Bernie Sanders holds a rally in Las Vegas on February 15, ahead of the Nevada caucuses.
- The Nevada Democratic caucuses take place on February 22, but early voting takes place from February 15-18.
- On caucus day, the process is similar to Iowa's: Voters gather at a designated site and vote publicly by standing with fellow supporters of their chosen candidate.
- After Iowa's caucus dissolved into mayhem thanks to a faulty app, Democrats are concerned that Nevada could have the same issues.
- The Nevada Democratic party scrapped plans to use an app, but volunteers are worried about a new, hastily improvised system involving iPads and Google Forms, according to reports.
- There are no Republican caucuses in Nevada this year, as Donald Trump is the presumptive party nominee.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
As the dust settles from Iowa, another caucus looms on the horizon.
The Nevada Democratic Caucuses will take place on Feb. 22, 2020, though early voting began on February 15. It's significant because Democratic candidates will have to face a far more diverse electorate than they did in Iowa and New Hampshire, both of which have mostly white populations.
Nevada has a total of 36 pledged national convention delegates up for grabs for Democrats.
But this year, all eyes are on Nevada after failures with the new Iowa caucus reporting app caused statewide confusion and delayed results for several days. After that chaotic election, the Nevada Democratic Party ditched their own plans to use an app to transmit results.
"We are not using an app, we are not using something you can download on your phone," Nevada Democrats executive director Alana Mounce told the New York Times. But it was not yet clear what process would replace this method, according to the Times.
Campaigns and volunteers are concerned about the hastily assembled system that is being put in place to replace it, the Washington Post reported, and campaigns have criticized the state party for not communicating with them.
The Nevada Democratic Caucus is a lot like Iowa's, with one key difference
Unlike in a primary, where voters choose a candidate by secret ballot, caucus participants show up at a designated precinct on election day and vote publicly by standing with fellow supporters of their chosen candidate.
The process is not much different from the Iowa Democratic caucus this year, except for one key exception. Nevada introduced early voting for Democrats this year, which takes place at designated caucus sites from February 15-18. In early voting, people will rank their candidate choices on a paper ballot. The Nevada Democratic Party said over 26,000 people had participated in the first two days of early voting.
But the big day is Saturday, February 22. Nevada Democrats who will be 18 by November 3, 2020 will arrive at their caucus site starting at 10 a.m. At 12 p.m., the caucuses begin.
Voters will physically sort into groups supporting their chosen candidate. In most cases, candidates will need to get at least 15% of the vote at a caucus site in order to be considered "viable," which means they are safe for the next round.
If a candidate doesn't reach 15% of support, then their supporters have a few options. They can try to convince their fellow voters to join their candidate and put them over the edge. Or, a voter can decide to caucus for another candidate that is viable, or close to it.
At the end, the supporters are counted and candidates are alloted county delegates at each precinct based on how many voters they have. In the event of a tie at a precinct site, in true Las Vegas fashion, the winner is decided with a card draw: whoever pulls the highest card, wins.
Democratic voters wait in line to enter an early voting location the Nevada Caucus for the first day of early voting on February 15.
How will we know who won?
Assuming all goes smoothly, we will learn the number of county delegates each candidate won, and the projected number of national delegates that a candidate will therefore ultimately receive. The person with the greatest number of projected national delegates is traditionally considered the winner of the caucuses.
For example, in 2016, Hillary Clinton received 6,316 county delegates and 20 national delegates. Bernie Sanders received 5,678 county delegates and 15 national delegates, so Clinton was considered the winner.
Polling shows Bernie Sanders is in the lead in Nevada
A February 14 poll of 413 likely caucus goers, conducted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and AARP, found Sanders leading with 25% of support. Former vice president Joe Biden recieved 18% support, Senator Elizabeth Warren received 15% support, and billionaire Tom Steyer had 11% support.
But Democrats are starting to worry about reporting results
After the Iowa app debacle, Democrats are...well, they're freaking out. The state party scrapped plans to use an app to report caucus results, but volunteers and campaigns have been confused by the process to replace it.
Politico reported that Nevada Democrats had purchased iPads for caucus site volunteers to use, and that results would be entered via Google Forms to transmit to the state party.
Unnamed volunteers told Politico that they had not been properly briefed on using the iPads or reporting system during their training. During one training, "There were old ladies looking at me like, 'Oh, we're going to have iPads,'" a volunteer told Politico.
FYI, there are no Republican caucuses this year
The Republican Party opted not to hold a caucus this year because President Donald Trump is the presumptive party nominee. While it would save the state party time and money, it forfeits a chance for party building, said Robert Lang, a professor of public policy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"Caucuses are a great way to know, 'who are the most energized voters?'" Lang said. "And you don't get that if you don't hold one."