Post caucus blog
So I guess I haven't written since the caucus.
In short, it was a good night. A record number of caucus-goers turned out. This point was brought home today as I was wandering through the "Caucus" exhibit at the Iowa Historical Museum today. For each year of the Iowa caucuses, which has played a major role in choosing the presidential candidates since 1972 according to Wikipedia, the number of participants and number of delegates/votes for each candidate was listed. In the early Democratic caucuses around 50,000 people participated. Also a large number of viable "uncommitted" delegates were sent to the national convention. In some years the number of uncommitted delegates was greater than the number for any particular candidate. I found this rather surprising, because until last Thursday, I didn't even know that uncommitted was a viable option.
But over the last three decades the number of participants in the Democratic caucuses has increased. I remember the media ranting about the record turn outs for the Democratic caucus in 2004 (my first caucus), and indeed they were the first to break 100,000 voters. The most common figure for turnout in 2004 is usually around 120,000. This year the estimated turnout was around 220,000.
This huge surge was quite evident at my precinct. Last year the number of caucus-goers was something like 360. This year it was 554. Everyone I talked to had similar stories about their caucus experience.
My precinct was one of the largest in the state. We were alloted 9 delegates to go to the county convention. And because there were 554 people crammed into a middle school gym, the process took a good hour and a half.
First we had to count ourselves so we knew how many people we were, and how many people a candidate had to have to reach viability (15%). Then we broke into preference groups. I took the easy road. I walked in, found the Obama group, and planted myself until it was over. It was clear from the beginning that the Obama section was strong. In fact after the first round of counting, he already had around 40% of the votes.
It was also clear that none of the top three candidates were close to the eighty-something required to be viable. Some groups gave up easily and moved to their second choice. Others, i.e. Biden, were more stubborn and planned on using the entirety of the thirty minutes alloted to try and recruit people, and the other groups were happy to do their best to sway them to come to their candidate.
The Obama group leaders were the first to start recruiting. Probably in part because they were the closest. Here's a photo of the two groups going head to head.
But it didn't take long for the Clinton and Edwards groups to start chiming in. Meanwhile most of people were getting tired of waiting and just wanted to get to the final vote.
Eventually the Biden supporters had to give up and go to their second choice. We counted ourselves for the third time. I guess I didn't mention that counting meant everyone in the room sounded off to be counted one-by-one. A process that takes a bit of time when there's over 500 people.
In the end both Edwards and Clinton received two delegates and Obama received five. It was a good night. I was happy.
In short, it was a good night. A record number of caucus-goers turned out. This point was brought home today as I was wandering through the "Caucus" exhibit at the Iowa Historical Museum today. For each year of the Iowa caucuses, which has played a major role in choosing the presidential candidates since 1972 according to Wikipedia, the number of participants and number of delegates/votes for each candidate was listed. In the early Democratic caucuses around 50,000 people participated. Also a large number of viable "uncommitted" delegates were sent to the national convention. In some years the number of uncommitted delegates was greater than the number for any particular candidate. I found this rather surprising, because until last Thursday, I didn't even know that uncommitted was a viable option.
But over the last three decades the number of participants in the Democratic caucuses has increased. I remember the media ranting about the record turn outs for the Democratic caucus in 2004 (my first caucus), and indeed they were the first to break 100,000 voters. The most common figure for turnout in 2004 is usually around 120,000. This year the estimated turnout was around 220,000.
This huge surge was quite evident at my precinct. Last year the number of caucus-goers was something like 360. This year it was 554. Everyone I talked to had similar stories about their caucus experience.
My precinct was one of the largest in the state. We were alloted 9 delegates to go to the county convention. And because there were 554 people crammed into a middle school gym, the process took a good hour and a half.
First we had to count ourselves so we knew how many people we were, and how many people a candidate had to have to reach viability (15%). Then we broke into preference groups. I took the easy road. I walked in, found the Obama group, and planted myself until it was over. It was clear from the beginning that the Obama section was strong. In fact after the first round of counting, he already had around 40% of the votes.
It was also clear that none of the top three candidates were close to the eighty-something required to be viable. Some groups gave up easily and moved to their second choice. Others, i.e. Biden, were more stubborn and planned on using the entirety of the thirty minutes alloted to try and recruit people, and the other groups were happy to do their best to sway them to come to their candidate.
The Obama group leaders were the first to start recruiting. Probably in part because they were the closest. Here's a photo of the two groups going head to head.
But it didn't take long for the Clinton and Edwards groups to start chiming in. Meanwhile most of people were getting tired of waiting and just wanted to get to the final vote.
Eventually the Biden supporters had to give up and go to their second choice. We counted ourselves for the third time. I guess I didn't mention that counting meant everyone in the room sounded off to be counted one-by-one. A process that takes a bit of time when there's over 500 people.
In the end both Edwards and Clinton received two delegates and Obama received five. It was a good night. I was happy.
posted by laura s at 9:57 PM
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