Iowa Caucus (Part 1)

In 1968, the Democratic Party decided to hold caucuses. A caucus is a meeting where

local members of a political party get together and put their preferences in for the running

candidates in an election. They also select their delegates to represent their state at a convention.

They are used to chose the political party of nominees.

Primaries and caucuses are very different. Primaries get more voter participation.

Primaries are more simple than a caucus because they have voters come in, submit a ballot, and

then leave. Caucuses contain long discussions and debates on the final decision. Caucuses

usually have a lower voter turnout from primaries but this can differ between states. Primaries

can be open, closed, top-two, or hybrid. If it is open, that means that is it open to any eligible

voter, regardless of their political affiliation. Closed limits it to registered voters of that political

party; top-two narrows it down to two winners that both go to the general election; hybrid

primaries are a mix of open and closed primaries. A caucus only consists of local party leaders

and delegates.

Iowa is the first state where a ballot is cast in the U.S. It is so important because it is the

first indicator that a candidate may be getting the support he wants to move on in the election.

The Iowa Caucus is a good predictor of what lies ahead. About half of the winners from the

caucus, end up winning their party’s nomination for presidency. It narrows down the number of

candidates that have a chance at winning. For example, no candidate who finished worse than

fourth place in the Iowa Caucus has gone to win their party’s nomination since 1972. So it gives

a good indicator of who could be in the race for winning.

 Decision (Part 3)

We chose Marco Rubio to support at the Cerro Gordo County Convention, because he

won in three different voting methods. With him winning in three methods, this makes him a

good candidate to support with how many votes he got. Our calculations show that there were

100 voters in all. With the borda count method, Rubio won with 306 points. Trump had 217

points, Cruz had 272 points, and Bush had 205 points. With three points, he was the winner in

Copeland’s method also. Bush and Cruz both tied with one and a half points each, and Trump

ended with a total of zero points. A condorcet candidate was also found, with it being Marco

Rubio again.

In conclusion, both my partner and I believe that Marco Rubio is the best candidate to

support at the convention because of how many votes he has received and the methods in which

he has earned them in. He won in three different voting methods, those being the borda count,

Copeland’s method, and by being the condorcet candidate. He took the lead in these methods by

many points in each one. It is clearly shown that he is the winner because he didn’t just win by a

few points. With the borda count, he won against the following candidates with the difference in

points showing: Trump by 89 points, Cruz by 34 points, and Bush by 101 points. He won using

Copeland’s method, beating Trump by 3 points and Bush and Cruz by 1.5 points each. He also

beat each candidate in a one to one comparison, making him the condorcet candidate. We believe

Marco Rubio is the winner of the Iowa Caucus because he clearly won in three different methods

of voting, while other winning candidates only won in one of the other methods.