Iowa Caucuses Begin At 8PM Eastern

The Iowa caucuses begin at 7pm local time and I’ll be blogging late tonight as things shake out. Make your predictions below. Here’s how the caucuses work:

Unlike in primary states, Iowa voters don’t simply step into a private booth, check some boxes and go home. Instead, they go to community centers, schools and firehouses, where they essentially have a coffee-klatsch. They listen to speeches and discuss the issues, hoping to get their wayward neighbors to switch to their candidates.

And then, after about an hour, they vote. The results are announced at the end of the meeting. (The Democrats make this process a little more chaotic than the Republicans. If a Democratic voter’s candidate doesn’t score about 15 percent support at the meeting, that candidate gets the boot and the voter either sits out the caucus or chooses another candidate.)

On-the-ground organization is hugely important, which is why Evangelical-friendly Republicans typically do very well in the state. Oh, and Democrats can choose to caucus with Republicans at the beginning of a meeting and vice versa, allowing for the potential of some partisan mischief-making.