Monday 3 February 2020: Iowa Precinct Caucuses. Hours begin at 7:00p CST (0100 UTC). Delegate Pledging: Proportional Caucus/Convention. Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus/Convention.

Precinct Caucuses First Expression of Preference
Not used for delegate computation.
Source: Iowa Democratic Party.
Status: Official. Retrieved: Thursday 27 February 2020.
Excluded from Nationwide vote.

Precinct Caucuses Final Expression of Preference
Not used for delegate computation.
Source: Iowa Democratic Party.
Status: Official. Retrieved: Thursday 27 February 2020.
Included in Nationwide vote.

Precinct Caucuses
Source: Iowa Democratic Party.
Status: Official. Retrieved: Thursday 27 February 2020.
Excluded from Nationwide vote.

Democratic Party Caucuses meet in each precinct at 7 PM CST. Absentee or proxy voting is not allowed. Each Precinct Caucus chooses the precinct’s delegates to the County Conventions based on presidential preference.

Satellite caucuses add additional locations for those cannot attend the in-person precinct caucus. Iowa Democrats can apply to hold a satellite at places such as factories, group homes, or community gathering facilities. Satellite caucuses are tallied as one additional county in each Congressional District. There is an out-of-state «At-Large» Satellite caucus whose votes are applied to the statewide delegates only.

• At each caucus, each presidential contender who fails to get at least 15 percent support among the participants in the initial balloting after a period of discussion will be considered «non-viable» and all supporters of such «non-viable» presidential contenders will then be required to join in the support of presidential contenders who have remained «viable». To determine the viability of a presidential contender, multiply the number of eligible caucus attendees by the percentages below and round to the nearest whole number. This is the minimum number of delegates needed for the contender to remain viable.
• • 50% (majority vote) for caucuses electing 1 delegate.
  • 25% (one quarter) for caucuses electing 2 delegates.
  • 16.66…% (one sixth) for caucuses electing 3 delegates.
  • 15% for caucuses electing 4 or more delegates.

Example. 57 people attend a caucus electing 3 delegates. The viability is 1/6th of 57 = 9.5 rounded which is 10. Say 29 people support candidate A, 19 support candidate B, and 9 support candidate C. Candidates A and B are viable since they have support of 10 or more of the attendees. Because candidate C did not receive the support of 10 attendees, those supporting candidate C must realign to another candidate. At this point, the attendees realign themselves so 34 support candidate A and 23 support candidate B.

The caucus will next choose the precinct’s delegates to who will be allocated in proportion to the percentage of the support each «viable» presidential contender received in the second round of balloting at the precinct caucus as of the time of its adjournment.

Continuing the example from above: For Candidate A: 3 (total precinct delegates) × 34 (supporters) ÷ 57 (total attendees) = 1.789 which rounds to 2 precinct delegates. Candidate B receives 3 × 23 ÷ 57 = 1.211 which rounds to 1 precinct delegate. Note: Due to rounding, the sum of precinct delegates may exceed the total number of precinct delegates allocated to the caucus. If this happens, round down the candidate with the smallest fraction. Candidates receiving 1 precinct delegate are not subject to this rule, that is, candidates cannot loose their only precinct delegate during this adjustment.

41 National Convention delegates are allocated from the state delegate equivalency results of the precinct caucuses. In addition, the first and last expression of preference are recorded.

How the Democratic Proportional Delegate Allocation Math works.

Precinct Caucuses
National Convention District Delegates
(excludes At-Large Satellite Caucus)
Source: Iowa Democratic Party.
Status: Official. Retrieved: Thursday 27 February 2020.

Precinct Caucuses
National Convention Statewide Delegates
(includes At-Large Satellite Caucus)
Source: Iowa Democratic Party.
Status: Official. Retrieved: Thursday 27 February 2020.