No one said democracy should be easy.
Iowa voters on Monday at last cast their verdicts on the Democratic and Republican presidential fields in the state's intricate and quirky caucuses, officially launching the 2016 White House race.
Iowa caucuses: 5 things to watch
But along with Iowa's first-in-the-nation privileges come responsibility. After all, the state's discerning political activists can make or break campaigns painstakingly pieced together over years in a single night.
So it's fitting that the caucuses -- caucuses, plural, not singular caucus -- impose some unusual burdens on voters. In the Iowa caucuses, unlike primaries countrywide, you can't just get away with pulling a lever in a curtained polling booth at any time of the day that's convenient.
Find your presidential match with the 2016 Candidate Matchmaker
Instead, hardy Iowans must attend public meetings in school gyms, arts centers, churches, libraries, restaurants and even fire stations in 1,681 precincts to vote for a candidate. The process is much longer -- it can take several hours -- and more convoluted than a primary ballot. So we've provided a guide to understanding how the Iowa voting ritual works.
