What is all this Ruckus about a Caucus?

I live in Canada now and I hear more about the US politics now that I moved away from the US! It amazed me when I traveled away from the US in Australia and New Zealand how much their local news reported on what was going on in the US. Drove me crazy actually. But that is a whole other topic. I have been asked by a couple Canucks about the US election process and my mind immediately came up with a cluster fuck of primaries, conventions, electoral votes but I couldn’t remember how it all went together to lead to the eventual president being put into office. I went back  and re-studied it. Well after all that-its still a cluster fuck to me. Who came up with this system? I found this cheat sheet: http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/election/president.html   This sheet kept it simple! What do you know it was made for kids!

So, in case you didn’t know, a Caucus is a gathering of people at a certain place in favor of a candidate. They do a head count and if you have a certain number the candidate is deemed able to go on in the elections to the primaries. The next caucus is in New Hampshire.