[hoosierboy]

Please forgive my ignorance and please educate me.

[EggsAckley]

I don't understand it either, kemo sabe.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

First you visit the cemetary.

Then you scan the obit's for recent deaths.

Then register them with a strip club for an address....

[martin_fierro]

How the Iowa caucuses work (MSNBC)

[erasmus605]

I'd also like an explanation.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Voters meet in a central location in each district. I don't recall how many there are in Iowa, but it's something like 1,800 districts. Voters meet in places like homes and schools, and by voice vote, tell those in attendance who you're voting for. Basically it's a voice vote, not a secret ballot vote like primaries are. The votes are tallied and reported to state election officials and you have the result of your particular caucus. It's probably a bit more complicated than that but that's pretty much how I understand it from watching C-SPAN the other night.

[erasmus605]

Ok, so people get together in a church/house/community center, break up into groups according to candidate, then send results into party headquarters? It's very informal, and, it seems, prone to fraud.

[Blue Screen of Death]

I don't know how they work, but I bet the National Organization of Women would like to change the name.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

A caucus is similar to caca.

[sampai]

See http://polipundit.com/2004_01_11_polipundit_archive.html#107400093365210548

[sixmil]

I'm not sure about Iowa, but the Minnesota caucus works like this:

You show up at school where you are divided up into groups around the size of neighborhoods. Once assembled, a certain number of delegates and alternates must be selected. In my case, there were few enough people that everyone who wanted to be a delegate got to be one. I decided to be a delegate for Alan Keyes. We were also allowed to advance issues to be included as the Republican platform. You present the issue, then you must get a majority of votes for it to be sent on to the next level. Finally, we voted on candidates, and these were the numbers that end up being the numbers reported as the results for the caucus.

If Minnesota had a primary, not only would you have no say in the state Republican platform, but the process would already be over and everything handed over to the party apparatchiks. Instead, this caucus is repeated a few months later at the district level, where you and your issues have to get enough votes to continue on. The final meeting is the state level, where if you win, you issues become planks in the platform, and your candidate gets all of the state's electoral votes. Anyone who has taken part in a caucus can clearly see how it a completely grassroots process as opposed to the primary system which gives the parties all the power.