(Radio Iowa/UPDATE) – The Iowa Democratic Party is proposing that its 2024 Caucuses be held on the same night as the Iowa G-O-P’s Caucuses. The Iowa Democratic Party’s plan calls for using a mail-in system to determine which presidential candidate gets the most backing from Iowa Democrats. The proposal does not indicate when the results would be announced, though. It could be a way for Iowa Democrats to avoid sanctions from the Democratic National Committee for holding Caucuses on the same night as Iowa Republicans. Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart.

“We know that this draft delegate selection plan will raise a few questions,” Hart says, “but it’s designed to respond to this calendar chaos.” In early February, national Democratic Party leaders decided five other states would go first in voting for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and the dates for two of those early state contests are still not set. Meanwhile, Republicans in the Iowa legislature have a bill that would require in-person participation in both parties’ Caucuses. Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, says New Hampshire may schedule its presidential primary before Iowa’s Caucuses if the Caucuses aren’t conducted in person.

“If we don’t do Caucuses the way Caucuses are actually defined, which is a collection of people coming together and deciding a candidate, they will move ahead of us as the first primary according to their own law,” Schultz says. The bill was approved by the Iowa House this week and is likely to be debated in the Iowa Senate Thursday. Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, says the First Amendment guarantees political parties the right to hold meetings and determine their own rules. “That’s what we’re doing when we have a Caucus,” Quirmbach says. “We bring our people together. We form a platform, at least our Democratic Party forms a platform, and we set a course for making changes in government.”

Former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan, of Des Moines — a member of the Democratic National Committee — suggests litigation is likely if the bill becomes law. “As a practicing lawyer, I would tell you that it raises serious constitutional issues that likely are going to have to be decided by a court,” Brennan says. Rita Hart, the Iowa Democratic Party’s chairwoman, says she wasn’t consulted about the bill and doesn’t know how it might impact the Caucus plan the party released today (Wednesday). “It’s curious to me that the Republicans are weighing in on a party process like this,” Hart says.

Iowa Democrats have held call-in and virtual Caucus gatherings in the past. They are proposing a mail-in system for 2024 as a way to address complaints that the Caucuses are inaccessible to workers who can’t get time off and others who cannot attend on Caucus night.