Registered Democrats who participate in the 2024 Iowa caucuses by mail will be able to select one of four options for president. The Iowa Democratic Party’s State Central Committee voted on December 2 to ratify presidential preference cards that will list President Joe Biden, U.S. Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, author Marianne Williamson, and “uncommitted.”
Biden, Phillips, and Williamson were the only candidates who submitted a letter requesting to list their names on the preference cards, Stephen Gruber-Miller reported for the Des Moines Register.
Uncommitted has always been an option at Iowa Democratic caucuses, and won the most delegates in 1976. In recent decades, few caucus-goers have chosen to stay uncommitted.
The party is not calling the preference cards “ballots,” in part to avoid upsetting New Hampshire officials who jealously guard that state’s law guaranteeing the first primary in the country. Although the cards will be tallied like ballots are, the caucus is a party-run operation, not an election administered by county and state officials.
Iowa Democrats can request a preference card online now, or print out the form and mail it to the party office. The party will begin mailing cards to voters on January 12; the final day to request a preference card will be February 19.
To comply with the Democratic National Committee’s calendar, which excluded Iowa from the early state window, the Iowa Democratic Party will announce results from the mail-in voting on March 5, when many states hold “Super Tuesday” primaries. Those results won’t be complete, however, because all preference cards postmarked by March 5 will be counted.
State party chair Rita Hart confirmed in a December 2 news release that she will caucus for Biden. It’s not clear whether there will be any organized effort to drum up votes for uncommitted, Williamson, or Phillips in Iowa. The Minnesota member of Congress has been campaigning for president mostly in New Hampshire, and has also visited South Carolina. But he does have an Iowa connection: he’s the grandson of Pauline Esther Friedman, who grew up in Sioux City and is better known as Abigail Van Buren, the longtime author of the “Dear Abby” advice column.
Iowa Democrats will gather for in-person precinct caucuses at 7:00 pm on January 15, but they will not break into presidential preference groups at those events. Rather, voters who attend the precinct caucuses will elect delegates and alternates to county conventions, choose precinct representatives on county central committees or platform committees, and approve platform resolutions to be considered at the county level.
The Republican Party of Iowa has never allowed absentee participation in their caucuses and has typically cancelled the presidential preference portion of their precinct caucuses when a Republican incumbent is seeking re-election. At the GOP caucuses (also taking place at 7:00 pm on January 15), participants will be able to express a presidential choice in what amounts to a straw poll. Many voters leave after writing the name of their preferred presidential candidate on a piece of paper. Others stay to conduct party business like electing county convention delegates and approving platform resolutions.
Both Democrats and Republicans allow voters to change their registration at the precinct caucus site on January 15; you don’t have to be registered with the party in advance. Bring some form of ID and proof of address (like a rental agreement, bank statement, or utility bill) to your neighborhood caucus if you are not already on the voter rolls as a registered Democrat or Republican in your precinct.