France, Scotland and Florida are just three of the places where Iowans will be able to participate in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Democratic caucus on Monday.
Four cities in Florida will host satellite events as a part of Iowa’s attempt to provide remote options to residents living away from their home state during the winter months. The state tried out four satellite caucus locations in 2016; this year it will feature 87.
In the Sunshine State, two are in the Panhandle and two on the west coast in Port Charlotte and St. Petersburg. The events will start at different times depending on their location.
The caucus happening in St. Petersburg has been largely credited to a long-time attendee, Donna Winter.
The process is similar to a primary in that registered voters of a particular party decide on a presidential nominee. However, unlike a primary, voters physically move around a room and mark their preferred candidate by standing in a group.
If the candidate gets more than 15 percent, that candidate is considered viable and caucus goers in that group are locked into their decision. However, if a candidate does not get 15 percent, voters in those groups can either try to convince others to join them, join another group or remain undecided.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, a fair number of people are expected to attend the Florida events.
Just learned that there are 119 people signed up for the Iowa satellite presidential caucus that will be held in St. Petersburg on Monday — and 374 across the four Democratic caucuses in Florida.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this:https://t.co/O0yEVylS2P
— Steve Contorno (@scontorno) January 30, 2020
