I was planning to write the next diary in this series (earlier installments are here and here) about what happens in the room on caucus night. Several readers have asked me to explain that process in more detail.

But last night I heard a sad story that made me reflect once again on how hard it is to get new voters to turn out for the caucuses. So the diary on what happens after the voters assemble in the room will have to wait a little longer.

Join me after the jump for more on why turnout is so much lower in caucus states.

Last night I went to an Obama house party at a friend's place. My friend is undecided, so she is hosting gatherings for Obama and Edwards to hear more from the candidates' supporters and staff. She invited my family mainly because my husband is undecided.

This was my first house party of this cycle, and it reminded me of the thing I like best about the Iowa caucuses. The voters who do get involved put real effort into getting informed.

They follow the news, they go hear candidates in person, and in many cases they take hours out of their busy schedules to attend small meetings with field organizers.

They do all this because they take their votes seriously, and they want to learn more about the candidates than they get from reading the newspaper. I don't think I've never been to a house party for any candidate where there wasn't at least one policy-related question that stumped the field organizer.

The caricature some people present of Iowans just "doing what the party establishment tells them to do" is so far off base, it's laughable.

But I digress.

One of the Obama field organizers was telling a story about a phone conversation she had with a voter in a suburb of Des Moines. She's calling her list of voters and she reaches an African-American Vietnam veteran who wanted to learn more about Obama. So they had a good conversation. At the end she asked him if the campaign could count on his support.

He told her that he will vote for Obama in the general election if Obama is the Democratic nominee. But he isn't going to show up as a black man in his West Des Moines precinct and stand in the Obama corner, scaring all the white voters away.

My friend (the hostess) and I were horrified! I am 100 percent sure that what this man worries about would NOT happen in his precinct caucus. Obama supporters or leaners are not going to change their minds because a black man in their neighborhood is for Obama. Let's face it, anyone that racist is not going to caucus for Obama, period.

Maybe the Obama staff can find some other supporters in this man's neighborhood to reach out to him later this year. But more likely, he will become yet another informed voter who for one reason or another never shows up on caucus night.

He would vote in a primary, or he would cast an absentee ballot, but he doesn't want to stand up in front of his neighbors and be counted, for fear of hurting the candidate he supports.

Some people can't vote in the caucus because of work obligations (shift work, or an out-of-town business trip scheduled for that day).

Some people don't want to leave the family members in their care for more than an hour in the evening.

Some people just find it difficult or uncomfortable to leave home on a cold January night.

Some people are shy about expressing their views in public.

Shoot, I even know a politically active woman who won't be at the 2008 Iowa caucuses because she and her husband (huge blues music fans) have already booked a "Blues Cruise" vacation that is only running the third week of January.

But until last night, I never heard of people who don't attend the caucuses for fear of driving others away from their favorite candidate.

I find that so depressing.

Take the poll, and comment if you like. If you've got an uplifting story about mobilizing new voters to share, I'm all ears.