Presidential Caucuses Are Truly Weird
Have you seen this video from last night’s presidential caucus in Iowa? Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had (virtually) the same number of supporters in this particular precinct. So in order to break the tie, and determine which candidate would receive the delegate from that precinct, they flipped a coin:
Word on the street is that Hillary went six-for-six in Iowa caucus coin tosses last night.
On January 19, 2008 Nevada held it’s first ever early presidential caucus and I participated as a voter. This was a very big deal for Nevadans. The “First in the West” primary. We felt part of an elite and powerful group of American voters with undue influence over who the presidential nominees would be. It started in Iowa, then New Hampshire, then South Carolina, then us.
Nevada had long been a caucus state, but this was the first time caucusing meant something more than the ceremonial formality of 100+ activists and party leaders standing together on a high school football field to “vote” for the person who had already sealed the nomination. It was anticipated 100k+ democrats from across the state would show up on this date, with 99.9% of them having no clue what a caucus even was.
Precinct chairs were identified. Several trainings were held. Help was flown in from Iowa. Special at-large caucuses were spun up for all the hotel workers on the strip. It was insanity, but in the end went off pretty seamlessly.
When I arrived to caucus at a local high school, I was impressed by the turnout. No less than 150 people from my precinct showed up, and we were assigned to use the theater to execute this democratic process.
I quickly embedded with the John Edwards camp, knowing that after the first accounting it was unlikely they would meet the threshold necessary to be considered viable, and we would forced to either pick another candidate or leave. I pitched a demonstration of solidarity and we determined to migrate, en masse, to the Barack Obama delegation after we were pronounce “not viable”. Our merry band of refugees were welcomed with open arms into the land of Barry.
Then came the second accounting. It was a tie. Team Obama and Team Hillary had the exact same number of supporters.
Rather than break a tie through the flip a coin like those plebeians from Iowa, we chose the sophisticated method of shuffling a special deck of playing cards that came in the packet of materials for each precinct chair, and allow a representative from each delegation to select a card. High card wins, of course. No Jokers — except for the loyal few who stayed behind to watch the process.
With the first draw, Team Obama engaged in some serious fist pumping and hi-fiving. We pulled a Jack. Moments later Team Hillary drew…a Queen. Thereby winning our precinct and our delegate. Because, you know, democracy.
