Iowa’s status as the first state to sift presidential hopefuls has long been both hailed and criticized as one of the biggest political events during election season.

Iowa chooses to host caucuses while other states prefer to hold primaries, which is the basis of most of the criticisms.

Jim Hutter, associate professor of political science, said an advantage to having the first caucus in Iowa is that voters generally know more about the candidates.

“A caucus takes longer but it allows various neighbors to interact, discussing and debating the benefits of candidates,” he said.

Certain policies regarding primaries and caucuses differ by state and party.

The object of both polling systems is to estimate which candidates are most popular and to select delegates to represent voters at the party’s national convention, where the presidential nominee will be determined.

Caucuses give people a chance to deliver speeches on their candidate’s behalf and a public, informal vote is taken. In a primary, votes are cast by ballot in a process similar to a general election.

In a caucus, a presidential candidate needs at least 15 percent of the caucus participants’ votes in order to win.

If a candidate does not receive 15 percent, his or her backer must choose another favorite.

Since the Democratic field is large, the caucuses could have a 20 percent turnout this year, according to an article from the Palm Beach Post.

Dick Haws, associate professor of journalism and communication, does not like the Iowa caucuses. Haws wrote about his aversion to the Iowa caucuses in a recent commentary for the Chicago Tribune.

“I wish Iowa would have a primary, because it would be more user-friendly and more people would turn out,” he said.

Haws said keeping the discussions available at a caucus would be beneficial for voters.

However, making voting private and having the caucus site open for an extended period of time to let people vote when they want to would probably elicit more interest from a wider pool of voters, instead of making all votes public and forcing everyone to vote at the same time in the tradition of the caucuses.

“We think it’s more democratic if we have more turnout, but the rules of the Iowa caucuses restrict turnout,” he said.