I just attended a republican caucus last night. I cant comment on primaries as ive never experienced one.
I first registered as republican so I was able to attend, then went to my precinct. Precincts are just based on geographic areas. A town is often split into many precincts. You should see lots of familiar faces since your neighbors will b there as well. We had to listen to each candidates representative, if there is one. This took less than a hr. We then picked representatives for our precinct, which seemed like they were chosen ahead of time, but thats to just speed up the process. We then vote, and your encouraged to come back for results and other rebublican things that many people choose skip out on. I took me 2 hrs from registation to voting.
Nobody has really gone into detail about the caucus process, so I’ll speak to it from the Colorado GOP viewpoint. I think the Dems are the same, but I’m not sure.
The main thing that the caucus is for is to chose who is involved with the party at the most basic grassroots level. For example, every precinct needs a leader. On caucus night, we choose delegates and alternates to the county convention. The caucus is also the main way for candidates for all offices to get on the primary ballot. (It’s possible to petition directly onto the ballot, but not too many people do that.)
At the county convention, delegates and alternates are chosen for the state convention.
At the state convention, delegates are chosen for the national convention.
After that, Colorado has our primary election. It used to be in August or thereabouts, but it’s been moved up considerably this year. That’s the last state event before the general election.