How The Iowa Caucus Works

If you're not an Iowan you are likely unfamiliar and perhaps a bit confused how the Iowa Caucus works, so I did a little research to learn more. Here are a few excerpts from Howstuffworks.com:

"The Republican caucus voting system in Iowa is relatively straightforward: You come in, you vote, typically through secret ballot, and the percentages of the group supporting each candidate decides what delegates will go on to the county convention."

But the Democratic caucus has a completely different set of rules.

"...registered Democrats gather at the precinct meeting places (there are close to 2,000 precincts statewide), supporters for each candidate have a chance to make their case, and then the participants gather into groups supporting particular candidates (undecided voters also cluster into a group). In order for a particular group to be viable, they must have a certain percentage of the all the caucus participants. If they don't have enough people, the group disbands, and its members go to another group. The percentage cut-off is determined by the number of delegates assigned to the precinct."

There's much more to how the delegates are assigned if there are more than one delegate to a precinct, so click this link if you want to know more.

The early word tonight from Iowa is that there is a record turnout, which could mean good news for alternative/lesser known candidates such as Ron Paul, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, to name a few. A few months ago it Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani were the front runners for their respective parties. Today it looks like each could finish in 3rd place or worse. Stay tuned.