Monday 19 January 2004: Democratic Party Caucuses meet in each precinct. Each Precinct Caucus chooses the precinct's delegates to County Conventions based on presidential preference (which, despite the media circus that quadrennially surrounds this event, is all that will be actually decided at these Iowa caucuses!).

NOTE: Estimates will, of course, be made by media outlets as well as by the campaigns of the presidential contenders themselves as to how many of Iowa's 57 National Convention delegates each presidential contender is likely to be ultimately be receiving as a result of the Iowa caucuses but, of course, since no National Convention delegates are actually being chosen by these caucuses, all such estimates will almost certainly, come the State Convention in June, be wrong!!

• At each caucus, each presidential contender who fails to get at least 15 percent support among the participants in the initial balloting after a period of discussion will be considered "non-viable" and all supporters of such "non-viable" presidential contenders will then be required to join in the support of presidential contenders who have remained "viable". To determine the viability of a presidential contender, multiply the number of eligible caucus attendees by the percentages below and round to the nearest whole number. This is the minimum number of delegates needed for the contender to remain viable.
• 50% (majority vote) for caucuses electing 1 delegate.
• 25% (one quarter) for caucuses electing 2 delegates.
• 16.66...% (one sixth) for caucuses electing 3 delegates.
• 15% for caucuses electing 4 or more delegates.

Example. 57 people attend a caucus electing 3 delegates. The viability is 1/6th of 57 = 9.5 rounded which is 10. Say 29 people support candidate A, 19 support candidate B, and 9 support candidate C. Candidates A and B are viable since they have support of 10 or more of the attendees. Because candidate C did not receive the support of 10 attendees, those supporting candidate C must realign to another candidate. At this point, the attendees realign themselves so 34 support candidate A and 23 support candidate B.

The caucus will next choose the precinct's delegates to the Democratic Convention of the County in which the precinct is located (which is all, despite all the media hoopla, that will be actually decided at the Iowa caucuses!) who will be allocated in proportion to the percentage of the support each "viable" presidential contender received in the second round of balloting at the precinct caucus as of the time of its adjournment. (Estimates will, of course, be made by media outlets as well as the contenders themselves as to how many of Iowa's 57 National Convention delegates each contender will ultimately be receiving but, of course, since NO National Convention delegates are actually being chosen by these caucuses, all such estimates will almost certainly, in the end, be WRONG!!!)."

Continuing the example from above: For Candidate A: 3 (total precinct delegates) × 34 (supporters) ÷ 57 (total attendees) = 1.789 which rounds to 2 precinct delegates. Candidate B receives 3 × 23 ÷ 57 = 1.211 which rounds to 1 precinct delegate. Note: Due to rounding, the sum of precinct delegates may exceed the total number of precinct delegates allocated to the caucus. If this happens, round down the candidate with the smallest fraction. Candidates receiving 1 precinct delegate are not subject to this rule, that is, candidates cannot loose their only precinct delegate during this adjustment.

Saturday 13 March 2004: Democratic Party County Conventions convene in each county. Each County Convention chooses the county's delegates to both Congressional District Conventions and the Iowa State Convention based on presidential preference. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be viable. Delegates assigned to a non-viable candidate will realign themselves to another candidate.

• County Conventions choose both the county's delegates to the Democratic Party Convention of the Congressional District of which the county is a part as well as the county's delegates the Iowa State Democratic Convention; each presidential contender receives a number of the county's delegates to each respective Convention (District or State) in proportion to the number of county convention delegates supporting said candidate.

Saturday 24 April 2004: Democratic Party District Conventions convene in each congressional district to choose the district's delegates to the Democratic National Convention. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates at the district level.

• 29 district delegates are to be allocated proportionally to the number of district convention delegates supporting said candidate in each Congressional District:
• CD 1: 6
• CD 2: 6
• CD 3: 6
• CD 4: 6
• CD 5: 5

Therefore, the very first time Democratic National Convention delegates from Iowa will be allocated to presidential contenders officially will be at these Saturday 24 April 2004 District Conventions!!

Posted 10 February 2004: The convention date is changed from from 12 June to 26 June 2004.

Saturday 26 June 2004: The Iowa State Democratic Convention convenes. The State Convention chooses 16 of the Iowa's Pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates at the statewide level.

16 delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based the support for the presidential contenders in the State Convention as a whole.

• 10 at-large National Convention delegates
• 6 Pledged PLEOs

The remaining 12 National Convention delegates consist of

• 11 Unpledged PLEO delegates:
• 8 Democratic National Committee members
• 2 Members of Congress (1 Senator and 1 Representative)
• 1 Governor
• 0 Distinguished Party Leaders
• 1 Unpledged "add-on" (selected at the state convention).

These 12 delegates and will go to the Democratic National Convention officially "Unpledged".

Only as of Saturday 26 June 2004 will ALL of Iowa's 57 Democratic National Convention delegates have been allocated: the estimates made re: delegate allocation as a result of the Iowa caucuses will likely not match the presidential preferences and pledges of the National Convention delegates as actually chosen because it is rather probable that the field of Democratic presidential contenders on Saturday 26 June 2004 will very well be quite different from the way that same field looked at the time the Iowa Precinct Caucuses had taken place way back in January!