The Definition of a Presidential Caucus

Starting in the late 1960s, the process that American political parties used to pick their major candidates moved away from conventions and backroom deals and towards open elections. However, that process is done state-by-state, and not all states use primary elections to decide who will run for president, senator, or governor. Some use the caucus. The merits of the caucus depend heavily on the exact procedure used, but some force a lot of debate before voting is allowed, and a real face-to-face debate among voters can only be good for democracy.

What is a Caucus?

Strictly speaking, a caucus is any meeting among members of a political party or movement where the point is to reach a consensus. In terms of presidential politics, it is used as a mechanism for a group of voters to decide who their choice for the party's presidential nominee will be.

The Iowa Caucus

The Iowa caucus is the most famous. This is not because Iowa is an important state in the general election, but simply because the Iowa caucus is the first major electoral event in the process. The caucuses take place at the election precinct level. In the Republican caucus, a local party member is designated for each candidate to make a speech, and then party members vote by secret ballot. However, in the Democratic caucus, voters publicly divide into groups, with each group supporting a candidate. Then some time is given for designated speakers to go around to the different groups and try to recruit defectors for their candidate. Then a vote is taken, and any candidate failing to reach 15 percent of the vote in that precinct is eliminated. This leaves a number of free voters, and more time is given for the designated speakers to try to recruit them in a second round of balloting.

The Washington Caucus

In a bizarre turn of events, in 2008 the Washingon state government announced they would hold a statewide primary. However, the Washington state Democratic Party insisted on holding its traditional caucus. The selection of candidates is recognized by law as being a private, political party function. This meant that the Washington state government spent several million dollars on a patently invalid primary.

The Texas Caucus

The Texas caucus is a strange adjunct to the Texas primary. For Republicans, the caucus chooses who the delegates to the state convention will be. This is usually mere window dressing, since those delegates are usually bound to vote for the winner of the primary election in their precinct. The Democratic Party uses the two systems in tandem. The primary chooses who will receive 65 percent of the state's delegates to the national convention, while the caucus chooses the remainder.

Other Caucuses

Both parties in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, and North Dakota choose Presidential candidates by means of a caucus. In Idaho, Nebraska, and Wyoming, only the Democrats do so. The procedures used are usually very similar to that of their respective sister parties in Iowa.