Thread by @LukeElzinga

Okay I feel the need to tweet this thread out to document what happened at my caucus site in case of "inconsistencies" and why the Iowa Caucus is so terrible. #IACaucus

First, my caucus location was at Lincoln High School "Roundhouse B" - I showed up at 5:30pm with my partner and entered the HS at the south side of the building. I saw a poster with "What's your caucus location?" and the url to find out.

They were not signing people in yet. "Not until 6pm." We stood to the side and waited. There was no sign about what precinct this was, but I assumed there were multiple sites at Lincoln and this was kind of a funnel to the different precincts.

It wasn't until my partner overheard an interaction with someone else from my precinct (which I should mention was Des Moines 68) and a volunteer that this was precinct 65, and you actually had to go over to another entrance of the building for 68.

So we headed over to "Roundhouse B" which was the gymnasium. Again, no signs at all, but we found our way in and found campaigns setting up their table. It turns out that this was the site for both DM 66 and 68, and the gym was split in half.

There are two separate check ins for the two precincts, and it's confusing. We have to redirect Bernie supporters to 66 (Bernie precinct captain 68 here, btw) over to the other side, as well as informing other people who are attending.

Eventually everyone is signed in and the caucus begins. We break out into preference groups and take the following first count (DM68):

Biden 11
Yang 3
Sanders 41
Steyer 1
Klobuchar 2
Warren 15
Buttigieg 19

The precinct captains and chair convene to do the math.

We take a look at our total count (93) and compare it to our list of people who have signed in or registered registered - there is a discrepancy (didn't write down exactly how many) - less people signed in than we have a count for.

So again, it's confusing, we have two sites in the same gymnasium, so we let everyone know that there is a discrepancy we're trying solve, did you all sign in at the right table?, etc. - there's a few people we identify. But there's still a discrepancy of four votes (93 vs 89).

We take a look at the math, and whether that total count difference has any impact on viability. Specifically, we're wondering if it affects Biden (11) or Warren (15). Turns out, either way, Biden is not viable and Warren is. So we decide to proceed.

At some point in here, I forgot to point out, the Buttigieg campaign identified someone from DM68 who had incorrectly been in DM66, so we added them to Buttigieg's count for an adjusted first count:

Biden 11
Yang 3
Sanders 41
Steyer 1
Klobuchar 2
Warren 15
Buttigieg 20

93 total

So after realignment we have the second count:

Sanders 45
Warren 18
Buttigieg 26

Funny enough, the total came to 89 - our verified original number. I shared a chuckle with the person next to me.

We agreed we're all good with the 89 number. Our precinct had five delegates to award. We did the caucus math, which awarded delegates as follows:

Sanders 2.5280
Warren 1.0112
Buttigieg 1.4606

Using rounding rules, the delegates were awarded Sanders 3, Warren 1, Buttigieg 1

The precinct captains and chair all signed off on assigning the delegates that way

So, I'm feeling pretty jazzed about the results, and the chair says to elect delegates (which I'm the only campaign who really needs to do that for more than one person) - so I head over to the Bernie crowd to tell them the good news and elect our three delegates.

I ask for three volunteers and however many else alternates to come forward and they do - I say hold one just a minute, we'll get you signed up on this sheet and you'll be out of here. I turn back to the chair and captains and can tell that something's up.

Apparently there's another Buttigieg supporter who accidentally was in DM66, the precinct across the gym. She hadn't realized until then because the precinct was much larger and that caucus hadn't progressed as farm. Plus there was literally NO SIGNAGE.

So, we take a look at the numbers. At this point, almost everyone has left the caucus aside from the precinct captains, chairs, and volunteer delegates (and significant others). Does this one person's attendance change the caucus math? It does. Significantly.

Should we include this person's attendance, bringing the total to 90, the delegate allotment is as follows:

Sanders 2.5
Warren 1
Buttigieg 1.5

The precinct has five delegates to award, using the caucus math, what this means is Sanders and Buttigieg are tied for a delegate.

This means that Sanders (45 votes) and Buttigieg (27) votes will toss a coin to determine if it goes Sanders 3, Buttigieg 1 or a 2-2 split. (Reminder Warren has a safe delegate)

Tensions are a bit high at this point, and there's the fact we've already signed off and almost the entire caucus has vacated the gym (except for DM 66 which is still going). There's a call to the IDP to resolve this.

IDP confirms the 90th vote should be counted, and the delegate should be decided via a coin toss.

There's some discussion and an agreement that the Buttigieg campaign will provide the coin, a neutral party will flip, and Sanders will call in the air.

Tails never fails - the Sanders campaign wins the toss and the final delegate count is:

Sanders 3
Warren 1
Buttigieg 1

The whole point of this thread: the Iowa Caucus is undemocratic, inaccessible, and confusing. Please for the love of god give me a ranked choice ballot with early voting.