Iowa caucuses

[3][4] The Iowa caucuses are noteworthy as the first major contest of the United States presidential primary season.

[5] Although caucus-goers have been unrepresentative of the nation's overall demographic,[6] caucuses are still seen by some as a strong indicator of how a presidential candidate will do in later contests.

The Democratic caucus proved controversial after difficulties and errors in the reporting of the final vote totals.

[9] Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price resigned on February 12, 2020, over the chaos resulting from the caucus.

[12] By October 6, the Democratic National Committee reached a compromise in which the in-person Iowa Democratic caucuses focusing on party business could still be held in January, but voting on presidential candidates would be done via mail-in ballots until Super Tuesday, March 5.

[14] Iowa held a presidential primary in 1916, but returned to the caucus system in 1917 due to high costs and low participation.

With an emphasis on retail politics, candidates have often pursued the "full Grassley" or Iowa 99, as they visit all of the counties of the state.

Rather than going to polls and casting ballots, Iowans gather at a set location in each of Iowa's precincts.

Typically, these meetings occur in schools, churches, public libraries, or even individuals' houses.

In addition to the voting and the presidential preference choices, caucus-goers begin the process of writing their parties' platforms by introducing resolutions.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): "I think the Democratic caucus in Iowa is a quirky, quaint tradition which should come to an end.

Former presidential candidate Julián Castro, who has long been critical of the Iowa caucuses, blasted the process: "It's a mess.

Participants indicate their support for a particular candidate by standing in a designated area of the caucus site (forming a preference group).

When the voting is closed, a final headcount is conducted, and each precinct apportions delegates to the county convention.

[24] Beginning with the 2020 caucus, the Iowa Democratic Party publishes not only "State Delegate Equivalents", based on a calculation of likely delegate results after the state caucus is held, but also a statewide raw vote count after the first alignment round (including results for all non-viable candidates) and a statewide raw vote count for all viable candidates after the second alignment round.

Because of the irregularities in the process and the fact that the totals reported to the media were unrelated to the delegate selection process, there have been changes in both how the caucus site secret ballot polling is sent to state party headquarters and in how Iowa delegates to the national convention are required to vote.

The change was made to prolong the race, giving lesser-known candidates a chance and making it harder for a frontrunner to secure the majority early.

[30][31] Since Republican President George W. Bush did not face any opposition in 2004, only Democratic caucuses were held.

Delegates could and did change their votes based on further developments in the race; for instance, in 2004 the delegates pledged to Dick Gephardt, who left the race after the precinct caucuses, chose a different candidate to support at the county, district, and state level.

The 2008 Iowa Democratic caucuses and 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses took place January 3 at 7 p.m. CT.[33] Candidates spent tens of millions of dollars on local television advertisements[34] and hundreds of paid staff[35] in dozens of field offices.

Initial results reported that Mitt Romney beat out Rick Santorum by just 8 votes,[38] but when the final results came out two weeks later Rick Santorum secured the victory over Romney by a margin of 34 votes with Ron Paul in a strong 3rd.

[40] The caucus winner changed yet again when the Iowa delegate totals were finally determined giving Ron Paul the win along with several other states that same weekend.

The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results."

The app in question was provided by a 5-month-old company, Shadow Inc., which failed to develop and test the product adequately.

[46] The CEO and founder, Tara McGowan, also founded the ACRONYM corporation in 2017 and Courier Newsroom in 2019.

Multiple unverified claims of the Buttigieg campaign funding the organization, having investment interests in, and even sharing partial ownership in either company have been made.

Iowa's Democratic presidential caucuses had in-person gatherings on January 15 focusing only on party business.