Fwd: Results from Crawford County Precinct 8

A friend of mine is a middle school teacher in Wisconsin. He asked me how I'd explain caucusing to his students and this is what I came up with-

Luther College over on the Eastern side of Iowa reported on a mock-caucus where the candidates were cookies and pie and like that. You're always up for those simulations and stuff, maybe you could hold a mock-caucus.

http://chips.luther.edu/modules/news/article.php?storyid=169


One of the great participatory-democracy aspects of the Iowa caucus is that immediately after the voting part, members of both parties work on platform resolution proposals and try to recruit neighbors to volunteer for committees on the precinct and county levels- like who'll set up chairs at the county convention, who'll man the booth at the county fair, and who gets to be delegates to the county and state conventions. So it's a great way to get involved at the truly grass-roots level.

Republicans just show up and hold a secret ballot straw-poll.
They like things simple, like their candidates (SLAM!)

The Democrats form groups depending on who they like best (kind of like middle school kids at lunch). Dopey Wolf Blitzer on CNN called it a "VERY COMPLICATED formula" for deciding delegates. It's not complicated really.

• You count how many people are there. You divide that number by 15% (multiply times 0.15) That's how many people a candidate has to have in their group to earn a delegate to the county convention.
• People in groups smaller than that are said to have a non-viable candidate. They are given a chance to "re-align." That means that they get a second chance to vote for their second choice. They don't HAVE to, but...
• Let's say that there are three non-viable groups, none of which are big enough to get a delegate. They could all join together to make a group big enough to get a delegate, who would be "undecided," or independent. Undecided delegates can change their vote last minute at the county convention. OR...
• Voters in non-viable groups could decide to join bigger groups. Sometimes that means more delegates for the group they join. Sometimes they had already made up their mind who their second choice would be, sometimes other voters manage to persuade them, and sometimes the candidates ask their supporters to vote for one of their opponents. This year, both Richardson and Kusinich suggested that their voters vote for Obama if they didn't have big enough groups in their precincts. I hope that's not TOO complicated for 6-8th graders. All part of the process of "thinning the herd," so that now people can REALLY start spending money on TV ads in all those states that have their primaries next month.

I'd like to see our congregation elect Elders that way!