Iowa Democrats release 2024 caucus plan, mail-in only process for presidential preference

The Iowa Democratic Party is scrapping the traditional caucus structure that requires making a presidential pick in-person. Instead, Iowans would mail in a card to express their presidential preference, and the 2024 in-person democratic caucuses would focus solely on party business.Iowa Democrats will be able to request a presidential preference card through the mail or online, according to a draft of the Iowa Democratic Party delegate selection plan released Wednesday morning. Iowans would then have a window of time to fill the card out and return it through the mail. There would be no expression of presidential preference conducted at the in-person precinct caucuses.“Our draft delegate selection plan provides us flexibility to respond to the chaos surrounding the Presidential nominating calendar. Iowa Democrats will do what’s best for Iowa and that means moving forward with the most inclusive caucus process in Iowa history," Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said. You can read the full draft of the Iowa Democratic Party delegate selection plan here.How will the mail-in caucus process work? The Iowa Democratic Party plans to hire a professional election vendor "with experience conducting mail expressions of caucus presidential preference." The vendor will be responsible for mailing out presidential preference cards to registered Iowa Democrats who request them by mail or through an online portal.Iowa Democrats will select which candidate they want as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. They can return their presidential preference card by mail or at a secure drop-box at available locations. Separately, Iowa Democrats will hold precinct caucuses to conduct party business. The tabulation of presidential preferences will not take place at precinct caucuses."The purpose of the precinct caucuses will be to elect unbound delegates to county conventions, elect precinct committee persons, and move platform resolutions to the county convention," a draft of the Iowa Democratic Party delegate selection plan states.When will Iowa Democrats start the mail-in process and release results?The plan does not include specific dates or deadlines for when presidential preference cards would be mailed out, when Iowans would have to mail them back by or when Iowa Democrats plan to tabulate and release the results.It does, however, state that Iowa Democrats will release that information "no later than 90 days prior to the Caucuses." It also states that "the results of the mail-in expression of presidential preference will be announced and released by 7:00 p.m. CST five days following the deadline to post returning preference cards."The precinct-level caucuses will be held at least eight days prior to any other state’s presidential nominating contest and on the same day as the Republican caucuses. Iowa Democrats' plan to revamp their caucus structure comes as state Republicans are pushing legislation to ban a caucus-by-mail process.In a 61-33 vote Monday, Iowa House lawmakers approved a bill that would require in-person caucus participation and Iowans to register with their party 70 days before the caucus.The bill needs approval from the Iowa Senate before it could go to the governor to be signed into law. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart told KCCI in an interview last month that "the possibility that legislation could get passed will have a big impact on us" but did not specify whether Iowa Democrats would follow the new rules if they were signed into law.Iowa Democrats' new plan also comes as the presidential nominating calendar for Democrats across the country remains uncertain. The Democratic National Committee voted in February to strip Iowa of its first-in-the-nation status and instead selected South Carolina to hold the first spot. Iowa law, however, requires state parties to hold caucuses eight days before any other state contest. National Democrats have also promised to punish any state that breaks their rules. Any state that defies the new presidential nominating calendar approved by the DNC will automatically lose half its delegates to the national convention.Other states selected to hold spots in the early window also face unresolved challenges. Although the DNC selected South Carolina to hold the first primary on Feb. 3, New Hampshire's state law requires that they hold the first-in-the-nation primary. The DNC has scheduled Georgia to hold its primary on Feb. 13. However, Georgia Democrats need approval that they have not yet received from their Republican secretary of state to hold a primary on that date. Iowa Democrats sent a letter to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee in January asking that they reconsider giving Iowa one of the first five spots in the presidential nominating process due to the calendar's uncertainty. Iowa Democratic Party leaders tell KCCI they have not received a response.