Election 2024: How the Iowa caucuses work

Yahoo News Video
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All eyes will be on Iowa on Jan. 15 as the Republican primary caucuses officially kick off the 2024 race for the White House. While the process remains largely unchanged for Republicans, things definitely look different for Democrats in the Hawkeye State this year. Yahoo News’s Kate Murphy explains how caucuses and primaries differ and what to expect as Iowa Republicans gather on Monday night.

Video Transcript

KATIE MURPHY: Just like states have their own laws, every single state might have a different way of how they conduct their primaries. So in some states its caucuses or its primaries. So the difference between a state primary and a state caucus really comes down to who runs them, how they function, and the time that's allotted. So primaries are run by the state and caucuses are run by a major political party.

They require a voter to be present, in person at a very specific time and location, whereas primaries kind of vary, but they usually have voting all day, beginning in the morning, and running into the evening, with some early voting and absentee voting allowed in primaries. Leading up to the caucuses, you have all of these candidates that are coming to the state and holding all of these events. So they're really getting face-to-face time with the voters.

The voters are able to ask direct questions. The caucus process has slowly changed, especially for Democrats this year. It's all mail-in voting. So people can really vote whenever they can. The deadline for Iowa Democrats to submit their mail-in voting ballots is March 5, or Super Tuesday.

So for the Republican side, on caucus night, Republicans will listen to representatives of candidates. They're there to answer any questions from voters about the candidate and they're there to really rally support around a certain candidate. And Republican voters will be able to write the name of a candidate in support of them.

And then the votes are all tallied up by the state. Typically, that takes about a few hours. And then the delegates are announced for who will go on to the County Conventions in Iowa.