and the group will caucus
again.
In both parties, the candidates with the most support get more
delegates on caucus night. But for Democrats, the final tally is determined
through a series of county and regional conventions in the months that follow
caucus night.
