Some form of caucus has existed since the early 1800s, even before Iowa became a state in 1846. Developing from the congressional and legislative caucuses, the pioneers of the Iowa constitution chose caucuses rather than a primary to nominate candidates, preferring the grass-roots democracy-in-action approach.

n the early 1970s, the Iowa Democratic Party made several reforms to their delegate selection process. These reforms included requiring a minimum of 30 days between the precinct caucuses and the county, district and state conventions, and publicizing the events to allow more people to take part in the process. When the 1972 Democratic State Convention was set for May 20, the new rules dictated that the precinct caucus would be January 24, thereby making it the first statewide test for presidential candidates in the nation. In 1976, recognizing the increased exposure, the Republican Party of Iowa moved their caucus to the same date as the Democrats. The candidates and national media have observed the Iowa caucuses as the "First in the Nation" ever since.

The Process  [Note: HTML, reformatted from pdf]

I.  The Caucus is Called to Order (6:30 PM, or thereabouts)

1.  The temporary Chair will briefly read through the caucus agenda.

2.  The Chair will explain that the primary purpose of the caucus:

•  Elect delegates, alternates and convention committee members to the county convention.
  
•  Discuss and adopt resolutions to be recommended to the county platform committee.
  
• Elect new leadership for the precinct - the precinct committee persons who will serve as voting members on the county central committee.

blah, blah, yippie-ya-hoo for us  

See link for more information.

III.  Elected Officials Presentation

blah, blah, yippie-ya-hoo for me  

See link for more information.

IV.  Election of Permanent Officers

Before any official business is conducted at the caucuses, the caucus as a whole must elect permanent officers. These officers include a permanent chair and a permanent secretary. The temporary chairs that were recruited by the County Democratic Party are encouraged to seek office as permanent chair or permanent secretary.

The Chair will call for nominations for the office of permanent chair. Persons may nominate themselves. It is not necessary to second these nominations.  Written ballots may be used if several persons are nominated for the position.

Note: If ballots are used, attendees must write their name on their ballot as the Democratic Party does not allow secret ballots to be used in party procedures.
If only one person is nominated, the caucus may elect the person by unanimous voice vote:

"All those in favor of electing ____ as permanent caucus chair, please signify by saying 'aye'."

Repeat the above steps to elect the permanent caucus secretary.

Note: The permanent officers take over the caucus proceedings.

V.  Nomination Papers and Candidate Letters

Candidates seeking office on the federal, state, and local level are required to obtain a certain number of signatures to have their name listed on the ballot in Iowa.  Many of these candidates will have their petitions as well as letter at the caucuses.

Candidate letters may be read aloud, passed around to each attendee or posted for the attendees to read before or after the caucus.

VI.  Election of Delegates and Alternates

Note: This process may not begin until 7:00pm

1.  Determining Viability

In order to be entitled to elect delegates to the county convention, candidates must have a minimum number of eligible caucus attendees in their group.

The Permanent Chair will count the number of eligible caucus attendees and announce the number.  Viability is then determined based on the number of delegates the precinct will elect.

Note: see link for special rules for counties that only elect one delegate.

The Chair will determine whether the caucus attendees wish to divide into preference groups. When more than 15% of the caucus attendees wish to divide, then the caucus will divide into preference groups. If more than 85% of the caucus attendees do not wish to divide, then the delegates shall be elected by the caucus as a whole.

2.  Now the Chair will determine the viability threshold that a preference group must attain in order to be considered viable.

The Chair will count the number of eligible voting caucus attendees and announce the number to the caucus.

After the number of eligible caucus attendees has been determined, the viability threshold is calculated based on the number of delegates the caucus is to elect.

Note: When calculating viability, always round UP to the next whole number.

a. In caucuses that elect two (2) delegates, preference groups must contain at least 25% of the caucus attendees in order to be viable. This can be calculated by using the following formula:

Number of Eligible Caucus Attendees x 0.25 = Viability Threshold

b. In caucuses that elect three (3) delegates, the total caucus attendees should be divided by six (6) to determine the viability threshold. This can be calculated by using the following formula:

Number of Eligible Caucus Attendees ÷ 6 = Viability Threshold

c. In caucuses that elect four (4) or more delegates, preference groups must contain at least 15% of the caucus attendees in order to be viable. This can
be calculated by using the following formula:

Number of Eligible Caucus Attendees x 0.15 = Viability Threshold

[Note: "can be" = "will be."]

Once the viability threshold has been determined, the Chair will announce that number to the caucus.

VII.  Formation of Presidential Preference Groups

1.  Before Presidential preference groups form, the caucus chair must read [a] statement to all caucus attendees [saying the caucus is open to any member of the Democratic Party -- see link for text.]

2.  At this point the caucus will divide into Presidential preference groups. Caucus participants have up to 30 minutes to align with a preference group. If the caucus wishes for more time, it should go to a vote of the whole caucus.  When the caucus divides, the caucus chair will direct the various preference groups to different areas of the room or different rooms, as the case may be.

3.  Each group will then select a preference group chair.

4.  The first formal action of the preference group chair shall be to count their members and report the size of their preference group to the caucus chair.

5.  At this time any preference group(s) that is not viable (has fewer members than the viability threshold) must be given an opportunity to realign.

• Non-viable groups can join with other viable preference groups or with other non-viable preference groups in order to attain viability.
  
• Members of non-viable groups can choose not to realign, however they will not be awarded any delegates if they remain non-viable.
  
• Members of viable preference groups are also allowed to realign if they so desire.

When all the remaining preference groups are viable, the caucus chair will determine the number of delegates that each preference group is entitled to
elect.

The number of delegates to be awarded to each preference group is determined by:
... the SAME number that was used to calculate viability, above.

After delegates are awarded to all viable preference groups, the caucus chair will total up the delegates awarded and compare it to the number of delegates to be
elected at the precinct.

Note: See link, Steps 23 and 24 for special situations.

6.  The caucus chair will inform each preference group of the number of county convention delegates that they are to elect.

IX.  Reporting the Results

At this point, the caucus chair is required to call the Iowa Democratic Party's toll-free Reporting Line and report the results of the caucus.

A representative from each preference group must be present when the results are reported. This will prevent any reporting errors.

X.  Electing Delegates

Each preference group will elect the number of delegates they have been entitled to the county convention.  They may elect as many alternates as they chose.

The link provides more information regarding special situations and the Democratic Party guidelines for delegate selection.

XI.  Ratification of the Slate

The preference groups are now dissolved, if they were formed, and the caucus now meets as a whole to ratify the delegate selection process.

Ratification shall mean that it is the sense of the caucus that the procedures used by the various preference groups were in conformity with the required procedures under the Constitution of the Iowa Democratic Party, and applicable caucus procedures and rules.

There is more business to be done at the caucus in deciding various local party issues.  See the link for more information.

All this foo-foo is for: 57 total delegate votes - 29 district / 10 at large; 6 Pledged PLEOs; 11 Unpledged PLEOs; 1 Unpledged add-on  

(PLEO = Party Leaders and Elected Officials.)