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On the evening of January 15th in Iowa, in the United States, the caucusa rather particular electoral process with which voters of each party will be able to choose the candidate they prefer for the actual presidential elections, those of 5 November 2024.
In the United States i caucus they have the same function as primary elections, but are carried out differently: thousands of small debates and rallies are organised, during which voters can express their preference. The procedures change every time, and are different from state to state and from party to party. This year all attention is focused on the primaries (and on caucus) of the Republican party, while in those of the Democrats the outgoing president Joe Biden is practically the only candidate, or at least the only one with a real chance of winning.
As required by the US electoral system, in the first half of 2024 both the Republican and Democratic parties will hold primary elections in all more than 50 states and territories of the United States to choose their presidential candidate. It is a rather long process, which begins on January 15th and will officially end between July and August, when the big convention national elections in which the parties will officially announce their candidate.
Based on the votes received in the primaries in the various states, each candidate are assigned a certain number of delegates: at convention summer these delegates will decide the winner. In the case of the Republican party, the method of assigning delegates varies from state to state, while the Democrats always follow the proportional method. In any case, the role of the delegates is more formal than anything else, and the candidates of the various parties for the presidential elections almost always become clear well before the summer.
The vote can be carried out in two ways: with actual primaries, or with i caucus. Primaries are the most widespread method, chosen by around 40 out of 50 states. They work in a similar way to what we are used to in Italy: voters go to the polling station assigned to them, receive a ballot paper and vote for the candidate they prefer, then they return the ballot to the scrutineers. Alternatively, you can vote by post.
With the primaries therefore the polling stations remain open all day, and unless there are queues or unexpected events, voting is a quick and undemanding operation from a practical point of view.
Democratic voters cast their votes for Pete Buttigieg during a caucus in Iowa in 2020 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
About ten states will instead organize gods caucus: in addition to Iowa, they will also be held in Idaho and Wyoming for both parties and in Nevada, Missouri, North Dakota, Alaska, Utah and Hawaii for the Republican party only (the Democrats will hold primaries). THE caucus they consist of small debates that are organized simultaneously in the various constituencies of a state, during which voters intervene with small rallies to convince participants to vote for their candidate.
As for the Republicans, this year they can participate in the caucus only voters who will be of age on November 5th and who are registered with the party (but it will also be possible to register on the same day of the event). The meetings are organized in public or private meeting places, such as gyms, bars or schools, they start at 7pm local time (2am in Italy) and usually last a few hours. After listening to the speeches and possibly participating in the debate, voters vote in secret by writing the name of the chosen candidate on a piece of paper.
Voting by post or absentee voting is not foreseen: apart from very few exceptions they will therefore be able to vote at caucus only voters who physically participate in the event, and who therefore decide to dedicate a few hours of their time to politics. It is a more demanding system than actual primaries, which favors the most involved and motivated voters. Furthermore, in this period of the year in Iowa the temperatures are always below 0 °C, and on January 15th in the capital Des Moines -25 °C is expected at night: for many people go out in the evening to participate in the caucus it may require considerable effort.
This year, however, in Iowa the Democrats will organize rallies, like the Republicans, but then voters will only be able to vote by mail: consequently caucus Republicans on January 15 a winner will quickly emerge, while the results of those Democrats will not come until March. This is not a big problem, given that it is practically certain that Biden will win.
Historically i caucus Republicans have always envisioned some form of secret ballot while the procedure adopted it by the Democratic party between 1972 and 2020 was very different than it is today. To put it simply, after the rallies the votes given to the candidates were counted by a show of hands, or the participants were asked to physically divide themselves into groups based on the person they wanted to vote for. The voting operations were repeated several times to give voters the opportunity to change their minds, or to choose another candidate if the first selected did not exceed the threshold of 15 percent of those present.
They were very lively events, where social dynamics also had a notable weight: voters participated in the caucus organized in their district of residence, which often includes fewer voters than our polling stations, and therefore it was easy to meet neighbors, friends or relatives. The vote was clear, and in some situations choosing a candidate different from that of one’s parents or friends might not be easy.
In 2020, however, something went wrong. In Iowa, the Democratic primaries were held on February 3, but the vote counting concluded only four days later and was followed by various recounts. In part there were problems with the communication of the results of the various caucus local to the national section of the party, which that year had become more complicated and should have been done through a special app, which had some malfunctions. It was a disaster and a huge damage to the image, so much so that this year the process was completely revised.
– Read also: The mess of the primaries in Iowa