With the upcoming 2020 presidential election, all we seem to hear about on the news are the debates, caucuses, primaries, and the polls. But what do all of these actually mean for us as voters?
The ones that anyone who wants to be well-informed should pay attention to are the caucuses and the primaries. These essentially determine who will be running from each party when it comes down to the election in November. Primaries are pretty straight-forward: people just go out and vote for who they want to represent their party. But if that’s just voting, many young voters are left wondering what a caucus is for.
Here’s the top five things you need to know to understand caucuses.
- How They’re Different From Primaries
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In California, we have primaries … along with 45 other states. But the other five states decided they wanted to be unique and quirky and hold caucuses instead. So instead of voting at voting polls located in their communities, voters in these states can opt to attend large meetings for a couple hours and vote in a group setting.
Because so few caucuses are held, they often show up in the news as they occur. The most famous one is the Iowa caucus, as many believe that success in Iowa will translate to success in the primaries.
- Where They’re Held
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Iowa isn’t the only state that gets to have all the fun of a caucus. Nevada, North Dakota, and Wyoming also hold Republican and Democrat caucuses. Then there’s Kentucky, which for whatever mystical reason politicians could come up with, only has a caucus for Republicans and a primary voting system for Democrats.
- What Actually Happens at a Caucus
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To put it shortly, people gather, they vote, someone else counts the votes, often re-vote, and then everyone goes home.
This year, however, Iowa wasn’t that simple. This year, the Democratic Caucus in Iowa decided they were going to report on three different data sets at the end. This included pre-realignment vote totals, final vote totals, and state delegate equivalents. Essentially, the vote totals reflect the number of votes each candidate receives at the caucuses. The pre-alignment vote means the number of votes everyone got after the first round of voting. At that point, the candidates who got a low percentage of votes (usually less than 15%) are taken out of the next round of voting. This is where the final vote total comes from.
State delegate equivalents are calculated from the final vote total. The number of votes is used to assign candidates certain numbers of county delegates. The county delegate numbers are weighted to estimate the state delegate equivalent, or the number of delegates the candidate gets at the Iowa State Convention.
All these different numbers made it very confusing to name a “winner” at the caucus, and some sources, such as AP, decided to not name one after recounts.
- Why Do We Even Still Use Caucuses?
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Caucuses are an old aspect of our election process that some states have chosen to continue. It’s unclear why we still have them today, as they tend to just confuse us.
There is some debate as to why we have them, but politicians maintain that the caucuses help them gauge how well candidates are doing leading up to the party conventions.
- The Caucuses Happened…Now What?
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The different states and territories that have caucuses hold then throughout the spring, alongside primaries in the rest of the states.This goes on until early June, as we watch and see how the individual candidates are doing. After that, the conventions are held for the different parties, and it’s decided which candidates will move on to the final presidential election in November.
Paying attention to the caucuses, even if they don’t happen in your state, can help you as a voter stay informed about who’s running, what candidates have good chances of being successful in the primaries, and possibly influence who they’re going to vote for. There’s so many people running that paying attention to the caucuses can help us keep the candidates straight and know who to pay attention to as it gets closer to the election.
At the end of the day, staying informed is part of our civic duty as voters, and the caucuses can be a useful tool for us.