How the Iowa Caucus Works (Must Read!!)

[RUexperienced]

http://politics.slate.msn.com/id/2094034/

The Vanishing
If you liked the Florida recount, you'll love the Iowa caucuses.
By William Saletan and Matt Schiller
Posted Friday, Jan. 16, 2004, at 3:28 PM PT

...More than 100,000 Democrats will go to precinct caucuses to select a nominee for president. Which candidate will get the most votes that night? If the race remains close, you'll never know...

If you like the Electoral College, you'll love the Iowa Democratic caucuses. Here's how they work. You meet in a room with all the other registered Democrats in your precinct who decide to show up. It can take hours. First you have to choose local party officers and sit through a lot of talk about party activities. Then the caucus chair asks everybody to express their preferences among the presidential candidates. She tells the Howard Dean people to stand in this corner, the Dick Gephardt people in that corner, the John Kerry people in the other corner, etc. There's also a corner for "uncommitted." You go to your corner. The chair counts how many people are in each group. That's the raw vote.

If you're in the Gephardt corner, you can probably stay there. But if you're in the Dennis Kucinich corner, look out. The party has a "viability" rule: If your group doesn't add up to a sufficient percentage of the total vote in the room—at least 15 percent, but it can go higher, depending on various factors—the chair will declare your group nonviable. Now you have to choose which of the viable candidates you prefer as a second choice. You go stand in that corner. Other Kucinich supporters (and Wes Clark supporters, and supporters of any other nonviable candidate) go to other corners, depending on whom they prefer. The chair counts again. That's the realigned vote.

Next the chair translates this vote count into a delegate count. Every viable group gets at least one delegate. The bigger your group, the more delegates you can earn. But there are two catches. First, the number of delegates to be distributed in the room depends on how many Democrats voted in your precinct in the most recent gubernatorial and presidential elections.

If you're new in town, and the turnout in your precinct was lousy four years ago, your vote effectively counts less than it would have if you'd moved to a high-turnout precinct. Second, if your group is bigger than another group in the room, that doesn't guarantee you'll get more delegates. Let's say the chair has six delegates to distribute, and there are four viable groups.

That leaves two extra delegates, which will probably go to the two biggest groups. If you're in the third-biggest group, and you've got more people than the fourth group does, tough luck. You each get a delegate, and that's that.

/snip ...............................................

OMG!!! (Read the rest of the article if you want to get more confused.)

So the polls actually mean NOTHING!

It also explains a story where Dean asked a woman for her vote. She said, "I am voting for Gephart." Dean said, "Well I would like to be your second choice." (Her second choice was Kerry.)

Should be very interesting.

But I do think counting chads could be more accurate.

[brainshrub]

1. Yes, the polls mean very little.

As the very best, they give an approximation as to what the outcome is going to be.
This is an excellent article, I posted it on my own website and I love the emails I'm getting about it.

My own money is on Dean, but I'm happy to see Kerry and Gepthardt doing so well.

[citizen snips]

2. Thanks.

Now I understand how Caucuses work.

[HereSince1628]

3. While its fun its also a lot about peer pressure

[citizen snips]

5. I bet there is a lot of peer pressure.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HereSince1628]

10. Answering that would break this thread but...

I suggest that you do a google search on types of socialism.

[brainshrub]

11. Welcome to DU!

The best way to put the Nazis in context to to view political opinion as a grid, not a line.
Follow this link and take this test to see where you stand politically:

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/index.html

The best definition for fascism was given to us by Mussolini. He said that Fascism was: "The merging of state and corporate interests." What was good for the corporate interests, they reasoned, would be good for the state. (Sound familiar?)

Here is one more link for you:
What is fascism:

http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/Structure3.htm#Facism

Enjoy! And welcome to DU! :toast:

[RUexperienced]

13. Fascism: "The merging of state and corporate interests."

Like Amtrack and the Post Office?

[RUexperienced]

12. Yes. Hitler was a socialist.

There are several brands of socialists, some violent like Stalin and Hitler and other not so.

They say the difference between mainstream socialists and communists is that communists are less patient.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ringmastery]

6. this is really interesting

If the "winner" anointed by the media is determined by the delegate count rather than the raw count, who's likely to get screwed? Do the math. Edwards is hovering just above 15 percent in most statewide surveys. That means that in a lot of precincts, his supporters are likely to fall just below the viability threshold and be disbanded, earning zero delegates. Dean could be shortchanged by the turnout-based allotment of delegates to each precinct. If, as advertised, Dean brings in people who had previously given up on voting, the low turnout caused by their absence from the last election in that precinct will diminish the number of delegates they can earn in this election, no matter how many of them show up.

[bigwillq]

7. Never knew it went down like that

I knew they voted publicly but I thought if you wanted to vote for say Clark or Kucinich you could regardless of how many other people voted for them. Thanks for the post, interesting.

[janx]

9. Thanks for posting this. It was explained on NPR not too long

ago, and it's very interesting.

[ISUGRADIA]

14. There is an error in this article - Important Distinction

"The party has a "viability" rule: If your group doesn't add up to a sufficient percentage of the total vote in the room—at least 15 percent, but it can go higher, depending on various factors—the chair will declare your group nonviable. Now you have to choose which of the viable candidates you prefer as a second choice."

NO!

In this example the Kucinich group is non viable but they have the option of pulling in people to their group to become viable in the second round. So if an Al Sharpton person and an uncommited person joins DK, for example his group is viable and DK can get a delegate. If the DK people cannot get to 15% then and only then must they dispurse to a viable candidate, this goes for any candidate that is not viable.

I hope caucus chairs read the rules and do not force people to pick among only the "viable" groups at the end of the initial alignment.

Otherwise a good description. A caucus may have 300 people turnout and get to elect 5 delegates while a caucus across town may have 150 people show up and they get to elect 10 delegates. Definately not one person one vote.