Dear Reader,

This is an excellent question, and a timely one with the Iowa Caucus just around the corner (Jan 3, 2008 at 7pm). The caucus and the primary are the two methods by which states choose their delegates to the national democratic and republican conventions. Many more states hold primaries than caucuses. Yet, the caucus bears a lot of political clout as the Iowa Caucus marks the beginning of primary season and historically, winnows the field to the serious presidential contenders.

In simplest terms, a primary is an election by ballot and it is done privately. Florida adopted the primary in 1904, but it wasn't until the early 1970s that it became the widely preferred method of selecting delegates.

In contrast to the primary, a caucus requires the voter to declare publicly his or her support of their candidate. Participants meet, divide themselves into groups according to the candidate they support, and engage in discussion and debate to win others to their side before an informal vote is taken.

In the Iowa caucus, participants gather by party preference in order to elect delegates to the 99 county conventions. Republicans and Democrats do this differently; Republicans select their delegate by a straw vote whereas Democratic candidates must receive at least 15% of the votes in that precinct in order to move onto the next county convention. Despite all of the hard work of the caucus-goers, the results are not binding on the elected delegates. This means that come the national convention, they do not have to vote for the preferred candidates of the caucus, although they usually do.

To make things even more confusing, primary and caucus rules and processes of convention delegate allocation differ from state-to-state and can also be changed by party leadership. Therefore its best to check with a state's Board of Elections to be sure of the procedure in that state.

Check out this educational video for more information: