My Experience at the Iowa Caucus
Yonnas Kefle
Around 12:30 pm on January 3rd, I headed to Atkins in Benton County, Iowa, and began canvassing about 35 houses scattered throughout the small town. During that afternoon, I urged residents to go out and caucus. The feedback I was getting from potential caucus goers was encouraging. I covered all the houses in my list and began to drive to my observation site later that afternoon. I arrived at my assigned precinct-Canton/Shellsburg-in Shellsburg Elementary School around 5:30 pm. To my delight, the room was already setup and precinct captains and caucus officials were in place and ready to go. I brought in Hillary campaign materials and—with the help of our precinct captain— posted them around Hillary’s area. I was told that about 150 were expected to show up and there were enough seats in the room to accommodate that many people.
Caucus goers started to trickle in at about 5:55 pm. The number of people coming in swelled minute by minute and the seats began to fill. By 7:00 pm, close to 300 people (including visitors and children) were present in the room. All seats were taken and many had to stand. The temperature in the room began to rise, and soon everyone was removing their coats and sweaters. I was pleased with the number of people that populated Hillary’s area. Without head counting, I sensed that more participants were aligned with Hillary than with any of the other candidates.
At 7:05 pm, the caucus chair called the house to order. The first item on the agenda was a sort of fundraising for the Iowa Democratic Party. The hat was passed and money was collected just as it’s done in a typical church. The caucus chair then made announcement about absentee ballots for the November election. Following that, she read letters from Governor Culver and Senator Harkin to caucus participants, and finally conducted elections of a permanent caucus chair and secretary.
The serious business of voter counting began around 7:35 pm. The number of registered eligible participants was 225, significantly more than the expected number (about 150). The initial count went well for Hillary as you can see in column 2 of the table below:
Caucus Outcome
Canton/Shellsburg Precinct
Candidate Initial Count Realigned Count
Hillary Clinton 80 82
John Edwards 69 95
Barack Obama 56 38
Bill Richardson 15 10
Joe Biden 0 0
Christopher Dodd 5 0
Dennis Kucinich 0 0
Total Count 225 225
Hillary actually won during the first count: 80 Iowans were on her side, while 69 went for Edwards and 54 for Obama. The rest chose Richardson and Dodd, who ended up not viable (viability cutoff number was set at 34). I was confident that Hillary would get the most delegates based on this outcome. Then came the realignment process. And in the second (realigned) count the numbers changed dramatically as you can see in Column 3. The Edwards side reported that they have 95 people on their side compared to Hillary’s 82 while Obama’s side said their numbers decreased to 38. I was perplexed by the sudden burst of Edwards’ numbers, and rushed to our precinct captain to seek some explanation. She took me aside and explained that “Obama’s person—after consulting with her headquarters—voluntarily gave 16 supporters to John Edward’s side.” I wondered aloud if they could do such horse-trading. Apparently, they could and they did.
The caucus chair then calculated the raw numbers to determine how the nine delegates were to be distributed among the three viable candidates. I took my calculator out of my pocket and repeated what she did. The outcome was as follows:
Hillary Clinton: [82/25]=3.28»3 delegates
John Edwards: [95/25]=3.80»4 delegates
Barack Obama: [38/25]=1.52»2 delegates
This way Edwards ended up with 4 delegates, while Hillary had 3, and Obama was satisfied with 2 delegates.
Driving back the approximately 30 miles to Cedar Rapids, I was still reflecting on why the Obama and Edwards sides colluded against Hillary. I kept my fingers crossed that—by the time I arrived at Hotel Clarion for our Caucus Night Party—she would be declared the overall winner. I knew she would eventually come out ahead, but that turned out not to be the night. I postponed my celebration for another time and headed back to my room in Crown Plaza, to rest and to replenish my energy for another battle, in another venue.
Here are two more pictures from my camera:
Yonnas Kefle
yonnask@comcast.net
301-385-2240
