The Iowa Caucus: A Firsthand Experience

Below is an account of my father's experience in the Iowa caucus:

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"Let me tell you about our caucus experiences. Tim (my son) went to the Democratic one and I went to the Republican one. His was at Central High School in the inner city and mine was a North High out in the suburbs on the north edge of town.

"Tim said that he was checked against registered voter roles as he entered. Others who wished to change party affiliation or register for the first time were given registration forms to fill out. Inside they sought out others who supported their candidate. Essentially they were divided into three groups, those for Clinton, Edwards and Obama. Other candidates had too few supporters to meet the 15% cutoff required to be a viable candidate and had to choose one of the three as their second choice. There were 192 voters present, so a candidate had to have 29 to stay in the race. Edwards got 31, Clinton got 31 and Obama got 130. The fact that the Clinton group was passing out ham sandwiches, potato chips and cold drinks was tempting some to move to that group but loyalty to their candidate won out. Edwards' group served donuts and Danish rolls which pacified his supporters, but Obama supporters just had to do without any refreshments. But they didn't care because they were elated by their landslide win in this precinct. Tim described the crowd as evenly representative of blacks and whites, old and young, male and female. It took them about two hours to complete their work. This was a far larger turnout for this precinct than anyone could remember.

"On the north side of town I had a very different experience. Six blocks from North High school I was in a line of traffic that I was sure was headed for the parking lot of the school. There was about 9 inches of snow on the ground and it was chilly. As I turned into the big parking lot I saw that cars were coming back out having not found a place to park. People were walking briskly from every direction. Suddenly I saw that the cars ahead of me were simply pulling to the right side of the drive and parking, so I did so as well. I chatted with the fellow who had parked behind me as we hurried toward the school. It was apparent there was a huge number of people attending here. Having no idea which entrance to the school we should use, we just followed the stream of people.

"On entering the building I found many people milling about and a couple of fellows calling out 'Precinct 63 ahead and on the left, Precinct 64 ahead and on the right'. Ahead was into the auditorium. As I walked in I was handed a ballot. No effort was made to check me against voter rolls nor was any other step taken to assure that I was a bonafied voter in this party and in this precinct. I recognized some of my neighbors who said we were to sit on the left side of the auditorium. I was fifteen minutes early and already most of the seats were filled. I walked up to the very top row and sat next to a young fellow who said this was his very first time to vote as he had just turned 18. He was quite exited about the process. At seven o'clock the chairperson announced that because people were having so much trouble finding a place to park they were not going to close the doors at 7 as they normally would but would allow people to come in who presumably had arrived by seven but were delayed by locating a parking place.

"Those in charge indicated that they were overwhelmed by the numbers present since previous turnouts had been less than one fourth this size. Anyone who wished to do so was invited to give a short speech on behalf of his favorite candidate providing they used less than two minutes. Six people spoke for their candidates, usually well prepared emotional pleas. We finally got around to voting. Those who had spoken for a candidate were asked to choose an assistant and these people were then charged with collecting the ballots and counting them. As soon as I turned in my vote (we wrote in the candidate's name on a slip of paper and passed it to the end of the row we were sitting in) I left. When I got to my car I turned on the radio and heard that Huckabee had won the Republican race in Iowa. I knew they had not counted our votes yet but they had counted enough in other places to know that he had a lead that would not be overcome. Since he had been leading in the polls the past few days this was not a surprise, but I thought now I know how the people in California feel on election day when the national news announces that a certain candidate has won before California is even through voting. In our precinct I later learned Romney had won a considerable majority but clearly that was not true state wide.

"Other friends said that they were checked against voter registration lists and asked to initial their listing or make out a new registration if they were not on the list. I guess the hundreds who showed up at North High just overwhelmed the system and anyone who wanted to could have walked in and voted. But it was a fun time. People were cheerful, excited, friendly. There was mass confusion as we tried to exit the parking areas, but generally people were courteous and took turns. There were no refreshments available anywhere that I could see at this caucus... would I sell my vote for a sandwich, a donut, a Danish? Don't tempt me.

"Well, the outcome in Iowa is clear evidence that people here want a CHANGE, which should not surprise anyone who has seen the ratings given to congress which are even lower than those given to president Bush. It appears that people are fed up with politicians whose focus is on building party power at the expense of everything else. Whether any president can actually bring about significant change in government remains to be seen."

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