[EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/5/20

Sun Jan 5 15:24:18 PST 2020

And Mr. Johnny One-Note here (okay, I have more like three notes), but I'll
add that  a key part of winning the most delegates in Iowa -- as opposed to
winning the most individual entrance votes, which will also be reported
this year for the first time on the Democratic side -- is earning backup
preferences of candidates who don't earn enough support to win delegates at
their caucus.

This "second choice" dynamic rewards consensus-builders is very much like
ranked choice voting -- so much so that Iowa Democrats for most of last
year expected to have early voting with participants casting ranked choice
voting ballots to simulate the caucus experience. The DNC shut that down
over the state party's planned use of 'telecaucuses," but the dynamic still
remains. This linked recent Wall Street Journal article lifts up this
feature. One Iowa Caucus Strategy for Democrats: Be Nice -- Candidates are
heeding the big role that voters’ second choices play in the caucuses
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/one-iowa-caucus-strategy-for-democrats-be-nice-11577717382>

Five other state Democratic parties will use actual ranked choice voting
ballots -- the Nevada caucus for all its early voters, and Alaska, Hawaii,
Kansas and Wyoming for all their voters in what essentially are "vote at
home" contests. See our resource page
<https://www.fairvote.org/rcv_for_presidential_nominations#experience_ranked_choice_voting>
on how this is work, with April 4th big "Super Saturday" for ranked choice
voting, with three of those states voting.

-Rob

On Sun, Jan 5, 2020 at 6:06 PM Gaddie, Ronald K. <rkgaddie at ou.edu> wrote:

> Related: I will have 14 undergraduate journalists form University of
> Oklahoma's Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication in the
> field in Iowa for two weeks before and during the caucuses. If you come
> across one of my kids, be a good interview for them. I'd be much obliged.
>
> Keith Gaddie, Ph.D.
> Executive Faculty Fellow of the University of Oklahoma
> Senior Fellow of Headington College  <http://ouheadingtoncollege.org/>
> President's Associates Presidential Professor of
>   Political Science, Journalism, & Architecture
> General Editor, *Social Science Quarterly*
>
> "I would like to build a University of which the football team could be
> proud." ~George Lynn Cross
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on
> behalf of Paul Gronke <paul.gronke at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Sunday, January 5, 2020 4:26 PM
> *To:* Levitt, Justin <justin.levitt at lls.edu>; edu law-election at uci. edu
> law-election at uci. <law-election at uci.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/5/20
>
> Readers may be interested to know that a lot of political scientists are
> converging on the University of Iowa, courtesy of their wonderful political
> science department, to engage in some candidate chasing, share our research
> insights, and experience the caucus. Hat tip in particular to Dr. Caroline
> Tolbert who does a lot of the coordination.
>
> I’m not saying we’ll have anything brilliant or insightful to say, but you
> might want to watch various twitter feeds (and maybe we’ll figure out a
> hashtag) to give real time, on the ground reactions from a set of scholars.
>
> ---
> Paul Gronke
> Professor, Reed College
> Director, Early Voting Information Center
> http://earlyvoting.net
>
> General Inquiries: Laura Swann swannla at reed.edu
>
> Media Inquiries: Kevin Myers myersk at reed.edu
>
> On Jan 5, 2020, at 1:11 PM, Levitt, Justin <justin.levitt at lls.edu> wrote:
>
> “What it means to participate in the Iowa caucuses”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108737>
>
> Posted on January 5, 2020 1:01 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108737>
> by *Justin Levitt* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=4>
>
> Lyz Lenz offers a wry view
> <https://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/staff-columnist/what-it-means-to-participate-in-the-iowa-caucuses-20200105> in
> The Gazette.
>
> But past the humor, her overall point is spot-on: few Americans understand
> how the Iowa caucuses actually work — and it looks a lot more like a town
> meeting than a typical election, which has some fairly substantial
> consequences (and raises some fairly substantial legitimacy concerns).
> Rick, among a bunch of others, has been on this
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108072>
> <https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/02/congress-should-kill-the-republican-and-democratic-state-caucuses-and-mandate-primaries-instead.html>for
> a while
> <https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/02/congress-should-kill-the-republican-and-democratic-state-caucuses-and-mandate-primaries-instead.html> –
> and I hope you can expect a lot more coverage of the actual process (and
> not just the polling horserace) as the process approaches.
>
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D108737&title=%E2%80%9CWhat%20it%20means%20to%20participate%20in%20the%20Iowa%20caucuses%E2%80%9D>
>
> Posted in political parties <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,
> primaries <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>
>
>
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> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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