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Election season is coming up quick, and there is plenty to know before you head to the polls on November 6. Exercising your right to vote and encouraging others to do the same is the best way to make a difference in who is elected. There is power in numbers, especially in such a democratic process like our country’s, where it is up to citizens to decide who gets elected. 

Whether you’re a first-time voter or someone looking to get more closely involved this election season, you’ve come to the right place.

Caucuses and Primaries

The first step to voting is determining who is going to get the nomination for each party, and this is ultimately done starting with caucuses or primaries in each state. 

Michael Miller, a government teacher at Ankeny Centennial High School and precinct caucus chair since 2008, has hosted a caucus in Polk City over the years and plans to host one this coming election year. According to Miller, a caucus is essentially a meeting with your party. 

“You show up with your neighbors at your precinct location, and you try to convince them why your candidate is the best,” Miller said. 

A precinct is a term for your assigned voting location, which is based on your address. There is a caucus held in each precinct, and Iowa has approximately 1,800 precincts, according to Miller. 

This means that on Monday, February 3, approximately 3,600 caucuses will be held in Iowa, one per major party for each precinct. But what exactly happens at a caucus? 

It’s a little bit different for the two parties, but the end result is the same. For a democratic caucus, everyone comes together at the precinct caucus location, which is usually at a school or church, and voters get into groups depending on which candidate they want to support. 

The number of voters in each group is counted up; then, using equations based on how many people attend the caucus, the group is deemed viable or not. Individuals whose groups aren’t viable have to realign with a group that is viable, or they can try to convince others to support their candidate and make their group viable. 

Once all groups formed are viable, the leader of the caucus announces how many delegates each candidate’s group gets based on equations highlighted in the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan. A delegate is a chosen representative from each group that will go on in the process after the individual precinct caucuses. 

The system for a Republican caucus is a little bit simpler. Voters cast a vote for who they would prefer for president, and then the chair of the caucus announces how many delegates the winning candidates will receive to attend the coming conventions. 

The caucuses and primaries relate to the actual election eventually. Those who were selected as delegates at their caucuses keep going on to larger-scale conventions, starting with the county convention. Then, a process similar to a local caucus happens with only the delegates participating instead. 

This process basically repeats until the national convention in August, which is where the nominee for each party is officially announced. 

While some states, like Iowa, hold caucuses, others hold primaries, which are much simpler and ask for less engagement from voters. Delegates are still decided based on the results, but at a primary, voters simply go to their assigned location, cast their vote and leave. 

According to staticshare.gov, primaries typically have a higher turnout because voters are expected to engage more at caucuses. 

The first primary is held in New Hampshire, which is thought to be a good predictor of how the rest of the caucuses and primaries will turn out. Meanwhile, the first caucus is held in Iowa, which can also set the stage for how the rest of the caucuses and primaries will go.

Another reason our state’s caucus has high stakes is because it gives the country a look into how organized the campaigns of each candidate are. According to Miller, organization is an important part of a successful campaign, and it might tell us how well a candidate would perform if they made it to the real test in November. 

But remember, before you caucus, you must be registered to vote.

“You can switch your party registration right there, and that’s easy to do, but you have to declare either Democratic or Republican,” Miller said. 

This means that those who are registered to vote as independents or without a party cannot participate in their respective caucus until they declare a party. This can have a big impact on caucus results, given the number of registered voters who declared other or no party. 

According to sos.iowa.gov, as of November 2019, there were 612,611 registered active Democrats, 639,425 registered active Republicans, and a combined 755,525 no party or other active registered voters in Iowa. 

Given these numbers, over one third of registered active voters in Iowa could choose not to caucus due to not wanting to pick a party. On the other hand, those 755,525 voters could also greatly influence the results if they do decide to caucus and pick a party. This could have a big impact on which candidate gets the most delegates in the state.

Voting

Registering to vote is not a difficult process, and it is all explained in detail at sos.iowa.gov. 

As Miller said, a lot of people think voting is their civic responsibility. There are numerous reasons people decide not to vote, and John Hollinrake, a member of Iowa’s Congressional Staff, suspects it’s mainly because “they feel like their vote doesn’t make a difference.”

Although one vote might not make all the difference in the end, several people not voting — because they think their vote doesn’t matter — could make a big difference. However, people sometimes don’t vote purely for practical reasons. 

“The biggest reason people give, whether it’s accurate or not, is that they’re just busy,” Miller said. 

Sometimes people are struggling to get everything they have to do done in the day, and they just can’t make it to the polls or find the time to send in an absentee ballot.

An absentee ballot can be requested online from your county auditor, and you can fill out your vote on your own time and mail it in. This is a good option for those who are too busy to vote in person or those who go to college far from their permanent address. You just have to be sure to request an absentee ballot, and one will be sent to you. Once you’re registered to vote, here’s what to expect.

How it Works

On the first Tuesday in November of 2020, voting will be available in cities all over the country for citizens to vote at their respective precinct location. Polls are typically open all day, sometimes for longer than 12 hours. If you know you’re not going to be able to make it to vote in person, you should send in an absentee ballot. If you are able to make it, you should cast your vote. 

During Election Day, television stations will keep the country updated on numbers as they come in. However, one nominee can get more votes than the other, but still lose in the end. 

According to usa.gov, this has happened five times in U.S. history. Our country saw it in 2016 when Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, received more votes than Republican nominee and current president, Donald Trump, but lost the election. 

This is because of a system called the electoral college, which awards nominees with electoral votes that will determine the winner of the election. 

Each state is given a number of electoral votes, and this number is the sum of their state’s senators and representatives. For example, Iowa has six electoral votes while California has 55. That said, the number of electoral votes depends on the population of the state, and whichever candidate gets the greatest number of votes in the state gets all of the electoral votes for that state. 

With the current number of candidates running for the democratic nominee, it is still anyone’s game. It’s still hard to tell who will win the Democratic nominee. 

For the republican nominee, however, it’s not as tough. 

“It’s basically guaranteed that Trump will get the nomination because he doesn’t have any serious competitors,” Hollinrake said. 

Trump currently has four candidates running for the nominee against him, but only once in history has a president who served four years not received the nomination for his party when running for re-election. But what could change? 

Both Hollinrake and Miller believe a Democratic candidate has a real chance at winning, but what matters most is who has control over the House and Senate. Currently, Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate. 

“If Democrats keep control of the house, we’ll see more of the same in the sense that divided government means divided opinion,” Hollinrake said. 

According to CNN, an example of gridlock in Congress was late last year into this year when the government was shut down for 35 days, ending in January. This was the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, passing the previous record by 14 days. 

This shutdown happened because Congress could not decide on a budget by its deadline, and President Trump refused to approve a budget that did not include a certain amount of funding for the Mexico-U.S. border wall. 

The President does have a great deal of power, but it is easy to forget that most of the change happens in Congress.