(ABC 6 News) – The Iowa Caucus is typically the first big event of the election year. With other states having their own primaries and caucuses, why are all eyes on the Hawkeye State?

As ABC 6 News Political Analyst Shane Baker puts it, Monday is really the first chance for people to get together and talk about the issues important to them. Some of it does have to do with Iowa being the first on the calendar. The Iowa Caucus has been a major event since the 1970s and 1980s when Former President Jimmy Carter put it on the map as far as taking it very seriously.

“It’s super time intensive. Super labor intensive. Organization, organization, organization. Because it’s a series of community meetings, you want to get your people into those community meetings. Classroom by Classroom. Church, fellowship hall by fellowship hall to say ‘I support this person, I support this candidate. Here are my reasons why, please come with me,'” said Baker.

For Democrats, there’s really one main candidate to worry about, President Joe Biden. For Republicans, the fight to get their candidate back in the White House is on.

“It’s by and large, they’re really the ones who have something at stake on Monday. For Democrats, they’ve gone to a different process where they’re still going to vote and then they’ll do a mail-in vote. Democrats, it’s not as critical as what’s happening Monday night is not as foundationally important for the nomination process.”

Related: What to know before you caucus including the new system for Democrats

As Baker mentioned, this year Democrats are using a mail-in vote option for their presidential candidate giving voters a bit of time to think. For Republicans, there is no absentee option. Monday is now or never.

Democrats have until the middle of February to request their card. The Democratic winner will be announced March 5th with the Republican winner being announced once votes are in on Monday.

For more information on how to caucus or to request your mail-in card, you can click here.