Everything You Need to Know About How the Iowa Caucuses Work – By Lissandra Villa (TIME) / Feb 2 2020
Iowa Democrats will head to their local caucus sites on Monday to select their preference for the 2020 presidential nominee, marking one of the most anticipated events of an election cycle: the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Most of the frontrunners in this packed Democratic field have been locked in a tight race for more than a year, with campaigns and other organizations spending tens of millions on political ads, outreach campaigns and events—all in service of a single goal: getting Iowa voters to caucus on their behalf.
While the Iowa Democratic Party has been using the caucus system since the 1970s, this year will be slightly different. The party has changed some of the rules in an effort to make the caucuses more efficient and cut down on gamesmanship. “These are the most progressive changes we’ve made to our caucuses since they were created,” said Troy Price, chair of the Iowa Democrats, in an interview with TIME at the party’s headquarters this week.
Here is TIME’s guide to the Iowa caucuses:
What’s a caucus?
A caucus is in effect a community meeting where neighbors show up to express their presidential preferences—and try to convince one another to take their side. Some states, like Iowa and Nevada, hold caucuses instead of primaries. The concepts are similar, but the mechanisms are different: caucus-goers make a presidential selection but, unlike in primaries, they do not cast a vote. (Caucuses are also run by state political parties, while primaries are run by state election officials.)
Continue to article: https://time.com/5775720/how-do-iowa-cacuses-work/
