A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
In the Iowa caucuses, Republicans count the votes, but Democrats count the votes, make arcane calculations, then announce the outcome not in votes but in delegate equivalents, keeping the raw vote tallies secret. I’ve never understood why. It complicates the process, obfuscates rather than clarifies, and multiplies the opportunities for error. That’s a problem in close contests.
Did this gratuitous complexity and opacity result in an inaccurate Democratic count? Some think so. USA Today has a good story on the situation.
Iowa’s Democratic caucuses do have one useful feature: the viability threshold. After the initial sorting, in which caucusers move to areas in the meeting hall reserved for the various candidate, a caucus that does not contain at least 15 percent of the precinct’s caucusers is disbanded and its members allowed to join a still viable caucus. That winnows out weak candidates.
If no candidate received at least 50 percent after the threshold viability screen, the smallest remaining caucus could be disbanded with its members joining one of the remaining caucuses (or head home, or to the nearest bar, in disgust), until the largest caucus contained at least 50 percent of the caucusers present. If only two caucuses are left, a tie can result.
Iowa’s Democrats broke ties by flipping a coin. That’s legal, but a mistake in a process that allocates delegates proportionally. Hillary Clinton reportedly won seven of eight coin tosses. Lady Luck caucused for her.