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Caucusing - State caucus report, but no trip to national

The US Presidential Election process is something that makes me very glad that I don't have to participate in it. It goes on for so long!

Although saying that, I'm fascinated by the system.
 

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Evilhalfling said:
basically in a primary you show up, punch a secret ballot and leave.

In a caucus you are collected into neighborhood groups and the members of the "Precinct" vote openly for a candidate, you discuss it and then vote again. (we voted by a show of hands) The second vote is recorded and reported to the party/media......
In the caucus my mom did, you apparently go into different rooms assigned to different candidates. If an initial tally found that your room had less than 15% of the caucusers, that room was closed and you could either pick another candidate or leave. It was like a physical version of run-off voting, which I found quite interesting. (As a former cantabridgian, I am a huge fan of instant runoff voting (with proportional representation.))
 

Tallarn said:
The US Presidential Election process is something that makes me very glad that I don't have to participate in it. It goes on for so long!

Although saying that, I'm fascinated by the system.


Hearing how caucuses work makes me glad I live in a state that does primaries.

It was very simple. My wife and I walked into our polling place, showed our drviers licences to prove we were who we said we were and had our names crossed off a list, moved down the table and were asked which party we wanted, and were given ScanTron type sheets. We went to an empty table, took the 30 seconds it took to do that (plus in our state you vote on delegates for that candidate as well - none of whom I actually knew), and took the sheets to an electronic reader, and got our "I voted!" stickers. In some areas of my county there was also a county commisioner seat that was to be filled by special election that was on both Republican and Democrat ballots.

Something that might be of interest is the fact that I have never been to a polling place that was not staffed by elderly volunteers (and in my old polling place ones who would give you a dirty look if you asked for the 'wrong' ballot), with the occasional exception of a younger representative of the county there to watch over the electronic voting machines.
 

An example from here in Tennessee. There are a bunch of things I don't understand for certain, I tried to make that clear.

You still have to register to vote ahead of time. I believe, but couldn't verify for certain, that anyone who will be at least 18 years old on Nov. 4 (the date of the general election) is allowed to vote in the primaries, even if they're only 17 currently.

You go to your neighborhood polling location and show your voter ID card. You tell them if you want to vote as Democrat or Republican (whereas in some states, you have to make this decision when you register to vote, and send in a form changing it ahead of time if you change parties).

You sign next to your name in the pre-printed voter registration rolls for that polling place. Then you get in line. While in line, you can look at the big poster explaining what Democrats and Republicans will see on their screens, including complete candidate lists.

When you get up to the voting machine, there's a poll worker who sets the machine to either Democrat or Republican. In Tennessee, if it's Democrat, you just vote for one presidential candidate (though there are only 2 still in the race, there were 9 or 10 democrat names listed, because that's determined months earlier). If it's Republican, you choose one presidential candidate (again, from about a dozen republican names even though only 4 were officially still in the race), but you also are supposed to choose up to 12 Delegates from a list of about 100 or so, I think. Each Delegate candidate name shows what presidential candidate they're committed to support, although a handful said they were uncommitted.

We have touch-screens. You touch the screen next to the candidate(s) you choose, and have to touch three separate "Yes, I'm really done" on-screen buttons to finalize your vote. There seems to be no paper record at all. I have no idea how they do re-counts.

Democrat delegates are apparently selected at some separate event, rather than voted on during the primaries.

Once the votes are tallied, they determine how many delegates each candidate receives. In Tennessee, both parties split up the delegates among the winners, but I believe it's more by precincts won rather than an absolute division based on the state-wide popular vote totals.

And I'll be honest, I don't understand anything about how they actually assign Delegates. I do know that when the National Conventions are held for each party, the chosen delegates will go and cast votes, then re-vote as many times as necessary until a single candidate wins. Delegates are supposedly required to vote in the first round for the specific candidate to which they were committed (as in, if I were sent to the convention as a delegate for Jimmy-Joe-Bob, I'd have to cast my first vote for him). In subsequent rounds, delegates are allowed to move their vote however they want to.

I'd imagine there's a lot of back-room negotiations followed by candidates who drop out asking their delegates to support a specific other candidate instead. For example, while Romney has now suspended his campaign, he is keeping his delegates, and will be able to negotiate a deal with some other candidate in exchange for asking his delegates to support that other candidate.

I don't know if people who dropped out of the race earlier (like John Edwards), rather than "suspending" their campaigns, retain their delegates, or if theirs are automatically re-apportioned.

(edited to mention touch-screens)
 

I'm glad I vote in a primary state. If I were in a caucus state my vote would probably be too easily swayed by whichever group brought the best snacks...
 

Thornir Alekeg said:
I'm glad I vote in a primary state. If I were in a caucus state my vote would probably be too easily swayed by whichever group brought the best snacks...
Elections should ALWAYS be decided by who brings the best snacks. :D
 

Stormborn said:
Something that might be of interest is the fact that I have never been to a polling place that was not staffed by elderly volunteers (and in my old polling place ones who would give you a dirty look if you asked for the 'wrong' ballot), with the occasional exception of a younger representative of the county there to watch over the electronic voting machines.

My Mom is actually a voulnteer election judge, in a small town, for a state that does primaries. It is mostly staffed by people who are poltically engaged, and have a lot of free time (the old). She is semi-retired to raise sheep and train herding dogs. She says the polling place almost always has one intern from a local high school, (who runs the machines) and gets voulnteer hours for it.

If an initial tally found that your room had less than 15% of the caucusers, that room was closed
yes that was the reason for the first of the two votes where I caucused, I was very happy my canidate made the "threshhold" vote, and even got my wife to vote for my choice in the first round so the issue would not be in doubt.

Elections should ALWAYS be decided by who brings the best snacks.
the Party brought the snacks - a dollar got you a big cookie and a bottle of water, procedees to go..... you guessed it to the state party Org.
 
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Cintra said:
An example from here in Tennessee. There are a bunch of things I don't understand for certain, I tried to make that clear.

Pretty much how it works in Utah. I think the exception is in Utah when you register to vote, you can elect to affiliate with a party or remain unaffiliated. To vote in the Republican primary, you must declare a Republican affiliation at voting. For Democrat primaries, they allow unaffiliated voting.

You are given your electronic card, slide into the machine, touch the screen for the candidate you want, and confirm. A paper ballot prints out (might be sealed inside the machine). You are done.

The electronic machines beat the old chad system (especially since now they have early voting, which doth rock).
 

I am in Illinois, which has a primary.

When I walked into my polling place, there was a table set up where you would tell the election workers your name. I did not need to show any idea, but I did have to sign a card on which was a facsimile of my signature (presumably from when I registered to vote). I assume that if my signatures did not match, the election workers could challenge my identity in some way, probably by asking to see an ID card.

Next, another worker asked me to check a box on a small card next to the ballot I wanted: Republican, Democratic, Green, or one other that I forget. (Illinois is an 'open' primary state, which means that you do not have to be a registered member of the party to vote in that party's primary.) The worker then gave me the ballot corresponding to the box I checked. I live in a precinct that is very strongly aligned with one of the major parties, but I had asked for the ballot from the other party, and I did get a somewhat snarky, "Have fun voting," from the election worker.

I then took the ballot to one of the small privacy booths set up for voting. I used the provided pen to fill in the bubbles next to my choices. I then put the ballot into a kind of privacy folder made of corrugated cardboard, which is provided so that you can take your ballot to the electronic reader in privacy. I took my ballot to the reader, which sucks it in mechanically. I was not offered any kind of receipt or verification that the ballot had been read correctly, but at least there is a physical ballot in case a recount is needed.
 

Tallarn said:
The US Presidential Election process is something that makes me very glad that I don't have to participate in it. It goes on for so long!

Although saying that, I'm fascinated by the system.

Coming from a US citizen who doesn't vote until the main election in November, I agree that it takes too long. Gives them too much steam for all the mud that gets slung around..... :\
 

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