Caucus

I don't know much about politics or what the hell a Caucus is... and since I've been hearing the word "caucus" in the news a lot, I decided to do some research. Here's what I found:


Presidential election primaries and caucuses are two very different methods of accomplishing the same basic thing. Simply put, they are both a means for each political party to let voters nationwide select their party's presidential nominee. More specifically, primaries and caucuses are means of selecting delegates (representatives of party members in each state) to send to the party's national convention.

How do they vote in a caucus?

The rules are different for the two parties. Republicans write the name of their favoured candidate down on a sheet of paper — and every vote counts. The Democrats have an extraordinary system, a cross between a badly segregated football match and a school dance, in which caucus-goers gather in clusters according to which candidate they support. Any group with less than 15 per cent (or in some precincts 25 per cent) of those present in the room is deemed “non-viable” and its support can be realigned.