The Iowa Caucuses (I'll be attending and posting video)

Ash · January 03, 2008, 05:59:41 AM

If you live here in the U.S., you probably know that the Iowa Caucuses take place tonight at 6:30 pm.
It's all over the news. Especially if you live here in Iowa like I do.
We've been bombarded with political ads every day for months now.
It has become so crazy, you literally cannot go one TV commercial break without seeing at least one ad.

And if you're like me, you probably have, or had, no idea what actually happens at a caucus.
I've voted in two previous presidential elections but never actually attended a caucus before.
I always assumed it was a gathering of people in support of a particular candidate and they all got together to vote.
Boy was I way off!
So I did some research and discovered exactly what happens at a caucus.

---------------------------------------

Here's what happens:

First, you have to find out where to go.
There are 1784 caucus locations in Iowa and based on where you live, you go to the specific location for your district or precinct.
You can't just show up at the wrong precinct location.
(as far as I know you can't)

After you arrive, you are required to sign in.
Once you're signed in, you find all the other people in the room who support the same candidate you do and stand with them.
The person running the show then has you stand in one part of the room with other supporters of your chosen candidate.
For example: All Hillary Clinton supporters will be in one corner of the room while all the John Edwards supporters will be in another corner and so on.
Then caucus director will then count the number of people supporting each candidate.

Now, if there are supporters of a different candidate who is not viable because that candidate does not have 15% support of the total attendance at that precinct, they must choose a second candidate and go stand with that candidate's group.
This process is called "realignment".
(Example: Let's say I support Joe Biden, but there aren't enough people in the room to make up 15% who support him...then I'd have to choose a second candidate and go stand with them.)

After realignment is complete, the number of supporters for each candidate is counted again and delegates are assigned.

Another example:
I support Barack Obama.
The more supporters Obama has inside each caucus, the more delegates he will win.
If Obama has the most delegates at the end of the night, he wins the Iowa Caucus.

So you see, it's pretty basic stuff.

------------------------------------------

I plan to attend tonight's caucus in full support of Barack Obama.
And the cool thing is, the gathering place for my precinct is one block away from where I live.
So I'm just gonna walk over there and get my virgin caucus cherry popped!

There's more...
I want you all to see what it's actually like to participate in a caucus so I'm bringing my video camera along with me to record the event. (I don't think they'll have any problem with me doing that...I can't see why they would)
It's supposed to last no longer than an hour so I'm going to have to edit the video a bit so I can post it up on Youtube.
When it's finished, I'll post it here for you all to watch.
This presidential election will be one of the most closely watched races in history and I want you to have a front row seat when it all officially begins tonight.

Here's more info:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/ia_caucus_center/

What do you think?

RCMerchant · January 03, 2008, 08:17:16 AM

I think it's a groovy idea.

What I wanna know is-are you going to ask questions of the various people around you?
As in...how do they drape their toilet paper-over or under?

Seriously...it sounds very interesting!

Mr_Vindictive · January 03, 2008, 08:43:27 AM

Extremely interesting Ash. I love politics and find most every piece of the process fascinating.

Also good to see you support Obama. I'm not trying to start anything political on here. I'm behind both him and Ron Paul at this point. My political leanings move more towards Paul's side but I know he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of actually getting the vote. I'd be more than happy to be able to vote for Obama though. From what I've seen with the polls and all, he is leading.

Jack · January 03, 2008, 08:45:03 AM

Sounds like it would be a lot more fun if they served beer

lester1/2jr · January 03, 2008, 10:10:40 AM

I'm a big Ron Paul supporter and live in Boston which is close to new hampshire. I was thinking abuot going up there but I don't know what I would do. I gues that's what google is for!

CheezeFlixz · January 03, 2008, 10:14:35 AM

I think the Iowa Caucus is screwed, making you support a second candidate if a candidate doesn't have 15% in a certain polling place. That not going to give you a accurate count statewide. So the results are meaningless. Do they do that in the general election too? And New Hampshire is no better as you don't even have to live in NH to vote there, no residencies, no proof of who you are and you could in theory vote in more than one precinct. How these 2 states with their screwy polling rules got to be THE STATES to run it is beyond me. We IMHO should go back to the primary be held in every state on the same day like it use to be.

Anyway I won't get to what a think of the candidates, I will say only I do not support a entitlement, tuck tail and run, socialist, no experience, candidate. Kinda narrows it down a bit doesn't it?

raj · January 03, 2008, 10:24:58 AM

Quote from: CheezeFlixz on January 03, 2008, 10:14:35 AM
Anyway I won't get to what a think of the candidates, I will say only I do not support a entitlement, tuck tail and run, socialist, no experience, candidate. Kinda narrows it down a bit doesn't it?

Not to bash others' political views, but karma for you, CheezeFlixz.

I personally prefer less government to more government.

lester1/2jr · January 03, 2008, 11:23:34 AM

war is the health of the state and not "tucking tail and running" MEANS big government: massive military spending, dollar debased to pay for it, enhanced government power to spy and imprison, suspensin of habeous corpus. elective war is socialism writ large.

all spending is liberal.

trekgeezer · January 03, 2008, 11:34:28 AM

With all that moving around the room, are you sure there's not some square dancing involved.

None of these bozos on either side interest me a helluva lot.

RapscallionJones · January 03, 2008, 12:34:03 PM

Wow! That's crazy! I've never seen the caucus in action. I live in New Hampshire and have voted in the primaries since 2000 and it's just like voting on the real voting day. You go into the booth and cast your ballot.

Also, karma for Obama support.

lester1/2jr · January 03, 2008, 02:03:51 PM

^agree. I'm not a democrat, but Obama is far better than Hillary or Jimmy carter with an attitude Edwards. Do america a favor and nominate this guy you lefties

flackbait · January 03, 2008, 11:19:17 PM

I really have lost faith in politicians since my junior year in highschool. It just seems that 99% of politicians left or right wing they just care more about their precious reputations rather then their country. As John F. Kennedy said "It is not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." It seems that most modern politicians and citizens have forgoten this saying.

Yaddo 42 · January 04, 2008, 12:26:35 AM

Quote from: Ash on January 03, 2008, 05:59:41 AM
If you live here in the U.S., you probably know that the Iowa Caucuses take place tonight at 6:30 pm.
---------------------------------------

Here's what happens:

First, you have to find out where to go.
There are 1784 caucus locations in Iowa and based on where you live, you go to the specific location for your district or precinct.
You can't just show up at the wrong precinct location.
(as far as I know you can't)

After you arrive, you are required to sign in.
Once you're signed in, you find all the other people in the room who support the same candidate you do and stand with them.
The person running the show then has you stand in one part of the room with other supporters of your chosen candidate.
For example: All Hillary Clinton supporters will be in one corner of the room while all the John Edwards supporters will be in another corner and so on.
Then caucus director will then count the number of people supporting each candidate.

Now, if there are supporters of a different candidate who is not viable because that candidate does not have 15% support of the total attendance at that precinct, they must choose a second candidate and go stand with that candidate's group.
This process is called "realignment".
(Example: Let's say I support Joe Biden, but there aren't enough people in the room to make up 15% who support him...then I'd have to choose a second candidate and go stand with them.)

After realignment is complete, the number of supporters for each candidate is counted again and delegates are assigned.

Another example:
I support Barack Obama.
The more supporters Obama has inside each caucus, the more delegates he will win.
If Obama has the most delegates at the end of the night, he wins the Iowa Caucus.

So you see, it's pretty basic stuff.

------------------------------------------

I plan to attend tonight's caucus in full support of Barack Obama.
And the cool thing is, the gathering place for my precinct is one block away from where I live.
So I'm just gonna walk over there and get my virgin caucus cherry popped!

There's more...
I want you all to see what it's actually like to participate in a caucus so I'm bringing my video camera along with me to record the event. (I don't think they'll have any problem with me doing that...I can't see why they would)
It's supposed to last no longer than an hour so I'm going to have to edit the video a bit so I can post it up on Youtube.
When it's finished, I'll post it here for you all to watch.
This presidential election will be one of the most closely watched races in history and I want you to have a front row seat when it all officially begins tonight.

Here's more info:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/ia_caucus_center/

What do you think?

From what I've seen in various news reports, caucusing on the Republican side is more streamlined. More or less voting by paper ballot, then deciding if you want to stick around for some minor party business.

It is bad that so much emphasis is placed on Iowa and New Hampshire since they come first, but I think it's worse that so many primaries have been moved up meaning that the candidates will be decided sooner. Thereby drawing out the actual election campaign even longer, and giving the voters more time to get burned out and disgusted as the campaigns get uglier and uglier, driving down voter turnout as a result. If the parties are going to stick with moving the primaries so far forward, then they should at the very least abolish the now utterly meaningless conventions.

ulthar · January 04, 2008, 12:46:46 AM

Hey, Ash, hat's off to you for participating in the system.

No matter what candidate you support, more power to you if you vote your heart and not your pocket book.

You gotta admit, it's much more fun to not live in a monarchy....

dean · January 04, 2008, 02:10:12 AM

Quote from: ulthar on January 04, 2008, 12:46:46 AM
Hey, Ash, hat's off to you for participating in the system.

No matter what candidate you support, more power to you if you vote your heart and not your pocket book.

You gotta admit, it's much more fun to not live in a monarchy....

I don't know about that. All this caucus nonsense seems kinda kooky for folks like me who live in a 'Constitutional Monarchy'. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to vote though... None of this standing around nonsense.