Though Republicans stuck with the traditional first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses earlier this year, Democrats went a different route.

       Rather than an in-person presidential preference contest, the party opted instead for mail-in ballots to determine which candidate will win the state's 40 delegates, with voting ending on Tuesday.

       The ballot lists incumbent front-runner President Joe Biden as well as long shot challengers Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson and an option for "uncommitted."

       The party started accepting requests for these cards via a Google form on the party's website and by mail on Nov. 1.

       All cards must be postmarked by Tuesday.

       State significance Iowa was long a hotly contested presidential battleground and influenced the course of the primaries because it held its caucuses before any other state voted.

       But national Democrats have pushed to change that since 2020, in part because of logistic problems with that year's caucuses and in part because of the view that Iowa's electorate doesn't represent the rest of the country or the Democratic base.

       The state has also shifted more Republican in the last decade.

       Trump won the 2024 GOP caucuses, in January, with 51% of the vote and Biden is likewise expected to win, as he has every other nominating race so far.