people who are uncomfortable with peer pressure
people who don't like loud
introverts
people with PTSD

so they don't go looking for more

I'll take ten minutes on my way home from work to vote. The last thing I want to do on a February weeknight is hang out in a high school cafeteria for several hours arguing about presidential candidates.

Transportation challenged

Nursing home residents
People with compromised immune symptoms who need to avoid large groups of people
Those simply not feeling well that day
People in hospital or those who have recently undergone challenging procedures

excluded from having their voices heard tonight. That alone is more than enough for me to call the caucus process absolute bullshit.

is accurate; I know teachers and state employees attend (I was both for a time); so do members of the clergy, businesspeople and just about anybody else who can make it and is interested. However, the people who dominate the caucuses are typically either the loudest partisans or the people who are part of the local party machinery and know the rules inside and out - and how to manipulate them. Sometimes the party operatives are the noisiest activists. So you have to be prepared not to be managed, shamed or bullied. The process is not democratic; it excludes too many and intimidates too many others.

Were they required to stand/sit in a specific area?

This was a precinct in a large urban area. I remember that we were in a large room and ended up moving around into groups based on which candidate we were caucusing for.

In rural America everyone knows everyone. My caucus is one whole town with a population of approximately 40,000.

Too time consuming. I did it once and I won't ever do it again. There needs to be a better way. I went to the precinct caucus. That was good because Hillary showed up outside and I got some great pictures. Again, too many people who did not know what they were doing because it is only done every 4 years. Time consuming. By default, I was able to go to the county caucus...on a different day. Too many people who did not know what they were doing. People were impatient and tried to take over. Only one vendor selling food. Line was long and they ran out of food. A lot of people left. People were passionate about their candidates and tempers flared. One whole day of my life that I was never going to get back. Time to go back to primaries. One person, one vote. done and recorded.

I have been a precinct captain in our state's caucuses multiple times. It was held in a high school in the evening and folks could easily drop by for a moment with their kids in tow, vote in the preferential straw poll and be out the door in in a span of 10 minutes. I am very disappointed that our state decided to abandon the caucus system because it will dissuade some of the most dedicated volunteers from helping elect democrats to office. I am not sure how attendance compares between caucus goers and primary voters. But, the data seem to suggest that primary voters turn out in pretty low numbers absent some high profile candidate or issue that drives them to the ballot box (still pretty abysmal turn out of registered voters in most states).

No straw poll. No secret ballots.

And in some precincts in 2016 there were people deliberately making it go on for hours to essentially force attrition (which worked, sadly). Young college kids could stay all day and night.

If the people of Iowa didn't like their caucus system, wouldn't they abandon it?

Who makes the decision if not elected officials who can be voted out of office by "the people?"

Same difference.

They can even keep it. But it’s unlikely they will be keeping both the caucus and their first in the nation status next time around.

The first votes should not be in either Iowa or New Hampshire. It would be difficult to find two states more unrepresentative of the country.

If I could have my druthers, I would like to see a nationwide primary. I don't know if or how that gets done but it would be a great improvement.

in the year running up to the primary

difficult to risk that kind of economic boost

This IS their primary?
Do they have a mail-in capability?
I honestly can't understand why people put up with it.

like the caucus.

It is, however, our process...and most of us have zero power in choosing how any of this happens.

Also, we had members of all the groups you mention that "won't" attend caucuses at ours last night...though I don't think we have any federal employees in town.

I don't like the caucuses, but I also don't like people acting as if all Iowans are just trying to keep their neighbors from voting.

No one listens to the "non-important" people. Anywhere. The big cats are the ones making all the decisions and we make do with whatever we need to. No one cares what we think and that has been the case in EVERY state I've lived in.

to the Constitution.

And even in desmoin, buses are on a hub and spoke system designed for in/out transit, not cross town.

So if it is beyond walking distance, you are not going to make it.

They blew it. They're 90%+ white. They keep sending Steve King back to Washington.

The state does not represent America any longer.

Make them scramble with the other states and they'll drop their silly caucuses because there will be no reason to keep them.

Nor do I have the patience to be in confined spaces for hours.