Iowa vote a Big Deal

For generations, nobody outside Iowa cared much about the caucuses.

Now, they're a bipartisan Big Deal, the first step for each political party in choosing a presidential nominee every four years.

Caucuses are face-to-face meetings, involving discussion and sometimes even debate, rather than individual voters darting in and out of private booths on a typical election day. They elect party leaders and delegates to county and state conventions that, in turn, select the state's delegations to the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

The gatherings begin at 7 p.m. at 1,681 precincts across Iowa on Feb. 1.

Voters are allowed to register as Republicans or Democrats before the meetings are called to order at 7 p.m.

Republicans elect a caucus chair and a secretary and pass around a "Lincoln bag" for cash donations to defray costs. Local dignitaries speak, and then right before the presidential preference poll, candidates' precinct leaders get the floor to make a pitch. Attendees write their name of their choice on a blank sheet of paper. Unlike in past cycles, the Iowa GOP delegation will be bound by the presidential results in 2016.

At their caucuses, Democrats break into groups that publicly declare their support for a candidate. If a group is smaller than 15 percent of the total voting, the candidate is declared "not viable" and dissolved. Supporters can quit or join another candidate's group. The others lobby hard to persuade the free agents to join them - and also to encourage or prevent defections.

Results are run through a formula based on the county's Democratic performance to determine the vote share each candidate receives.

- Tom Fitzgerald