Here's how Iowa Republicans are planning for the presidential caucuses

DES MOINES — Iowa Republicans will gather in just over a month, in schools, churches and community halls, to cast their vote for the presidential nomination and kick off the national primary process.

The high-profile presidential caucuses require meticulous planning from state and local officials to secure locations, organize volunteers and get the word out to voters.

The caucuses are held across more than 1,600 local precincts every two years to organize party business, but attention and attendance surges in years when there is a contested presidential nomination.

“We take great pride in the fact that we are well organized and that we do anticipate it to be highly successful with great activity of registered Republicans,” said Polk County Republican Party Central Committee member Chris Werman. “And it's an important step in democracy.”

Iowa Democrats will hold party-organizing precinct caucuses on the same day as Republicans, Jan. 15. But they will express their presidential preference using a new mail-in process and won’t announce results until March 5. The change came after national Democrats booted the state from their early nominating spot in an effort to re-design the calendar in a way that better represented the party's demographics.

For the Republican caucuses, voters will gather on Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. at designated precinct locations.

Before the presidential preference poll, representatives from each presidential campaign can make speeches in support of their candidate. Attendees will then cast their vote for president by writing a name on a slip of paper. Those votes are counted and reported to the state party.

Once the voting is over, caucus attendees move on to party business like electing delegates to the county convention and proposing items for the party platform.

Where will Republicans caucus?

Local parties need to find locations to hold their dozens of precinct caucuses. County parties will often host multiple precincts at one location in less populated areas.

Finding locations with enough space is sometimes difficult, said Woodbury County Republican Party Co-Chair Suzan Stewart, because of the uncertainty of turnout.

“We had a caucus many years ago when we probably misjudged the space, and we kind of had fistfights in the parking lot, because people couldn’t find places to park,” she said. “That’s my caucus nightmare, is that people will complain bitterly because they didn’t have that opportunity."

Kelley Koch, the Dallas County Republican Party chair, said one challenge this year will be making sure Republicans know where to go to caucus. The locations are different from a person’s voting precinct, and precincts were redrawn after redistricting in 2021.

How many people will participate in the caucuses?

County officials said they expect participation in this year’s caucus to be on par with 2016, in which a record more than 186,000 Republicans cast their vote for president.

The previous two contested cycles, 2012 and 2008, saw turnout of around 120,000.

Some precincts in Woodbury County that hadn’t previously seen much turnout surged in 2016, Stewart said, largely because of the new voters former President Donald Trump brought to the caucuses. Trump did drive some of the high turnout that year, but he took second place after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

“There’s so much interest in Trump and Republican candidates since 2016,” she said. “Things have just changed a lot, in the Trump era, so we could have a very robust turnout.”

But the field is also much narrower than it was in 2016: Only a handful of candidates remain in the race, which could discourage turnout for supporters of candidates that have dropped out, Koch said.

Trump leads the field of GOP candidates as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley are in a tight battle for second place, according to recent Iowa polling. Other candidates include Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Texas pastor Ryan Binkley.

How many volunteers are needed?

Running the caucuses takes thousands of volunteers who help sign voters in, set up caucus sites, count the votes and guide the process. Party officials are working to recruit volunteers for each county precinct and train them on the process.

Depending on the size of the precinct, county officials said they need between three and 10 volunteers for each precinct. Recruiting volunteers has not been difficult because of the high interest in the presidential election, officials said.

“It varies from precinct to precinct, but it's really not that difficult to find people because people do participate in the caucus and are willing to help with whatever the duties are before the evening,” Werman said.

Democrats to separate party organizing, presidential preference

Iowa Democrats will hold their party-organizing caucus on Jan. 15 and express their choice for president via a mail-in process starting in January.

The party’s new presidential preference cards will include the names of incumbent President Joe Biden and two long-shot challengers, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and author Marianne Williamson, along with an option to remain uncommitted.

With the caucus separated from the presidential selection, participation on caucus night is likely to be low, said Scott County Democratic Party Chair Kay Pence. The party will elect delegates for the county convention and work on the party platform.

“We’re planning it to be the amount of participation like an off-year caucus,” she said. “So we’re having them all at one location rather than at all the individual precincts.”

Pence said she’s excited that the presidential selection will happen by mail this year, making it open to more people who traditionally can’t get out to their caucus location.

Democrats can request presidential preference cards by mail or email, and the party will begin mailing them on Jan. 12.