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Post by Merge on Jan 16, 2024 22:33:08 GMT
This video, purportedly from a caucus site, has gained some traction on Twitter. Can anyone verify whether this is how the caucus process actually works? Throwing slips of paper in a bag? x.com/mattsmith_news/status/1747075728728809527?s=20(If the tweet doesn't embed and you don't want to click through, it contains video of a man holding a paper grocery sack in a crowded room and people tossing in small slips of paper.) If this is true, does anyone ever question the validity of the outcome of the caucus? Like what is to stop anyone from folding up multiple slips of paper and throwing them in? I assume IDs are checked at the entrance, but this still seems very ... casual. |
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by iowgirl on Jan 16, 2024 22:48:06 GMT
I have never caucused, but I believe blank votes are handed out - you mark your vote and pass it back (I guess paper bag works) and they count them in the open.
I do believe it is very informal.
From pictures I saw at my county caucus - everyone was as old as Methuselah. LOL
FWIW - the last 3 winners of the Iowa Caucus have lost the election. So..yea!
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Post by mom on Jan 16, 2024 22:51:07 GMT
Not from Iowa, obviously, but I was talking with a friend from Iowa and she said when she was there and caucused in the last election that they had to write their vote down on a literal post it note and turn it in. So I wouldn't be surprised it was done this way. She is from a very small area.
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Post by Merge on Jan 16, 2024 23:36:05 GMT
Thank you both for weighing in. I have to say I'm flabbergasted. The Republicans harp on election security all the time, and ... this is what they consider a fair election? My goodness.
One hopes it's a little more formal and secure on actual election day.
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Post by Zee on Jan 17, 2024 0:13:58 GMT
Yes of course it's more secure on election day. A caucus is not an election or a primary. It's much more informal. There are videos to show how the process works and I've seen it on the news, but I never actually went while I lived there. They generally seemed to be held while I was working. I remember the video footage being just a bunch of people in a school gymnasium with paper votes. They talk about it then take a vote. I do believe they come to some sort of consensus by discussion. I grew up in IL so it didn't really make sense to me. Still doesn't really but it's more like a glorified opinion poll IIRC. And it's very special to Iowans to be first in the nation... Let's let them have their moment! We don't get to be first at much there.  |
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Post by lucyg on Jan 17, 2024 0:14:27 GMT
I believe the caucuses are run by the political parties, not by state elections officials. So they can do whatever they want, I guess.
Maybe someone from Iowa can correct me if I’m wrong about that.
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Post by Merge on Jan 17, 2024 0:18:10 GMT
Yes of course it's more secure on election day. A caucus is not an election or a primary. It's much more informal. There are videos to show how the process works and I've seen it on the news, but I never actually went while I lived there. They generally seemed to be held while I was working. I remember the video footage being just a bunch of people in a school gymnasium with paper votes. They talk about it then take a vote. I do believe they come to some sort of consensus by discussion. I grew up in IL so it didn't really make sense to me. Still doesn't really but it's more like a glorified opinion poll IIRC. And it's very special to Iowans to be first in the nation... Let's let them have their moment! We don't get to be first at much there. But very frequently, candidates other states might have liked to support drop out after not receiving enough support - on sticky notes - in Iowa and then in New Hampshire. This affects the rest of the country. |
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Post by Zee on Jan 17, 2024 0:22:49 GMT
Yes of course it's more secure on election day. A caucus is not an election or a primary. It's much more informal. There are videos to show how the process works and I've seen it on the news, but I never actually went while I lived there. They generally seemed to be held while I was working. I remember the video footage being just a bunch of people in a school gymnasium with paper votes. They talk about it then take a vote. I do believe they come to some sort of consensus by discussion. I grew up in IL so it didn't really make sense to me. Still doesn't really but it's more like a glorified opinion poll IIRC. And it's very special to Iowans to be first in the nation... Let's let them have their moment! We don't get to be first at much there. But very frequently, candidates other states might have liked to support drop out after not receiving enough support - on sticky notes - in Iowa and then in New Hampshire. This affects the rest of the country. Opinion polls have the same outcome. It's just the start of gauging support and yes, guides the start of the race. It's not the wrong answer, it's just not what you thought it was. |
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Post by Merge on Jan 17, 2024 0:24:04 GMT
But very frequently, candidates other states might have liked to support drop out after not receiving enough support - on sticky notes - in Iowa and then in New Hampshire. This affects the rest of the country. Opinion polls have the same outcome. It's just the start of gauging support and yes, guides the start of the race. It's not the wrong answer, it's just not what you thought it was. I don't understand what you mean by "the wrong answer." |
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Post by mom on Jan 17, 2024 0:24:44 GMT
Yes of course it's more secure on election day. A caucus is not an election or a primary. It's much more informal. There are videos to show how the process works and I've seen it on the news, but I never actually went while I lived there. They generally seemed to be held while I was working. I remember the video footage being just a bunch of people in a school gymnasium with paper votes. They talk about it then take a vote. I do believe they come to some sort of consensus by discussion. I grew up in IL so it didn't really make sense to me. Still doesn't really but it's more like a glorified opinion poll IIRC. And it's very special to Iowans to be first in the nation... Let's let them have their moment! We don't get to be first at much there. But very frequently, candidates other states might have liked to support drop out after not receiving enough support - on sticky notes - in Iowa and then in New Hampshire. This affects the rest of the country. But it's not like this is a secret that this is happening. All the candidates know going in how Iowa works and (apparently) are ok with it. No one is making anyone drop out as soon as the caucus winner is announced. They all have the chance to continue on to other states if they wanted to. |
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Post by Zee on Jan 17, 2024 0:26:37 GMT
Opinion polls have the same outcome. It's just the start of gauging support and yes, guides the start of the race. It's not the wrong answer, it's just not what you thought it was. I don't understand what you mean by "the wrong answer." You got your question answered and didn't like it, hence your "sticky notes" comment. Yes, it's informal compared to a primary. Every state is different. 🤷♀️ |
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Post by Merge on Jan 17, 2024 0:29:11 GMT
I don't understand what you mean by "the wrong answer." You got your question answered and didn't like it, hence your "sticky notes" comment. Yes, it's informal compared to a primary. Every state is different. 🤷♀️ It's not the answer I don't like. It's the fact that this very loose process plays such an important political role for the rest of the country - particularly when Rs talk so big about election security. And yes - politicians and others have been complaining about the way Iowa and NH skew the process for years. This isn't new. It's just a new to me twist that makes me dislike this process even more. |
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Post by Basket1lady on Jan 17, 2024 1:09:50 GMT
I listened to The Daily Podcast today and they referenced the paper bags used to gather the votes. Then they dump them out on the table, verify that only one vote has been cast per ballot, and sort them into piles by candidate.
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jan 17, 2024 1:18:23 GMT
I heard someone yesterday explaining that ONLY 13% of republican voters caucused and the winner only gets about 5% of the votes. When Cruz won the caucus in 2020 he had far bigger numbers.
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Post by lisae on Jan 17, 2024 2:54:43 GMT
I read a description in 2020 about how the caucus system works (sorry, I don't remember where I read this) but that convinced me that there is a good reason Iowa seldom picks the ultimate winner. I was glad the Democrats dropped them as their first primary stop and I wish the Republicans would have as well. I don't mean any disrespect to anyone here from Iowa. It is just that this process and the demographics in general do not represent a large enough cross section of voters that we should be giving Iowa (or any one small state) that much power in determining who becomes President.
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Post by Merge on Jan 17, 2024 3:35:24 GMT
I listened to The Daily Podcast today and they referenced the paper bags used to gather the votes. Then they dump them out on the table, verify that only one vote has been cast per ballot, and sort them into piles by candidate. How do they verify that each person dropped only one sticky note into the bag? |
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mminia
Shy Member
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Post by mminia on Jan 17, 2024 3:40:55 GMT
I live in Iowa and I caucused last night. I have several times before but am not a native Iowan, so I have to say I think the whole thing is really weird. But as for the security of votes, etc. each person received a printed ballot with the eligible candidates listed. Each ballot has a serial number on it so it is more sophisticated than a post it note. You can't "forge" ballots because of the serial numbers. When finished, we did put our ballots in a clear bag, held by a person who had a special tag that identified him as a caucus official. We were specifically told though to be sure we gave it to the right person...not to hand it to just anyone to put in the bag for us. As far as the counting process, I left before that took place so I'm not sure exactly how it's done.
The AP called Trump the winner just as we were talking in the house...about 15 minutes after we turned our ballots in. My daughter in law hadn't even voted at her caucus location before the race was called. I have a really hard time understanding how that works.
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Post by dewryce on Jan 17, 2024 4:33:05 GMT
I listened to The Daily Podcast today and they referenced the paper bags used to gather the votes. Then they dump them out on the table, verify that only one vote has been cast per ballot, and sort them into piles by candidate. How do they verify that each person dropped only one sticky note into the bag? Yeah, sticky notes are fairly easy to bring yourself. And do they have monitors from each party watching over this process? I’m assuming no since each party runs their own. I’m with you, the hypocrisy regarding security about events that have such a big impact on the election is ridiculous. Somehow, voting on a school campus will compromise election security, but sticky notes are a-okay. |
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Post by dewryce on Jan 17, 2024 4:41:05 GMT
DH just reminded me that when we caucused for Obama, immediately after we voted in the primary, we went to a different room, there was a piece of paper sent around and we put our name and vote. Then they quickly tallied them up. I don’t think they had time to check them against the voter rolls at all.
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by iowgirl on Jan 17, 2024 15:02:08 GMT
This is the ballot tally from a smaller population county in my area. Yes - the math doesn't math on it, but that was explained by an undecided vote that wasn't reflected on the tally sheet.  |
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jan 17, 2024 15:13:13 GMT
My state moved away from caucus - but there weren't even post it notes in 2012. I was honestly horrified that it was a raise your hand affair. That year and in 2008 there were huge discussions about people outside of the states coming to vote. It is an absolute ridiculous system that should be abolished.
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Post by janet on Jan 17, 2024 15:42:40 GMT
My son caucused when he was a student at Iowa - he described it as "people in all the corners of the room yelling at each other, and then we (Bernie folks) stole pizza from the Warren table."
Ah, to be 20 again, but yeah, it's an informal process and always struck me as unusual, but what do I know?
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Post by Merge on Jan 17, 2024 15:58:46 GMT
I live in Iowa and I caucused last night. I have several times before but am not a native Iowan, so I have to say I think the whole thing is really weird. But as for the security of votes, etc. each person received a printed ballot with the eligible candidates listed. Each ballot has a serial number on it so it is more sophisticated than a post it note. You can't "forge" ballots because of the serial numbers. When finished, we did put our ballots in a clear bag, held by a person who had a special tag that identified him as a caucus official. We were specifically told though to be sure we gave it to the right person...not to hand it to just anyone to put in the bag for us. As far as the counting process, I left before that took place so I'm not sure exactly how it's done. The AP called Trump the winner just as we were talking in the house...about 15 minutes after we turned our ballots in. My daughter in law hadn't even voted at her caucus location before the race was called. I have a really hard time understanding how that works. This is all fascinating to me. I grew up next door in Nebraska and never really knew how the process worked. Cynic that I am, it seems to me quite possible that someone working for a particular candidate could be provided with a number of extra ballots and use them to "stuff" the bag for that candidate. It's one of the reasons we went to computer voting, right? I just can't square that with the R concern for "election security." IDK. I do appreciate all the first-hand accounts, though. |
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Post by Lurkingpea on Jan 17, 2024 16:25:10 GMT
All I knew about caucus races I learned from Alice in Wonderland cartoon.
This thread has been very interesting. Thank you all for the information.
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by iowgirl on Jan 17, 2024 16:41:29 GMT
My son caucused when he was a student at Iowa - he described it as "people in all the corners of the room yelling at each other, and then we (Bernie folks) stole pizza from the Warren table." Ah, to be 20 again, but yeah, it's an informal process and always struck me as unusual, but what do I know? I think the Democratic Caucuses had a much younger base. But I think the Democratic party leadership in Iowa is the shambles. But most of the politics in Iowa could be classified as that. Our governor concerns me greatly. She is dismantling the public school system, and I don't know if it can recover after 4 more years of her, but the democrats can't seem to put forth a candidate that has a remote chance of winning. The State of Iowa does much better fiscally with Republican leadership. The democratic party about took us down financially very quickly. But since Trump the republican party seems to be hell bent on ending public school and any public assistance here. I just don't get what they are thinking sometimes. The private school vouchers brought me out of my "I don't talk politics in social settings" belief. What some young people believe now just stuns me. I am not party aligned, I am fiscally conservative, but socially liberal - but I don't lean hard either way. |
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