Jefferson Jackson Dinner: Caucus Training

Of the few dozen reporters gathered this morning in the Smithson room of the Veteran's Auditorium, the foreign press was probably the least confused by the presentation of the caucus process. They were curious, however, if the rather convoluted system system that had just been explained to them (which includes provisions for "games of chance" and apportioning fractions of delegates) still counts as a democratic process. "Why don't you just count the votes?" the French journalist asked. "Because then," answered the Iowa Democratic Party staffer leading the session, "It would be a primary. And we don't have a primary, we have a caucus."

You can try to figure it out for yourself from official presentation here.

Most of the questions had less to do with how the system works than what one could do to cheat it, or at least take unfair advantage of Iowa's rather generous voter registration guidelines (there's no residency requirement, and you can register to vote at the primary itself). We were told that the threat of a $7500 fine and up to five years in prison is what keeps the caucus-goers honest. The staffer was unable to tell us if anyone had ever actually been arrested for on those charges. As far as I know, the only people who have gotten caught committing voter fraud in Iowa are the people who have written about doing it.