sailingaway
06-25-2011, 08:26 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-deeth/ia-gop-caucusing-made-eas_b_74483.html
so the 'straw poll ballot isn't binding and you stick around until delegates are elected, I guess:
The GOP's first item of business is election of a permanent chair and then "we go straight into it," says Versteegh. "The first thing you've got to do in your presidential year is your presidential straw poll."
The Republicans have an actual paper ballot. It doesn't list any candidates, says Versteegh, just write in whoever you want. There's a little speaking time where folks makes a short pitch for their candidate, then you vote. It's a secret ballot, with none of the standing in front of the neighbors and bargaining that the Democrats have. This means second choices matter less to Republicans than they do to Democrats.
County convention delegates are apportioned in the same fashion as the Democrats. It's based on the top of the ticket vote in the last two general elections (Bush 2004 and defeated governor candidate Jim Nussle in 2006). But the delegates get little attention because the Republicans give the media a hard vote count.
After voting is done, the Republicans count up their votes and call a touch-tone hot line in Des Moines to report the vote count results. "Ronald Reagan 76 votes, Abe Lincoln 44 votes, Eisenhower 27 votes, and Nixon 1." Unlike the Democrats, where a precinct's impact on the caucus result is frozen based on a delegate count, higher caucus turnout in a Republican precinct means more influence on the outcome. "A vote is a vote," said Versteegh.
Voting should be done in plenty of time for people to catch the 8:00 TV programs, or the second quarter of the football game. About this time, Democrats are still dealing with realignment.
Once the votes -- remember, "straw poll" votes, they're called -- are counted, the delegates are elected by all the caucus goers who choose to stay. Then the caucus moves on to election of party officers and debate of the platform, just as the Democrats do.
Who choose to stay or go after the straw poll vote can have a big impact on the delegates. Take the dead presidents example above: Reagan 76 votes, Lincoln 44 votes, Eisenhower 27 votes, and Nixon 1. Could the Reagan supporters outvote the Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Nixon folks and elect all Reagan delegates with just over half the support? Or did the Reagan folks go home, while the Lincoln people stayed to elect the delegates? "It's not divvied up by candidate," said Versteegh.
By the time any non-Iowan figures that out, the candidates are safely in New Hampshire.
so the 'straw poll ballot isn't binding and you stick around until delegates are elected, I guess:
The GOP's first item of business is election of a permanent chair and then "we go straight into it," says Versteegh. "The first thing you've got to do in your presidential year is your presidential straw poll."
The Republicans have an actual paper ballot. It doesn't list any candidates, says Versteegh, just write in whoever you want. There's a little speaking time where folks makes a short pitch for their candidate, then you vote. It's a secret ballot, with none of the standing in front of the neighbors and bargaining that the Democrats have. This means second choices matter less to Republicans than they do to Democrats.
County convention delegates are apportioned in the same fashion as the Democrats. It's based on the top of the ticket vote in the last two general elections (Bush 2004 and defeated governor candidate Jim Nussle in 2006). But the delegates get little attention because the Republicans give the media a hard vote count.
After voting is done, the Republicans count up their votes and call a touch-tone hot line in Des Moines to report the vote count results. "Ronald Reagan 76 votes, Abe Lincoln 44 votes, Eisenhower 27 votes, and Nixon 1." Unlike the Democrats, where a precinct's impact on the caucus result is frozen based on a delegate count, higher caucus turnout in a Republican precinct means more influence on the outcome. "A vote is a vote," said Versteegh.
Voting should be done in plenty of time for people to catch the 8:00 TV programs, or the second quarter of the football game. About this time, Democrats are still dealing with realignment.
Once the votes -- remember, "straw poll" votes, they're called -- are counted, the delegates are elected by all the caucus goers who choose to stay. Then the caucus moves on to election of party officers and debate of the platform, just as the Democrats do.
Who choose to stay or go after the straw poll vote can have a big impact on the delegates. Take the dead presidents example above: Reagan 76 votes, Lincoln 44 votes, Eisenhower 27 votes, and Nixon 1. Could the Reagan supporters outvote the Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Nixon folks and elect all Reagan delegates with just over half the support? Or did the Reagan folks go home, while the Lincoln people stayed to elect the delegates? "It's not divvied up by candidate," said Versteegh.
By the time any non-Iowan figures that out, the candidates are safely in New Hampshire.