The Caucus

• A caucus is very different than a primary and is similar to a town hall meeting. Each party is able to hold its caucus based on its own rules. Registered members of the party meet at a designated precinct to decide their candidate for office. The Iowa caucus is the first time the nation finds out who is the stronger of the candidates for president. The importance of a caucus centers around the fact that this gives voters the most direct contact with the candidates and their ideologies. Voters gathering to debate and share ideas is what makes a caucus happen.
  
  

Supporters Align

• During a caucus, everyone comes in and joins a group. Each group represents one candidate running for office and the undecided voters. Once everyone is seated with one particular group, discussion begins and representatives for each candidate try to sway voters to each candidate. They especially target the undecided voters to join their candidate. Once the discussion period is finished, each group turns in a number of supporters. Once a particular candidate gets a predetermined percentage of voters, they are determined as the candidate to receive that party's delegates. If no candidate received a large enough percentage of the votes, supporters must separate and begin the process again until one candidate secures enough votes to receive his party's delegates.
  
  

History

• In 1800 the American Caucus was used to nominate candidates for president and vice president. This was used for 24 years, and then in 1824, party conventions were established. Conventions took over as the majority nominating system. Today, the caucus system is used in 16 states, most notably in Iowa. In the 1980s, Iowa political leaders made a deal with New Hampshire political leaders establishing that New Hampshire would hold the first primary and Iowa would hold the first caucus. The following are states where at least one party holds a caucus:
  •Alaska
  •Colorado
  •Hawaii
  •Idaho
  •Iowa
  •Kansas
  •Maine
  •Minnesota
  •Nebraska
  •Nevada
  •New Mexico
  •North Dakota
  •Texas
  •Utah
  •Washington
  •Wyoming