• Iowa is home to perhaps America's most famous presidential caucus.Iowa state contour with Capital City against blurred USA flag image by Stasys Eidiejus from Fotolia.com
  
  A presidential caucus is the way political parties in some states, most famously Iowa, choose their preferred presidential candidate to be the nominee of their party for an upcoming general election. More specifically, it is how states choose to award their delegates. A caucus, meaning "gathering of tribal chiefs" in Algonquin, differs from a traditional primary in that there is a series of meetings, as opposed to a ballot vote.
  
  

The Iowa Caucus: The Republican Party

• The caucus system is a key part of electing a president in the U.S.vote america image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
  
  To best understand the way a caucus works, it is useful to examine the Iowa caucus and its machinations. Technically speaking, the Iowa caucus is a meeting of a local party precinct, where discussions and debates are held among voters to help determine the best candidate.
  
  For the Republican Party, the process is fairly simple. Voters enter the location of the caucus and vote by secret ballot for their favorite candidate. When all the votes are in, the percentage of the votes is tallied. The percentage of the vote determines which delegates will go on to the country convention.
  
  

The Iowa Caucus: The Democratic Party

• Whereas the Republicans have simple caucus procedures, the Democratic Party in Iowa has one of the more complicated processes in all of presidential politics. On the day of the caucus, Democratic voters gather at one of the 2,000 or so meeting places and listen to supporters of each candidate make their case.
  
  At this point, the voters will gather in groups representing each candidate (or gather with other undecided voters). If a candidate does not have a certain percentage of the voters, that group must disassemble and choose another candidate to support. The percentage needed to stay viable depends on the number of delegates in the precinct. For example, if a precinct has two delegates, a candidate needs 25 percent to stay viable. If a precinct has four delegates, however, only 15 percent is needed.
  
  At this point, delegates are awarded to candidates based on the percentage of voters who have ended up supporting them. The media will announce a winner, based on who won the most delegates.
  
  

The History of the Process

• A candidate for the White House typically must win numerous caucuses to secure a nomination.The White House image by dwight9592 from Fotolia.com
  
  Today, including Iowa, 13 states use a caucus system. In addition to Iowa, they are: Colorado, Alaska, Maine, Kansas, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nevada, Washington, Nebraska, Texas, Wyoming and Utah.
  
  Most states, however, have transitioned to new systems of electing nominees, eschewing the caucus system that was first used in 1796, when partisan politics first began to manifest itself in the American body politic. In 1901, Florida held the first presidential primary--the method used by most states today--and since then the caucus system has waned in influence. Still, caucus procedures are a vital aspect of a presidential primary. President Barack Obama, for instance, may not have won the Democratic Party nomination if he had not won the Iowa caucus in early 2008.