Gannett's Des Moines Register:How Do the Iowa Caucuses Work?

1/26/2016 | Nikos1121

[nikos1121]

I've never attended an Iowa Caucus, and so I thought I'd research the process and describe it here. I would recommend that you view a short video by The Des Moines Register. I'm not allowed to post it here. So I'll post it below.

IF THERE ARE ANY IOWA FREEPERS OUT THERE PLEASE WEIGH IN ON THIS DISCUSSSION.

Basically speaking, the republicans do it one way, the democrats do it another way.

HOW IT STARTS

At 7 PM (CST) both parties meet, (in different locations)in all of Iowa’s 99 counties, in schools, veterans’ halls, other large venues and even homes.

Caucuses are held in each of the state’s 1,681 precincts, but the number of meeting sites is smaller because some precincts share buildings.

Democrats will meet at about 1,100 spots and Republicans will gather at nearly 900.

REPUBLICAN CAUCUS

It's been described as a PTA meeting followed by taking a secret ballot. Candidate representatives, or the candidates themselves, get before the group and talk to persuade the voters. Then they vote by a show of hands or secret ballot. The process takes a couple hours. Many think it will take longer this year.

The votes are counted and given to the republican party to tally. DELEGATES ARE LATER CHOSEN TO VOTE, BUT THE VOTES ARE NOT BINDING.

THE DEMOCRATS

They do it differently. Voters meet in a designated location in the room for their candidate. If any group has LESS than 15% of the total, the group is dissolved. They can either go home, or join one of the other groups. But people are persuaded to go to another candidate during the caucus.

I'm told there's a lot of cajoling and bullying to convince people who they should vote for. Obama's people in 2008 were very aggressive.

So, you can show up to vote for Bernie Sanders, and the Hillary people will try to get you to join them or visa versa.

Then, according to PBS, the number of “votes” is determined by running the number who support each candidate through a formula that determines final votes based on a county-by-county analysis of Democratic performance in the last governor and presidential elections. This translates to delegates who will vote for the candidates

SERIOUSLY? Sounds kinda strange to me.

IN SUMMARY

For the republicans, it doesn't sound that complicated. You get as many of your people out that night, and you vote for your candidate. Ron Paul, when he ran, effectively got a lot of new voters out for him, and it's expected that his son and Ben Carson will have new voters also.

We hear that Donald Trump has 43% new voters for him, so getting them out will be the real challenge. One thing going for him is that his voters seem to be more locked in. Cruz and Rubio seem to have more of the "regular" caucus attendees.

For the democrats it's different, and frankly I don't care to figure it out.

[nikos1121]

Here’s a clever little video that sums up what I said.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/videos/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2016/01/25/79290856/

[vpintheak]

Democrats doing it more like European democracies seems like.

[jjotto]

Outdated information on the GOP Iowa caucus. Here’s the process for this cycle:

The secret ballot for presidential preference will be one of the first pieces of business. There will be no ‘show of hands’ or public grouping. The resulting vote totals will bind the national delegate vote.

After the presidential preference vote, the regular caucus business will take place. A lot of people will leave after the preference vote.

Caucus business is:

*Electing county Republican central committee members

*Electing delegates, alternate delegates, and junior delegates to the county convention

*Electing members of standing committees to the county convention (depending on the county)

*Discussing, submitting, and voting on platform planks to the county convention

[PeterPrinciple]

*Discussing, submitting, and voting on platform planks to the county convention

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The last time I went this was just loaded with liberal ideas, planted by liberals.

[jjotto]

heh heh

Yep. There’s usually some cranky old lady, retired schoolteacher usually, who insists on proposing a laundry list of proposed platform planks straight from AARP.

Several caucuses I’ve been at simply adopted a rule limiting the number of proposals and the time allotted to one person.

[VanShuyten]

Let’s not forget the college goofs who bring a laptop and printer and hand out flyers every five minutes.

[Seattle Conservative]

I was listening to the callers to CSPAN after a Trump speech in Iowa (IIRC it was Sat). One guy called in and said either that he hadn’t voted in Iowa before or that he hadn’t voted Republican (don’t recall now which). He said he wanted to caucus for Trump and was asking if they had info on it and the CSPAN host directed him to the Des Moines Register website. So, hopefully, he got more info there and will be able to caucus for Trump.

[nikos1121]

Thank you for this.

Question. Is it that complicated? Does it take that long? I think it’s just getting your people out right?

[jjotto]

The presidential preference vote is pretty cut and dried now. Everyone wants those results immediately. Some places will report in less than 30 minutes.

Other business could drag out if there are real rival groups struggling for party control. Robert’s Rules of Order.

And for a lot of regulars, it’s also a social occasion.