Caucuses

This image is of a Democratic (Bernie Sanders) supporter at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, before the Iowa Caucus in January 2016.

Caucuses are meetings often held in local facilities, such as town/city halls, school halls and sporting arenas. The function of caucuses is for the two major parties to debate and discuss their views on their potential presidential candidates and eventually select who they will send to the party's national convention. However, the Republicans and the Democrats use caucuses slightly differently. The Republicans have been known to cast secret ballots in order to choose their candidate, whereas the Democrats tend to physically group themselves according to the candidate that they support and then look at the results to decide who to choose.

Caucuses are not used to select presidential candidates, they are used to merely select delegates who will go forward and vote on behalf of the caucus participates for their party's presidential candidates. It is argued that caucuses are not conventional for modern day elections. However they remain significant in including people in local politics that can in turn have a large impact on the United States on the whole. Perhaps the most famous example of a caucuse is the Iowa Caucuse, which is held every two years. There is a strong belief that these caucuses allow people who are not necessarily the most educated or wealthy American the chance to participate somewhat and feel valued in local politics, something which is very important in American ideology.




References:

http://www.cfr.org/elections/us-presidential-nominating-process/p37522 
http://people.howstuffworks.com/question721.htm