Caucuses Cont.

So as I write this blog entry, and I refresh my CNN Election Center, Obama is leading the Iowa Democratic caucus with 37% of the delegates from 92% of the precincts reporting. This evening was sort of a season opener for people like me who are interested in politics. We watched as the numbers came in, and our hearts raced as our candidates numbers went up and down. As all of this was happening, though, I wondered how the heck the caucuses actually worked.
I searched Wikipedia, and though I know it's information isn't always reliable, it does provide some insight into this confusing political process. Essentially what is happening tonight is that people in individual districts, within counties in Iowa, are meeting to decide who to send to their state caucus to decide who to send to the Democratic National Convention. If that didn't make any sense to you, you're not alone. The idea is that each county gets a certain number of electors based on population (I assume), and each caucus decides which candidate they are going to support and then electors are chosen from that caucus to cast that county's votes in the state caucus. Now, I'm not sure about Iowa, but in some states the electors aren't bound to vote for the candidate they were elected for in their initial caucus. So technically if a bunch of people decided to change their minds, then a different candidate than Obama could be elected out of Iowa. I assume this would only happen in the case of a scandal or something like that, but who knows.
I hope that cleared up the caucuses for readers, and have a great night.