UPDATED: Stats corrected.
How do the Iowa Caucuses work? Thanks for the link, C-SPAN, but this explanation still doesn’t help me. It’s fascinating and confusing, democratic and extremely unfair at the same time. Confusion abounds!
On the eve of the first presidential contest, my opinion of the caucus gravitates towards jealousy:
From DailyKos: There’s an entire nation out there — 48 states plus D.C. — who have tired of this ridiculous calendar and undemocratic way of choosing our nominee. Iowa and New Hampshire will fight like hell to retain their lofty status — it’s worth prestige points and a crapload of money for those states. But no matter what those states may think, they don’t have a god-given right to hold our nomination process hostage to their whims [... ].
Iowa has 2.9-3 million people. Analysts are hoping for 150,000 Democratic participants tomorrow night. Let’s assume Iowa has an unusually large child population of 2 million people, leaving 1 million eligible voting Democrats. Assuming the same number of Republicans show up, that makes 300,000 voters. But analysts also say about 10% of the population usually participates.
WHERE IS THE OTHER 90% ?!?!?!?!?
Sigh.
Update: Elron - Voxeo: The Israeli Defense Firm That Tallies the Iowa Caucus. Double sigh if true.
