I detest absurdity whenver I witness it.  Therefore, it my strong opinion that the Democratic National Committee should insist that the Iowa caucus system should be replaced by the normal primary voting system employed by most other states. At minimum, if its system of selecting its delegates to the Democratic National Convention is to remain in place, Iowa should not be allowed to maintain its position as having the first in the nation primary event.

Every four years all or nearly all of the candidates seeking to be elected President of the United States spend an inordinate amount of their early campaigning efforts and resources trying to convince relatively few registered voters in the state of Iowa to support them in their first in the nation caucus events, a totally antiquated, cumbersome, and non-representative process.  It is that important to campaign heavily in Iowa, especially when there is a large field of candidates for their party’s nomination, because candidates who don’t do well in Iowa often have to fold their tents and go come.  Plus every candidate wants to start out their campaign with a win for momentum purposes.

The Iowa caucus isn’t until February 3rd of next year, but the Des Moines Register has tracked the 21 of the 23 Democratic candidates making a total 183 visits to various locations throughout the state during the first twelve days of June.  On Saturday June 8^th there were 13 Democratic hopefuls campaigning in Iowa and the next day that number rose to 19.  In the following week two other Democratic candidates were also making campaign stops in Iowa and Donald Trump was as well. One Democratic candidates that you probably never heard of, Marianne Williamson, actually moved to Iowa, obviously to concentrate her campaign efforts in the state.

Since Iowa began its first in the nation primary contest in 1972, voters in the state who plan to participate in the caucuses have come to selfishly expect to have the primary candidates to cater to them and make multiple appearances in their area of the state, as one Iowa woman explained, “ . . . so we can get to know them very well before we cast our votes.” And during that same time period how many of those candidates will be campaigning in your city?  Very few if any.

In addition Iowa, which is ranked the 31^st state in terms of population and is not representative of the demographics of the nation as a whole, is getting all of this attention not for a standard primary election, but instead because of a political process which is not only antiquated, but also totally absurd in its complexity and its lack of practical availability to its voters. This is why in past years only about one fifth of the registered Democrats and Republicans in Iowa have participated in their caucuses.  Then take into consideration that there are more independent voters (36.5%) in Iowa then registered Democrats (30.1%) or registered Republicans (32.6%) and only registered Democrats and registered Republicans can participate in their party’s caucuses. Therefore in this relatively small state only a small percentage of voters, generally those who are most politically active, are getting all of this attention.

However, it is easy to understand why many Iowa voters don’t bother to participate the caucus process. It is very inconvenient for the average voter.  On a Monday night in early February 2020 the caucuses will begin at 1,100 Democratic precinct locations and 700 Republican precinct locations at 7:00 pm sharp. The participants have to be there early because that is when the doors will be shut and no one is allow in thereafter.  In past elections cycles if you happen to be working at that time, caring for your children, or doing any one of a hundred other thing that might demand your attention – that’s just too bad.

Unlike voters in other states who go to our precinct locations to press a few buttons in a voting booth or fill out a computer card in secrecy, those who will participate in the Iowa caucuses are in for a very long night engaging in a process which will make it clear to everyone attending which candidate(s) they are supporting. The details of the Iowa Democratic caucus system are so complicated that I spent hours poring through a large number of articles available on-line trying to piece together a coherent understanding of how the system works from beginning to end.  The articles were incomplete and often contradictory, and the 65 page document issued by the Iowa Democratic Party explaining the process is fit only for lawyers to read.  However, the following is the picture of the Iowa process which I was able to I was able to piece together:

(NOTE:  You might want to only skim the following long description of the Iowa Democratic caucus system provided below in italics.  I included all of this detail only to provide you with an understanding of the complexity of the process.)

The entire process will begin on the 3^rd of February 2020 when registered Democratic voters assemble at their local precinct locations for their caucuses.  There will be over a thousand of these Democratic precinct caucuses held throughout the state.  Each of these are more like neighborhood meetings than anything else. In part because of the large number of candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, the 2020 precinct caucuses will take anywhere from three to four hours from start to finish so you can understand why they will probably be well attended.

 According to an NPR article, this is what happens in each of the precinct caucuses after there is a call to order (the notes in the parentheses are mine):

• A caucus chair and secretary are elected.

• Supporters make the case for their candidates. (Spokespersons for the 23 candidates will be allowed to speak for 5 minutes each to try to persuade the caucus attendees to support their candidates. This phase alone will take about two hours.)

• Caucus goers separate into groups in corners or parts of the room for their candidates of choice.

• When the groups are formed, the elected chair adds up how many supporters are in each cluster.

• Each candidate has to meet a viability threshold of 15 percent. That means the number of people in the cluster has to be at least 15 percent of all the participants in the room. (With such a huge Democratic field, we can expect that only a small number of the candidates will attract the support of the necessary 15% of a caucus’s participants. Those candidates not making the cut will get no benefit whatsoever from that particular caucus.)

• If a candidate is determined not to be viable, that candidate’s supporters have to choose one of the other viable candidates.

• During the re-caucusing process, supporters from the viable candidates try to sway the nonviable candidate’s voters to their side. (Obviously this could result in a rather messy situations and I suspect that emotions can sometimes run high.)

• Once the re-caucusing is settled and all remaining candidates are deemed viable, the numbers are tallied.

• Delegates and alternates are then selected to attend county conventions. (The number of county delegates allotted to each precinct caucus will be in proportion to the number of registered Democrats in that precinct. The delegates allotted to each caucus will be divided among viable candidates in proportion their level of support in the caucus.  For example, if one candidate secures the support of 40% of a caucus’s attendees, he/she will get 40% of caucus’s county convention delegates, or as close to that percentage of the delegates as possible.)

• Party business is conducted, including elections to committees, and platform resolutions are introduced.

The Democratic National Committee has issued new rules requiring more convenient participation in each state’s primary selection process.  To comply Iowa has also set up six virtual caucuses to be held at various times during the six days before the in-person caucuses.  Registered Democrats who sign up in advance will be able to participate in these virtual caucuses on-line or by phone.  The virtual caucuses will be allotted 10% of the available delegates regardless of how many registered voters participate virtually.

However, the process doesn’t end there, by a long shot.  There are of course multiple precinct caucuses held in each of Iowa’s 99 counties.  Each of the Iowa counties is part of one the state’s 4 congressional districts. 

• The delegates chosen in the precinct caucuses will gather for their County Conventions which will be held on 21^st of March 2020. A process similar to that used by the precinct caucuses is then o be used in each of the county conventions to select the delegates to one of the four District Conventions. A county’s delegates to its district convention will be allocated among the viable candidates based proportionally on the support for those candidates at the county convention.
  

• The delegates chosen in the county conventions will gather in one or another of the four District Conventions which will be held on the 25^th April. Each district convention will choose delegates to State Democratic Convention in the same manner as above. They will also select the district’s representatives to the Democratic Nation Convention.

• The delegates chosen in the four district conventions will gather for the State Democratic Convention which will be held on 13^st of June 2020.

The 49 Iowa delegates to the Democratic National Convention are chosen as follows:

• 27 pledged delegates to the national convention are selected during the four district conventions and allocated to the various candidates based on their support among the delegates in each of the district conventions.

• Another 5 delegate positions pledged to particular candidates will be selected from a pool of party leaders and elected officials and determined by voting in the state convention.

• The state convention will also select 9 unpledged delegates to the national convention.

• Another unpledged 8 national convention positions are reserved for Democratic Party leaders based on their elected positions.

At the Democratic National Convention which is to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin July 13-16, 2020, the 49 Iowa delegates will make up only 1.1% of the total of 4,532 delegates at the event.  This is yet another reason that the Iowa caucuses by virtue of their first in the nation status are getting far more attention than they rightfully deserves.

What is almost comical is that the final results of the Iowa caucuses (such as which candidate won the most number of Iowa delegates) may not be known until after the Iowa State Democratic Convention, more than four months after the state’s initial caucus events. By then all of the other states will have completed their primary voting.

The Iowa caucus system is just one step better than the historical system when the politicians in each state gathered in smoke filled rooms to decide who would represent their states as delegates to their party’s national conventions which chose their nominees for the presidency. Even with the introduction of the Iowa virtual caucuses, the complexity and inconvenience that state’s primary system essentially limit participation to only the most active of Democratic voters.

The notion that this non-representative system in a relatively low population state which does not represents the demographics of the nation has such a large role in determining who will be come the Democratic nominee to be President of the United States is patently absurd. The Democratic National Committee should decree that if Iowa does not change its method of selecting delegates to the Democratic National Convention, other states should be allowed to hold their primary events before the date of the Iowa caucuses

Cajun    6/15/2019