The Iowa presidential caucuses are local party precinct meetings where registered Republicans and Democrats gather, discuss the candidates and vote for by party preference to elect delegates to the 99 county conventions and choose their candidate for their party’s nomination.
The purpose of the caucus vote is to select delegates to attend a county convention. Each caucus sends a certain number of delegates, based on the population it represents. The delegates at the county convention in turn select delegates to go to the congressional district state convention, and those delegates choose the delegates that go to the national convention.
Iowa County Map
Presidential preference on the Republican side is done with a straw vote of those attending the caucus. This vote is sometimes done by a show of hands or by dividing themselves into groups according to candidate. In precincts that elect only 1 delegate they choose the delegate by majority vote and it must be a paper ballot.
The Democrats have a more complex system. In a typical caucus, registered democrats gather at the precinct meeting places (there are close to 2,000 precincts statewide), supporters for each candidate have a chance to make their case, and then the participants gather into groups supporting particular candidates (undecided voters also cluster into a group). In order for a particular group to be viable, they must have a certain percentage of the all the caucus participants. If they don’t have enough people, the group disbands, and its members go to another group. The percentage cut-off is determined by the number of delegates assigned to the precinct.
Democratic candidates must receive at least 15 percent of the votes in that precinct to move on to the county convention. If a candidate receives less than 15 percent of the votes, supporters of non-viable candidates have the option to join a viable candidate group, join another non-viable candidate group to become viable, join other groups to form an uncommitted group or chose to go nowhere and not be counted. Non-viable groups have up to 30 minutes to realign, if they fail to do so in that time, they can ask the for more time, which is voted on by the caucus as a whole. If the caucus refuses, re-alignment is done and delegates are awarded. A “third party” may hold a convention to nominate one candidate for president and one for vice president as well. The results of this caucus activity on both the Democratic and Republican sides are not binding on the elected delegates, but the delegates usually feel obligated to follow the wishes expressed by the caucus-goers. Thus the initial caucus results provide a good barometer of the composition of Iowa’s national delegation.
It breaks down like this:
If the precinct has only one delegate, the group with the most people wins the delegate vote, and that’s it.
If the precinct has only two delegates, each group needs 25 percent to be viable.
If the precinct has only three delegates, each group needs one-sixth of the caucus participants.
If the precinct has four or more delegates, each group needs at least 15 percent of the caucus participants.
Once the groups are settled, the next order of business is to figure out how many of that precinct’s delegates each group (and by extension, each candidate) should win.
In order for a particular group to be viable, they must have a certain percentage of the all the caucus participants. If they don’t have enough people, the group disbands, and its members go to another group. The percentage cut-off is determined by the number of delegates assigned to the precinct. It breaks down like this:
If the precinct has only one delegate, the group with the most people wins the delegate vote, and that’s it.
If the precinct has only two delegates, each group needs 25 percent to be viable.
If the precinct has only three delegates, each group needs one-sixth of the caucus participants.
If the precinct has four or more delegates, each group needs at least 15 percent of the caucus participants.
Once the groups are settled, the next order of business is to figure out how many of that precinct’s delegates each group (and by extension, each candidate) should win.
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For all You growing Mr. Ron Paul Supporters, Ron Paul 2012!!!
For all You Mr. Ron Paul skeptics, Please do some research and draw Your own conclusions. Mr. Paul did not make it 22 years in Congress by being a kook, racists, whatever You want to call him.
Substantiate Your claims with credible research.
American to American we are on the same team.
Ron Paul 2012
I encourage everyone to study Michelle Bachman’s platform (michellebachman.com). She is, in my opinion, the strongest conservative candidate. I agree with her stands. Romney is a liberal running as a conservative (look at his past record). Perry is a lifetime politician who sees which way the wind blows and follows it to be elected (former democrat, now republican with very liberal views on illegal immigration). Ron Paul is a Libertarian running as a republican with some very good ideas, but is extremely ignorant of the realities of terrorists and their agenda against the US. He does not understand our enemies at all. I like Newt Gingrich’s ideas, his wit and his vast knowledge base. I’m uncomfortable with his personal morals. I also like Rick Santorum but don’t feel he presents himself as well as Michelle Bachman. I do not want a new 9% sales tax and am unimpressed with Herman Cain’s 999 plan. Each part of the 999 plan gives too much money to the government and opens the door for another avenue of overtaxing by a government that is completely out of control. He is a moral and disciplined man, but our government is completely immoral and undisciplined. Jon Huntsman is a RINO and I’m not interested. I know nothing of Buddy Roemer or any other candidates running, so have no opinion of them.
Bachman is a nutcase! She spreads lies and inuendos like wild fires!
She attacks on issues where she is totally ill-informed of the facts. Hate, bigotry, and self-serving, dumbed-down comments have put her out of this race! The TP wants her out!
Ron Paul actually understands the terrorism problem better than any other candidate on stage. Active duty military agrees with him as he gets more donations from them from all other GOP candidates COMBINED. But, to my first point–he is the only candidate who agrees with the Defense Department’s own study that concluded the *root cause* of terrorism is our foreign policy. He is the only one looking at the cause! All the others are just addressing the symptoms and perpetuating the problem.
Here is the former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit saying the same thing… Ron Paul is the only candidate who understands or addresses the terrorism problem at its very roots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLjZoA3GaVE
Hey Barbara,
Please consider what “conservative” means. How do you define the word?
The objective definition should be descriptive of policy that preserves the constitution. I simply can’t imagine how anyone could possibly describe a candidate as being more conservative than Ron Paul. Good luck either way on caucus night.
You have a higher chance of dying by bees or drowning in the bathtub than you do of being killed by terrorists.
Barbara you are very unimpressive with your Bachman take. She is a House member that has never been in charge of anything. She wouldn’t know how to run a Dairy Queen. That’s why she is out of the race after one primary because she has nothing. Good call.
This lady above me “Barbara” says that Ron Paul doesn’t understand terrorism and our enemies abroad. The fact of the matter is that he understands the situation more so than any candidate before him. He is the only one who keeps in touch with our CIA operatives, asks their opinions and understands the matters first hand. He has his finger on the pulse of the intel coming from overseas and when he speaks he speaks the truth. To continue to believe that Iran is a major threat is just plain silly. If you look at the facts you will see they’re not as big of a threat as the other candidates or the mainstream media would have you believe. At this current time the president whom we all seem to fear is the 16 highest ranking person in their political structure. Even the “evil” things he has said in his speeches have been taken out of context and distorted and used as fearmongering and propaganda to engage in yet another WAR. After 9/11 we wanted Bin Laden’s head on a platter. Ron Paul authorized and funded the covert operations that would have killed/captured him only a few short months after 9/11 took place. Instead of doing that, our government decided to put our troops into a war that has cost almost another 5,000 AMERICAN lives. It took us another 10 years to finally catch OBL when it could have been done right off the bat. This would have saved us countless lives and trillions of dolars. Now at a critical time in our history where we’re broke and are funding this warmongering by borrowing money from other countries, the government would have you believe that we need to start another WAR on the back of the longest war in our nations history. This is getting out of control folks. The fact of the matter is, Ron Paul is the only one with a true plan to cut spending and balance the budget in 3 years!! We’re facing a tough choice right now “LOSE AN EMPIRE TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC, OR HOLD ONTO THE EMPIRE AND LOSE THEM BOTH”. We need Ron Paul. We need him. I’m voting for the American people in 2012, so I have no other choice than to vote for RON PAUL. Good luck sir.
I voted for Paul in 2008. My question, is he healty enough to stand the pressure?
Ron Paul is the only true American patriot in the lot of them. Romney is a liberal masquerading as a conservative. Perry is a Bilderberger who takes money from lobbyists to push unneeded vaccines on young girls. Bachman is a fraud. She’ll say and do anything for your vote. Newt Gingrich had his wife, who was dying of cancer, served divorce papers, so he could be with his mistress. Cain is a fraud. He served on the board of the Federal Reserve in KC, the largest criminal cartel in human history. Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman couldn’t be less relevant but Santorum
Ron Paul is the only true American patriot in the lot of them. Romney is a liberal masquerading as a conservative. Perry is a Bilderberger who takes money from lobbyists to push unneeded vaccines on young girls. Bachman is a fraud. She’ll say and do anything for your vote. Newt Gingrich had his wife, who was dying of cancer, served divorce papers, so he could be with his mistress. Cain is a fraud. He served on the board of the Federal Reserve in KC, the largest criminal cartel in human history. Rick Santorum STILL thinks the Iraq war was a good idea so hes just the same as Obumma. Jon Huntsman believes in the fairy tale of evilution but claims to be conservative. @ Barbara, your the one who’s ignorant of foreign policy. Congressman Paul understands exactly why these arab countries hate us and why Iran wants nukes. He doesnt want them to get one per se but if they were to get one, they couldnt shoot one at us anyway. And if they shoot one at Israel, they’ll have up to 300 going right back at them. Please educate yourself before you insult the only true patriot in the race, Ron Paul, again.
This lady above me “Barbara” says that Ron Paul doesn’t understand terrorism and our enemies abroad. The fact of the matter is that he understands the situation more so than any candidate before him. He is the only one who keeps in touch with our CIA operatives, asks their opinions and understands the matters first hand. He has his finger on the pulse of the intel coming from overseas and when he speaks he speaks the truth. To continue to believe that Iran is a major threat is just plain silly. If you look at the facts you will see they’re not as big of a threat as the other candidates or the mainstream media would have you believe. At this current time the president whom we all seem to fear is the 16 highest ranking person in their political structure. Even the “evil” things he has said in his speeches have been taken out of context and distorted and used as fearmongering and propaganda to engage in yet another WAR. After 9/11 we wanted Bin Laden’s head on a platter. Ron Paul authorized and funded the covert operations that would have killed/captured him only a few short months after 9/11 took place. Instead of doing that, our government decided to put our troops into a war that has cost almost another 5,000 AMERICAN lives. It took us another 10 years to finally catch OBL when it could have been done right off the bat. This would have saved us countless lives and trillions of dolars. Now at a critical time in our history where we’re broke and are funding this warmongering by borrowing money from other countries, the government would have you believe that we need to start another WAR on the back of the longest war in our nations history. This is getting out of control folks. The fact of the matter is, Ron Paul is the only one with a true plan to cut spending and balance the budget in 3 years!! We’re facing a tough choice right now “LOSE AN EMPIRE TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC, OR HOLD ONTO THE EMPIRE AND LOSE THEM BOTH”. We need Ron Paul. We need him. I’m voting for the American people in 2012, so I have no other choice than to vote for RON PAUL. Good luck sir.
+1
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