1. The Iowa Democratic Party's plan for changes to this year's Iowa Caucus is to make it a "virtual caucus" over a phone system alongside the regular caucus.
2. The Democratic National Committee decided to recommend rejecting these plans because of internet hackers who could bring down the entire system.
3. The reason why the virtual caucus is even in question is because of "longtime criticism that Iowa's caucus should be accessible to voters who can't show up in person."
4. Because Iowa is the first contest, its caucuses show which candidates have potential. According to David Redlawsk, "Iowa doesn't decide who will be president, but it decides who will not."
5. The reason why caucuses are controversial is because of the complexity and openness involved in letting the "caucus-goers sort themselves into groups based on the candidates they support." The really controversial part is the exclusivity of caucuses because it is difficult for those who have other commitments or disabilities to attend.
6. Because there has been an increase in participation over the years, it is getting harder to control the number of people who show up to the caucuses. In the past, there used to be about 50 to 100 people, so 1,000 is much more difficult to control.
7. When they tested the system, they found that it was very easy to manipulate the system even though "some state party officials said the networks that were hacked weren't the same as the virtual caucus they were building..."
8. Iowa really, really likes its first caucus position, and if turns into a primary state, it would have to hold its primaries after New Hampshire.
9. New Hampshire can ensure that it is the first primary because of an NH state law that allows the New Hampshire governor to move the primary date up a week if some other state tries to hold their primaries first.
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