Full Reading: Week 2, Section 3

Caucuses versus Primaries

Dr. Steffen Schmidt 

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The US presidential candidate selection process is largely controlled by the national and state organizations of the political parties. Federal law doesn't actually dictate how states choose their delegates. Each state decides what system to use. Today it consists of primary elections and caucuses.

Primaries

Most state political parties use presidential primary elections to select delegates to the national convention of the party where the actual presidential candidate is anointed.

In some states the primaries are “closed’ to people who are not registered as voters for that party. In other states the primaries are “open” and voters who are registered as independents or for the opposition party can participate.

There are also “nonpartisan blanket primary” elections where all candidates regardless of party affiliation appear on the same ballot. The two candidates who receive the highest overall votes move on to a runoff election that can be between candidates of the same political party.  So, the general election might be between two Democrats or two Republicans, which would not happen in other types of primaries. This type of election is also known as a “jungle primary”, qualifying primary, top-two primary, or Louisiana primary. It is said to be more fair, because an “independent” (no-party) candidate could win at least in the first round. [1]

In a presidential primary, polling places generally open early in the morning. Voters may cast their ballot at any time until the closing of the  voting sites. Votes are then tallied, often electronically, and reported to the public and the news media.

Caucuses

The political parties in many states have meetings of party members especially activists. These meetings are called “caucuses.”  The term caucus is said to derive from the Algonquin Indian word  "gathering of tribal chiefs.” There are other very detailed and interesting analyses of the origins and use of the word. [2]

Caucuses have been used for a very long time to conduct party business. Party platforms are discussed, party rules are often launched from caucuses and precinct leaders selected.

In some states the caucuses are used every four years to indicate preferences for presidential contenders. Some states have caucus and primaries during the presidential selections season.

The Iowa caucuses have, of course, become the most visible and important.[3]

The Republican caucuses in Iowa are fairly simple. Republicans attend the meeting at their local political precinct. Very early in the meeting they vote by secret ballot for their favorite presidential contender.  There are refreshments and light snacks. People mingle for a while discussing their preferred candidate and listen to others lobby for their candidate. There are some speeches before the vote, and then party business is conducted if there is any. The votes are counted and the percentage each candidate receives determines the delegates that will go to the county convention for that candidate.

The Democratic caucuses in Iowa are very complex. In part that’s because the person who concocted the formula for the original caucuses in 1972 is a mathematical “genius.”

Here is a simple description of how the mathematics of the Democratic caucuses works.

“In a typical caucus, registered Democrats gather at the precinct meeting places (there are close to 2,000 precincts statewide), supporters for each candidate have a chance to make their case, and then the participants gather into groups supporting particular candidates (undecided voters also cluster into a group). In order for a particular group to be viable, they must have a certain percentage of the all the caucus participants. If they don't have enough people, the group disbands, and its members go to another group. The percentage cut-off is determined by the number of delegates assigned to the precinct. It breaks down like this:

If the precinct has only one delegate, the group with the most people wins the delegate vote, and that's it.

• If the precinct has only two delegates, each group needs 25 percent to be viable.
• If the precinct has only three delegates, each group needs one-sixth of the caucus participants.
• If the precinct has four or more delegates, each group needs at least 15 percent of the caucus participants.

Once the groups are settled, the next order of business is to figure out how many of that precinct's delegates in each group (and by extension, each candidate) should win. Here's the formula:

­For example, say a precinct has four delegates, 200 caucus participants, and 100 people support John Doe. To figure out how many delegates you assign to John Doe, you would multiply 100 by four, to get 400. You divide 400 by 200 and get 2. So John Doe gets two of the four delegates.”[1]

While the candidate selection process has worked reasonably well for centuries regardless of how it is conducted there is continuing discussion of how to reform and improve the process.

In particular, there is always intense interest in the calendar for candidate selection. One point of contention is the “front loading” of elections, in other words, efforts by states to “jump ahead” of other states and be first or early. The National Committee of each political party sets the calendar and also metes out punishment to state parties that violate the calendar

It has become a very important tradition for the Iowa caucuses to be the first official event in the presidential candidate preference process and New Hampshire second, a week after Iowa. While there have ben efforts to change this tradition it has served the narrative of US presidential elections well and the news media find this “horse race” aspect to be an excellent way to report who is ahead. In other words, Iowa is the starting gate where the horses start running. New Hampshire is the first lap so to speak and the news media can report whether the Iowa winner is still ahead or gets lapped by someone else in New Hampshire, which frequently happens.

Overall, both caucuses and primaries are a good way for voters at the grass roots to express their preference for presidential aspirants of their party. Most analysts agree that it is a much better way to select candidates than the system controlled only by powerful political “bosses,” which preceded the primaries and caucuses. Other countries including Canada, Italy, France and The United Kingdom also use some form of primaries in their political leadership selection.

[1] The Primaries Project: Blanket Primaries Have Yet to Deliver Links to an external site.

[2] The Caucuses Links to an external site.

[3]How the Caucuses Work Links to an external site.

[4] The Iowa Caucus Links to an external site. 

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