(Turnout keeps going up...227,000 now. Wow. - promoted by Chris Woods)
Wow, I just got done with my precinct caucus–I was chair and had to tally results. Des Moines 4 went for Sen. Barack Obama, but just barely. He left with two delegates, two for John Edwards, and one for Hillary Clinton.
Let me know what’s going on in your caucus. We had amazing turnout–122 people–with almost 40 newly registered Democrats who were formerly registered as no party or Republicans. And they came to caucus for all three of the big name candidates.
What’s on your mind? And how about these turnout results? Seriously, 221,000 Democrats as of right now. Over 100,000 Republicans. That’s over 300,000 Iowans.
Eat it, Markos. Iowans turnout. And we take things seriously.
7 Comments
I still don't like the caucus system
You had 122 people for 5 delegates, we had 293 people for 6 delegates, and I heard from a friend that at least one precinct in Des Moines had over 500 people for 9 delegates.
But the turnout was amazing everywhere. That has to bode well for Democrats in the general election.
desmoinesdem Thu 3 Jan 9:40 PM
Nevada 3
Last caucus had something like 70 people attend, this year we had 153.
We split delegates: 2 Obama, 2 Edwards, and 2 Hillary, plus one for Richardson. Richardson had 23 standing (needed 24) on the first round, but got one or two of the Kucinich supporters. Biden I think had 13, and I know that Obama and Edwards got a few of them.
Overall, it was a very good political event, and it was really cool to see two other people from my block sitting behind me wearing Edwards stickers. I also was there to support John Edwards.
iaprogressive Thu 3 Jan 10:02 PM
My caucus
had about 540 attendees. Delegates went Obama 5, Edwards 4, Hillary 3.
Incredible night, very interesting to see how this all plays out. If Edwards can’t beat either Hillary or Obama in NH, will he be a credible candidate after that?
Overall, huge D turnout bodes well for D’s come November, no matter who our nominee is.
rf Fri 4 Jan 12:12 AM
You're right about turnout
If you look at the total number of people who came out to caucus last night–Republicans and Democrats–Mike Huckabee still came in fourth behind Obama, Edwards, and Clinton. If we stay motivated, unite behind a candidate, and fight hard then we can definitely get a big win come November.
chris-woods Fri 4 Jan 12:18 PM
absolutely
Gore won Iowa with about 650,000 votes, and Bush won Iowa with about 750,000 votes.
We got more than 235,000 people to caucus with Democrats, which is much less convenient than voting. That’s almost a third of what we would need to win this state in November.
The turnout just floored me, and it explains why all of the campaigns went into the caucuses feeling fairly confident. I don’t know what the Clinton and Obama campaigns’ vote goals were, but the Edwards campaign absolutely shattered its vote goals. It simply wasn’t enough in light of the turnout.
desmoinesdem Fri 4 Jan 6:58 PM
217 in my caucus...
in Ames. 5 delegates for Obama, 2 for Clinton, 2 for Edwards. I caucused for Obama, and lots of ISU students were in attendance, but there were people of all ages in our camp. What amazed me, however, was that our group didn’t really have a person in charge of figuring out how many votes were needed to get another delegate, what deals were worth making, etc. In fact, it took a Kucinich supporter coming over for us to start doing the calculations.
ashriver Fri 4 Jan 12:29 AM
My Precinct
108 went for Obama. 49 went to Richardson. Total of 326 caucus-goers. Obama and Edwards pulled in 3 delegates and Hillary and Richardson had two. Our chair was inept. We almost did not have a re-alignment. But, I give a great amount of credit to our caucus-goers for not trying to take advantage of the incompetence but for focusing on finding the best way to make the caucus work without turning off the many newcomers who showed up. The regular people are what made my caucus successful. A tremendous boon for democracy, I would say.
drinksgreentea Fri 4 Jan 4:33 AM