When Iowa results are in, can we trust them? I.e., BBV? polls?

[lostnfound]

I am a little uneasy hearing tonight on CNN that the polls in Iowa are now showing such a close race among several of our candidates.

I find myself wondering whether black-box-voting issues are a concern in Iowa.

And tonight on Pacifica, they interviewed a person from Retro polls detailing how fake and unreliable all polls are..saying that the questions are basically bought (commissioned for large sums of money)by specific companies, PACs, etc.

We've worried in the past that close polls could lead to a bbv-stolen election by Bush. I am NOT suggesting that any of our candidates would steal an election -- but wealthy interests that run this country might well decide they'd rather play poker with the candidate of their choice rather than the people's choice. Without any candidate's knowledge.

Mind you, I am perfectly happy for Kerry, Edwards, Dean, Gep, Clark -- whoever -- to win in Iowa as long as they truly WIN..
But I won't be happy even if Kucinich! were to win, if it was due to vote-tampering by some elite cabal behind the scenes.

Obviously DK wouldn't be their choice..but you get my point.

[stickdog]

1. You have to publicly declare your choice.

BBV is not an issue in Iowa.

However, in many other states ...

[lostnfound]

4. So how many people actually vote? Any registered voters that want to? nt

[shance]

8. Are you sure? Iowa is not using electronic voting?

n/t

[shance]

9. Oops. Glad to get an answer on that.

Had no idea...

[lostnfound]

2. On 2nd thought -- is this a stupid question because it's a caucus?

I was born and raised in a primary state..so I don't really understand caucuses.

[moondust]

7. They're a little bit like jury deliberations.

Discuss and vote. Unanimity not required.

[diamondsoul]

11. Nothing "stupid" about not knowing

how a Caucus works when you've never had to participate in one. I didn't know either until I started gearing up to start phoning and writing voters in Iowa myself in this very campaign.

The funny thing is the press makes it sound really, REALLY complicated and almost fearsome, and it really isn't! LOL

[Egnever]

3. Iowa is a caucus

the votes are taken by a show of hands. Not an electronic voting machine.

[fabius]

5. I don't think they use electronic vote tabulation.

Votes / delegates are totaled at the precinct level so the Repubs would have to infiltrate the local Democratic party apparatus pretty completely to do something like this.

[lostnfound]

6. OK, Thanks! That's great news.

I feel better about our entire democracy just knowing that.. :-)

[Gore1FL]

14. you pretty much go and stand in a corner

and they count heads.

That is an oversimplification, but is it in a nutshell.

[EXE619K]

10. No, we cannot!

I demand an immediate re(head)-count!

[sandnsea]

12. They elect delegates

Real live people. There are numbers that are phoned into a national system. That could be tampered with at the computer site or with people putting in false numbers. But it would be figured out when those delegates check the numbers themselves and they'll be up online that night. So, no, I don't think there can be any tampering unless people are really dimwits.

[radfringe]

13. according to a friend of mine....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=134157

The Iowa caucuses will be held tomorrow evening, starting around 7:30
Eastern Time. The polls show Gephardt, Dean, Kerry, and Edwards tied in Iowa (Clark and Lieberman are skipping Iowa). However, polls of caucuses are not reliable so who knows what will happen. Whatever
happens will influence the votes in New Hampshire.

[Slippery_Hammer]

15. The Iowa results you can trust

I would put absolutely no faith in the polls. They don't take into account the fact that many Iowans made up there minds weeks ago and screen out the avalanche of political calls we have been getting.

As for BBV? If they better not try and make me get into a big black box before voting tomorrow night. ;-)

[mastein]

16. I am a veteran of a few Caucus nights

It works like this. . . You sign in, and they have at least one (sometimes 3 people) check credentials. In 92 and 96 they let in Indi's and greens and R's if they would reg. democrat, but that is up the discretion of the credential committee.

Once in they have one page blurbs from each candidate, taped to a table, you want to read them, you have to get up and read them.

They call the meeting to order, give the agenda and get started. There will be a speech for each candidate and then a break off into groups by candidate. None/undecided is always an option. If a candidate doesn't get critical mass to send a delegate to the county conv. (15%) those folks can choose to move on (there is a great deal of wrangling and discussion amongst voters at this point). After all votes are decided (incl. none/undecided) each group nominates delegates to the county convention on a proportional basis. The chair of the caucus knows the number of seats each precinct has and if things are close has discretion over how to divvy up "tied" seat numbers.

From there they take the tally and report it to a reporting service and go onto the more mundane issue of writing the platform.

That's it. If questions email or Ping me.