[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by sageofages

Wow...everyone should enjoy the fun at least once in their life...

Iowa Caucus!

If you aren't familiar with the Iowa Caucus process, it is fairly easy to explain.
Everyone comes in and all the voters are counted once. Out of this total the number is calculated to determine "viability" of a candidate.

Our precinct had a record 451 voters turn out! Amazing. so it took 68 to be a viable candidate.

So after that point, it is time to align with your preference group. Which means..."you all go sit with your team and count yourselves and let the chair know".

So everyone gets up, moves and then starts counting. After the first alignment is reported, the viable groups are announced.

In our precinct the only initially viable groups were Obama, Edwards and Clinton. Almost viable was Richardson. Next largest but non-viable was Biden. Poor Dodd and Kucinich had 4 people each. No one showed up for Gravel.

THEN the fun begins, for the next 30 minutes, the non-viable groups are courted, sweet-talked and enticed to join the others. The Dodd and Kucinich groups joined in with the Richardson group immediately. It took some talking and a number of Biden supports moved over to Richardson. But the Richardson group stalled at 61. Not viable. More talking etc.

At the 15 minute mark, it becomes apparent that if the Richardson group can not get viablility those voters will have to align themselves with the other three. At this point, a number of Obama supports come over and sit with the Richardson group to make it viable. This tactic keeps the Richardson from being non-viable and the supporters perhaps going to the Edwards or Clinton groups. Should that happen, potentially Edwards or Clinton would beat Obama. Such backslapping politics at its best.

It ended up in my precinct Obama 172, Edwards 115, Clinton 95, Richardson 69.

The rest of the caucus is boring stuff...delegate elections, central committee elections etc etc etc.

This is also how the Washington Democrat caucuses do it, too. When I missed it in 2004, I watched one Democrat precinct in Seattle do it on TV and it was so interesting to watch people argue on behalf of their candidate and try to persuade the non-viable candidate folks to join their "side."