Posted on 01/01/2008 9:34:11 PM PST by shield
DES MOINES, Iowa: Jason Huffman has lived in Iowa his whole life. Lately he has been watching presidential debates on the Internet and discussing what he sees with friends and relatives. But when fellow Iowans choose their presidential nominees Thursday night, he will not be able to vote, because he is serving with the Iowa National Guard in western Afghanistan.
"Shouldn't we at least have as much influence in this as any other citizen?" Huffman wrote in an e-mail message.
He is far from the only Iowan who will be unable to participate.
Because the caucuses, held in the early evening, do not allow absentee voting, they tend to leave out nearly entire categories of voters: the infirm, soldiers on active duty, restaurant employees on the dinner shift, medical personnel who cannot leave their patients, parents who do not have babysitting and many others who work in retail, at gasoline stations and in other jobs that require evening duty.
As in years past, voters must present themselves in person, at a specific hour, and stay for as long as two. And if this caucus is anything like prior ones, only a tiny percentage of Iowans will participate. In 2000, the last year in which both parties held caucuses, 59,000 Democrats and 87,000 Republicans voted, in a state with 2.9 million people. In 2004, 124,000 people turned out for the Democratic caucuses.
The rules are so demanding that even Ray Hoffman, the chairman of the Iowa State Republican Party and a resident of Sioux City, cannot caucus Thursday night, because he has to be in Des Moines on party business.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
THE IOWA SCAM—The undemocratic caucuses are a terrible way to choose a presidential candidate. (Hitchens)
http://www.slate.com/id/2181008/
Sounds like it. And in the dead of winter. Weather has been terrible in Iowa.
This is one heck of a long article, considering all she’s doing is whining about the fact that voters are required to show up in person.
That it is.
It seems like most of the people who take the trouble to caucus—particularly the Democrats who have a more tedious process—have to be activists. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
Some people are just too lazy to get together for a few hours...or too introverted.
My arents have lived in Iowa their entire lives, and have never attended one caucus. Of course, they gripe about the lousy nominees once they’re chosen, but they never do anything to help pick ‘em.
Now that they winter in Miami, my Dad says he wishes he were in Iowa so he could do the caucus. He’s much more political now that he’s retired. However, since he’s a Dem that wants to caucus for Edwards, I think it’s just as well he stay in Florida.
But it is the way it is and Iowa is first.
Iowa Republicans, please get out and select a good conservative nominee.
[May I suggest Fred Thompson]
I’ve never understood why people treat the Iowa caucus as if it has any relevance to anyone other than the professional activists in Iowa.
On the plus side, this is one process where the Dims would have a hard time getting the dead to the caucus.
It’s not a secret ballot and the other caucus-goers are most likely neighbors (or coworkers, or soccer moms, or t-ball moms, whatever.)
When the Caucus is gone... and one day it will be.... only slick media candidates will millions will be nominated. Anyone who is opposed to the Caucus system is a lazy ignorant liberal statist media whore supporter.
The political pros hate caucuses because there is so much opportunity for gaffs and disaster and a candidate without a big warchest can play. You can't buy victory there for cash.
well, the other two were both college students and they voted themselves in......so you know what I think about caucuses...
I think zealots is a more descriptive.
I don’t need some clown suggest to me who to vote for....that is for me in the privacy of the voting booth. What bull$h1t.
Please tell me about all those service people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are unable to vote in the primaries for the person that they feel will do the most for them. What about them?
Rugged Americans don’t need to listen to some smarmy b@st@rd whine and attempt to arm twist, about who they should or should not vote for...a real American, at the polls, who has someone in their face telling him who to vote for will give these big mouths a knuckle sandwich.
I tell ya, they can't buy me (that cheap!)
did I read yesterday that as of January 1st they have same day registration and voting. Anyone from anywhere can drive into Iowa give a local address (maybe hotel) register and vote. If so, and if exposed, the jillions of $$$ spent in Iowa be for naught, and the vote will be meaningless which historically it probably is anyway.
These aren’t elections.
These are power brokering sessions.
[. . . the other two were both college students and they voted themselves in. . .]
If I had to pick between the “front runners” in either party I would vote for myself.
>Iowa Republicans, please get out and select a good conservative nominee.
>[May I suggest Fred Thompson]
You may, and I shall be at Celebrate Community church in Knoxville tomorrow night to cast my ballot for Fred.
Thanks. This is interesting:
[There are other anomalies on the Democratic side. . .”Residency” rules are incredibly elastic. No one checks identification, and anyone who claims to live in the precinct is allowed to vote. In other words, very little prevents the unscrupulous (such as out-of-state campaign workers who have “lived” in Iowa for a few weeks) from having a role in the process.]
I’m praying that Fred finishes no worse than 3rd and Huckabee loses. Then loses NH and is washed up by SC so Fred has a chance.
It's not "bad," but it's a poor predictor for how the primaries will go. The Iowa caucuses reward candidates who have good organizations, and/or enthusiastic supporters: those are the folks who are most likely to show up.
Romney and Huckabee have those two facets, so they'll probably do OK, just like Bob Dole and Pat Robertson did in 1988.
That's just it -- it's not "the polls." It's a bunch of long small-group meetings, the rules for which are fairly strict.
Yeah. I was listening to the news a while ago and someone had calculated that in advertising alone, candidates had spent an average of $200 per caucus voter in Iowa.
>I’m praying that Fred finishes no worse than 3rd and Huckabee loses. Then loses NH and is washed up by SC so Fred has a chance.
We sound incredibly like minded. I don’t know if Huck will take Iowa or not, but I’m pretty sure he will lose NH. If not for Huck, I think Fred would be sitting pretty to secure enough delegates.
I agree.
And another implosion I hope for is that of the village idiot from Texas.
So far the polls look promising in that the only one the villge idiot is beating in Iowa is rudy.
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