A caucus is a meeting of members in the same political party. These people listen to candidates for presidency and vote on who they think would be best. Delegates are chosen by the people to represent who they want to vote for. The lowa Caucus is first because they have such a complex system. They have many steps that take a long time. In 1976 Jimmy Carter was elected president. He started as governor that almost no one knew. He won the lowa Caucuses that year. After that lowa Caucuses became popular. I also learned that the community really gets involved in this tradition I guess you could say. There were so many people there that knew what they were doing and were passionate about it. I did also notice that there weren’t very many young people. The only ones I saw were children. That’s because they were with their parents though. Ted Cruz won the republican caucuses with Donald Trump not too far behind.
Ted Cruz received 27.6% of the votes with 8 delegates. Donald Trump received 2.3% with 7 delegates. Marco Rubio received 23.1% with 7 delegates. Ben Carson received 9.3% with 3 delegates. Rand Paul received 4.5% with 1 delegate. Jeb Bush received 2.8% with 1 delegate. Carly Fiorina received 1.9% with 1 delegate. John Kasich received 1.9% with 1 delegate. Mike Huckabee received 1.8% with 1 delegate. Chris Christie received 1.8% as well but had no delegates. Rick Santorum received 1% with no delegates. And lastly, Jim Gilmore received 0% of votes with no delegates. The Democratic Party’s victor was Hillary Clinton. She beat Bernie Sanders with 49.9% of votes and 23 delegates voting for her. Bernie Sanders earned 49.6% with 21 delegates voting for him. Martin O’Malley acquired 0.6% with no delegates.
The Republican caucus had 186,874 lowans participate. That is a huge jump from the total number of participants in the 2012 election with having only 121,354 people. The Democratic caucus had 171,109 lowans engage in this event. Compared to 2008, the Democratic Party could not keep up with the amount of people present. They had 236,000 people in 2008. The turnout rate of people eligible to vote was 15.7%. The total number of citizens to partake in the 2016 lowa Caucus was 357,983.
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C-span stands for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network. It has been around since 1979 and is a non-for-profit company. The creators wanted the American public to be more aware of what was going on in their government. C-span2 aired the Democratic lowa Caucus at 5:00pm while C-span3 aired the Republican lowa Caucus at 8:00pm on February 1, 2016.
The Des Moines Register is a newspaper for Des Moines, lowa. There is also a separate Register for the rest of lowa. I think it is nice that there is a newspaper for a specific area. It helps the people of that city keep up to date. Especially when they have the caucuses. It makes me wonder how many people buy it. The lowa Poll is the lowa Caucus. They use the caucus to determine who they think should be president. People are able to talk about their candidates and get people on their side. I think it is a fairly simple system. I mean once you understand the basis of it. It’s a very long process, however. I mean one caucus can take two or more hours. That just seems like a very long time. Seeing as I just turned 18 l don’t really know much about politics and voting. I wonder, what’s the difference between the lowa Caucus and how Missouri operates its political polls?
- Ann Selzer is a very accurate pollster. She is credible and tries not to look at the past. She has been known to be one of the best. David Yepsen used to work for the Des Moines Register until he became the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern llinois University. He has spent most of his life working and study politics and public policy in lowa. He also teaches others what he knows. A precinct is a section of a town or city. t’s like a district. It makes it easy to keep everything organized. Especially during an election. It lets the pollsters know who all voted and what areas had the most voters.
Primaries are secretive. Meaning they vote for their candidates using a secret ballot. Some states allow everyone in the state to vote and others are a bit stricter. Most states use primaries. A caucus, however, is a bit more complicated. A group of people from the same party and get together to say things about their candidates. Their goal is to get more people to vote for their person. They vote for delegates. Only people registered to vote for a certain party can participate. During the voting portion some choose to have people raise hands or move to one side of the room. Very few states use this system.
I thought the system seems too complicated and messy. I prefer voting in a primary because then I can’t be persuaded to choose a different person the day of the election. It seems a tad bit unfair. You could go in 100% for one person but change your mind in 5 minutes because of what a representative said. It also takes forever. I don’t see how those people can be there for two hours. I could never do it. The thing I liked the most was getting to know what the lowa Caucus was. Learning why it is so important. I liked learning the history and the meaning and tradition behind. I liked seeing that so many people would commit to doing something like that every year. The part I didn’t like was the fact that I am not that into politics. I didn’t really understand some of the things they discussed. I also didn’t like listening to some of the things Republicans are for.
The lowa Caucuses are so important because they help show us what will probably happen. They prepare us for the future. They’re important because America has made them important. The lowa Caucuses actually do have a good track record for I guess knowing who is going to win. I learned that there is more than one way to vote for president. I also learned more about what each Party believes in. When I started this assignment I wasn’t sure where stood with politics and parties but now I do.
