Iowa caucuses are February 3!
The Iowa caucuses for Democrats and Republicans will be held on Monday, February 3, 2020 at 7pm. The caucuses are a way for you to meet with your neighbors to prepare for the upcoming election, discuss important issues and platform resolutions, and declare your presidential preference.
IowaCASA has developed some nonpartisan suggestions for platform resolutions. Click here to download the platform resolutions.
Here is some important information to help you caucus:
Caucuses start at 7pm on Wednesday, February 3. If you are not in line by 7pm at your caucus location, you may not be allowed to caucus.
If you registered to vote within the last 2 weeks, you may be required to re-register before caucusing.
If you recently moved to a new address or you want to switch parties, you can show up at your caucus location and let them know that you need to update your registration.
There are only Democrat and Republican caucuses. Iowa unfortunately doesn't recognize independent voters when caucusing. If you want to caucus and are currently registered "no party," you will need to show up and register at the caucus site associated with the party you want to caucus for (either Democrat or Republican).
Your caucus location is not always the same place you would vote at. You will need to know your precinct and then you can look up your caucus site based on which party (Democrat or Republican) you'll be caucusing for. If you previously looked up your caucus location, you may want to double-check because it's not unusual for these locations to change.
After deciding your preference for President, if you are able to stay later there will be an opportunity to sign up to be a delegate and to discuss resolutions to be added to your party platform.
Caucuses are ran by volunteers, so be kind and courteous. :-)
Introduce a platform resolution at your caucus:
After determining the Presidential preference at your caucus, if you are able to stay later there will be an opportunity to introduce platform resolutions. Platform resolutions are issue proposals that you want your party to consider adding to the party's platform. A party platform is a list of issues that the party plans to work on. Platform resolutions can be submitted by anyone who attends the caucuses.
Here's how it works: you submit your resolution at your caucus location. These resolutions are taken to the county and district conventions. Elected delegates can then vote on which resolutions to adopt onto the party platform. This helps leaders within the party understand what issues are important to you.
We've developed some nonpartisan suggestions for platform resolutions. Click here to download!
Helpful resources:
Click here to find your precinct or polling place
Click here to check your current voter registration status
Click here to learn more about registering to vote (includes online voter registration and a downloadable voter registration form)
For more information about getting involved in the caucus with the Iowa Democratic Party, click here
For more information about getting involved in the caucus with the Iowa Republican Party, click here
Changes for the Democrat caucuses (from Iowa Public Radio):
Caucusgoers will need to write down their choices on a "presidential preference card."
There will only be two "alignments," which is when supporters split into preference groups according to their preferred candidate. Groups that don't have at least 15 percent of the total number of people in the room are considered "not viable." Those members can choose to realign with other preference groups, or they can leave the caucus.
If a group is viable after the first alignment, its members are locked into that first choice. Those caucusgoers will not be able to leave a viable group to support another candidate. Only members of nonviable groups will be allowed to realign.
Resources for more information:
