preparing for the Iowa caucus

1. The Iowa Democratic Party planned to hold a "virtual caucus" over a phone system alongside the regular caucus this February.
2. The DNC will recommend rejecting, per a statement from the Democratic Party, since these phone systems could be susceptible to hackers. 
3. The reason a virtual caucus system came into existence in the first place was the DNC responding to longtime criticism that Iowa’s caucus should be accessible to voters who can’t show up in-person. The DNC mandated that Iowa and Nevada — the two early states left with caucuses rather than primaries — find a way to become more accessible. Now, the national party is nixing its virtual caucus plans. Some fear the fallout could end the Iowa caucuses as we know them and have dramatic effects on the nomination process as a whole.
4. Iowa is the first state to vote in the primary calendar, which shows which candidates have momentum and which don't. Iowa also does not decide who will be president, but they decide who will not in part because of the media narrative that is shown after the primary election. 
5. Caucuses have always been controversial because they are long, complicated affairs where caucus-goers meet and literally sort themselves into groups based on the candidates they support. Unlike the relative ease of a primary election, caucuses can take hours and exclude people who cannot show up on caucus night if they have disabilities, are elderly, or just have job or childcare commitments. 
6. More people participating in the caucus process in recent elections has led to an accessibility issue for many and the caucuses are getting unwieldy due to the number of people coming. 
7. Many are arguing that this new form of caucus could be manipulated because of the voters voting over the phone and the risk of hacking as well as how these votes would be counted and how they would be accounted for. When the Rules and Bylaws Committee in San Francisco met earlier this month they tested the system and found it could be easily y hacked, a major worry for many people. 
8. Iowa loves its first-in-the-nation caucus status, and there’s a huge barrier to Iowa moving to a primary: New Hampshire. New Hampshire has long claimed the nation’s first primary (which Iowa has worked around with a caucus), something it’s been able to hang onto for years because of a certain state law. 
9. New Hampshire ensures it is the first primary with a law that saw that if any other state tries to move its primary before New Hampshire, it allows New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner to change the primary date, moving it a week before the other state, which causes a problem for Iowa to change to primary.