Like Jury Duty? You'll Love Caucuses

[windansea]

very funny and informative article about Iowa caucus and how it works

Like Jury Duty? You'll Love Caucuses
It takes a razor-sharp voter to figure out Iowa's system
By JOEL STEIN

Sunday, Jan. 11, 2004
If you think we're going to get a democracy up and running in Iraq by midsummer, maybe you should know that it takes two hours to teach Iowans how to vote in their own caucus. And these are Iowans who have been to caucuses before.

Admittedly, the Iowa caucus is the most painstaking, complicated form of democracy to exist outside a campus women's collective. Instead of walking into a voting booth, pulling the top lever for President and randomly yanking the rest of them like you're supposed to, the caucus is a three-hour Monday-night political dorkfest reserved for the kinds of people who get psyched about jury duty. In 2000, only 61,000 Iowans showed up to vote, and it's not as if there's a lot to do in Iowa in January.

To explain how it all works, Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver is going around the state holding practice caucuses. At his workshop last Tuesday at the library in Clive, a suburb seven miles west of Des Moines, about 50 people showed up, several of them young enough to be my parents. Most of these folks already knew how caucuses work and just wanted a refresher course. Clive needs to get itself a bowling alley.

http://www.time.com/time/election2004/article/0,18471,574891,00.html

[brainshrub]

1. Wonderful article.

I'm still confused...but it was well written.

[windansea]

2. basically it's this

people give speeches in support

then they "vote" by standing in a corner with other supporters

if your corner doen't have 15% or more...the other corners try to entice you to theirs

I wish they could film one of these live...it's unique...people can't vote in a booth..it's all in the open

[funky_bug]

4. Go stand in a corner?

Someone please tell me they are going to videotape this and put it online. Entice the corners with less than 15% in them? I will literally be rolling all over the floor in a fit of laughter.

Peer Pressure - the new way to win votes.

[windansea]

6. it's pretty amazing

would love to watch it happen

[funky_bug]

9. Iowan Caucus Ruckus

I found this doing a google... thought it was hilarious!

"Of course, Iowa doesn't actually have a presidential primary. They have a caucus, which is probably the dumbest method of choosing a presidential candidate short of having them play Russian roulette. If there's one basic idea associated with democracy (aside from the whole one man-one vote thing), it is the right to vote in private. You step into a voting booth, close the curtain, punch the ballot for the candidate of your choice, and drop your ballot into the ballot box. Not in Iowa. They do things differently there. In Iowa, you have to tell your entire neighborhood who you're voting for. If you dare to vote for an unpopular candidate, your kids will be taunted mercilessly by their classmates. ("My mommy told me that your daddy voted for Bill Bradley. You can't play with us anymore.") That's democratic, isn't it?"

http://criterion.uchicago.edu/issues/iv4/matthews.html

WARNING: I have no idea what the party affiliation or political idealism is for this source *nod to mod*

[leyton]

8. Question

Is the room octagonal? *confused* :D

I do have a serious question though... why do the "undecideds" have delegates in the first place? If you don't plan on voting for a candidate, shouldn't you just not go to the caucus?

[windansea]

13. I guess in a democracy you have the right

to be undecided

maybe the undecideds get offered more cookies!!

[chocolateeater]

12. I think CSPAN is going to show some of it live. n/t

[LizW2]

14. They are

And yesterday they showed an interview with a couple who are holding a caucus in their home. It was cute. They showed the camera crew all around the house, even down in the basement where they would have one group if there were enough people. They said they cleaned out their coat closet, but decided it wouldn't be big enough, so they were going to make each person responsible for holding his or her own coat.

They showed the bedrooms and said some groups would meet in there. The wife assured the interviewer that they would bring in chairs so no one would have to lie on the bed to caucus.:7

[rucky]

3. Isn't this essentially what Dean was saying about Iowa

in "The Dean Tapes"?

I bet it's actually kinda fun, but I wouldn't want to do it any more than once every 4 years.

Same with jury duty.

[windansea]

5. I don't know that it's controlled by special interests

but it is unique in that you stand up in front of your neighbors to show your support openly

[Lobo_13]

16. I had a very interesting conversation with Howard Dean's brother

at a precinct captain meeting. What he said made a lot of sense.

Running in IA takes boatloads of money. Before this cycle, the only way to collect enough money to make an effective bid is to go to the people who had the money - special interests. That's basically what was meant by special interests, traditionally, you had to sell your soul to special interests just to raise the necessary funding to run in IA.

Besides, do you think it's fun to get people to come out in the cold and stand in a high school gym for a couple of hours? Not nearly as fun as it sounds.

[windansea]

17. thats a good explanation

for Dean's comments....actually I have seen a lot of pundits agree with it

[funky_bug]

10. Certainly goes a long way

in explaining Dean's comments about the IA caucus. I'm sure he wished he'd never said them, but hell, who hasn't said something they wanted to take back, only to have it taped and played all over MSNBC one week before votes are cast?

Oh... maybe that was just me and Dean.

In all seriousness, I understand now why Dean said what he did. It really wasn't such a big deal for me, but I don't live in IA. However, if I did, and I were forced to stand in a corner to cast my vote, I might praise Dean for his comments! Maybe someone should platform on changing the IA caucus?!?

[windansea]

7. kaukus kick

:kick:

[MuseRider]

11. I am just beginning

to learn about our caucus. It is confusing as well but I plan on being there so... I wish voting wasn't too expensive for this state.

[windansea]

15. you are going to an Iowa caucus?

please post a thread on your experience...I'd love to hear about it firsthand

[no name no slogan]

18. Jiminy, it ain't THAT hard...

Maybe because I've lived my entire adult life in a caucus state, but for some reason everybody thinks caucusing is so damn complicated. Seriously, it's not that difficult at all.

Have you ever been to a student government meeting, in High School or elsewhere? That's a caucus in a nutshell. Lots of Roberts' Rules of Order, resolutions getting proposed, and then finally the awarding of delegates. A trained monkey could do it.

Maybe it's the lack of attention span today, but people seem to think it's like pulling teeth. But if you have an iota of patience it's not a big deal at all.

I almost think that the press is publishing these articles to discourage people from caucusing, and participating in our electoral process.

Which is exactly what the powers-that-be want us to do. Turn on the cable, pull a lever, push a button, don't make waves, do what you're told, etc.

[windansea]

19. the tone of the article

was a bit condescending...I agree...they made fun of the age of people...need a bowling alley etc...a lot of writers seem to think they are so above it all

I think caucusing is like a town meeting...discuss it in the open...I want to watch one