Editing Iowa caucuses (section)

===Republican Party===
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The process of selecting Iowa delegates to the Republican National Convention prior to the 2016 election cycle started with the selection of delegates to the county conventions, which in turn affected the delegates elected to district conventions who also served as delegates to the state convention where delegates were chosen for the national convention.

This process rewarded candidate organizers who not only got supporters to the caucus sites but also got supporters willing to serve as delegates to county conventions and willing to vote for other delegates who supported a specific candidate. In 2012, this process resulted in Ron Paul supporters dominating the Iowa delegation to the Republican National Convention, having 22 of the 28 Iowa delegates, with Mitt Romney getting the other six delegates.

Because the delegates elected at the caucuses are not required to declare a candidate preference, the media does not always have a purely objective way to determine the success of individual candidates at the caucuses. The media focused on the secret ballot polling conducted at the caucus sites and have generally referred to this non-binding poll as the caucus. There were irregularities in the 2012 caucus site polling results, including the fact that eight precinct results went missing and were never counted.

Because of the irregularities in the process and the fact that the totals reported to the media were unrelated to the delegate selection process, there have been changes in both how the caucus site secret ballot polling is sent to state party headquarters and in how Iowa delegates to the national convention are required to vote.

Beginning with the [[2012 United States presidential election|2012 presidential election]], Iowa switched from the old winner-take-all allocation to proportional allocation. The change was made to prolong the race, giving lesser-known candidates a chance and making it harder for a frontrunner to secure the majority early. It was also hoped that this change in the election system would energize the base of the party.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-03-06/gop-primary-proportional-delegates-campaign/53373510/1 |title=GOP, be careful what you wish for |last=Goldberg, Jonah |date=March 5, 2012 |work=[[USA Today]] |access-date=September 1, 2017 |archive-date=May 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504192558/http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-03-06/gop-primary-proportional-delegates-campaign/53373510/1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/106923-long-damaging-presidential-primary-has-gop-considering-changes-to-its-rules/ |title=Long, damaging presidential... |last=George, Cameron |date=February 24, 2012|work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |access-date=February 1, 2016 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304141036/http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/212491-long-gop-primary-process-has-party-considering-changes-to-calendar |url-status=live }}</ref>

Starting in 2016, caucus results have become binding when selecting delegates.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/06/26/iowa-gop-binding-delegates-republican-convention/29362839/ |title=Iowa GOP's tricky task: Set convention voting rules |website=Des Moines Register |access-date=November 30, 2015}}</ref> Acting in accordance with a mandate from the Republican National Committee, the delegates are bound on the first ballot to vote for candidates in proportion to the votes cast for each candidate at the caucus sites.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/IA-R |title=The Green Papers Republican Detailed Delegate Allocation – 2016 |date=February 1, 2016 |publisher=Green Papers |access-date=February 2, 2016 |archive-date=October 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020035443/http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/IA-R |url-status=live }}</ref>