Math 1030 – Voting Project Names of Group Members:

Due: February 28, 2018 Ashton Naylor___________________

Peyton Naylor____________________

Savannah Watkins_______________

_______________________________________

THE IOWA CAUCUSES

Part I: Research the Iowa Caucuses and explain how they work. Your response should be a one-
page (250-word) narrative. Writing at least 3 paragraphs, be sure to include a brief history,
how a caucus differs from a typical primary election, and why the Iowa Caucuses play such
an important role in American presidential elections. Use a 12-point font.

(type your group’s response here)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/why-iowa-gets-to-go-first-and-other-facts-about-tonights-
caucus/2011/08/25/gIQAJtygYP_blog.html?utm_term=.73f1e19ee4d1

As you may know, Iowa isn’t the richest of all the states and so a lot of people wonder how
come Iowa of all states gets to go first and get the whole primary started. The whole story of how they
came to be first all started when they were supposed to have their state convention but the time that
they were wanting to do it there weren’t any hotels available. Because of this they had to change when
they were going to do this convention and so they also had to change when they would hold their
caucus. They found that by having it this way it could really help them so they decided that they were
going to have their caucuses on the same day. They even have it now in Iowa law that the caucuses
have to be the first thing done. They will continue to go as early as they need to because this is a really
good strategy for Iowa.
The difference between a caucus and your normal primary election is as follows, a caucus is a
meeting in your community where the voters choose which candidate they want to go with. They then
choose someone to be their delegate for nominating conventions. A caucus is normally put together
by either the state or the specific political party. At these meetings you openly share your opinion
with which candidate you want to go with. A lot of times they vote simply by raising their hands.
Then the primary is something that involves the whole state. You go through a voting process where
you put in your vote in secret for who you want to win the election. In some cases you are only
allowed to vote for your specific political party (Example: Democrat or Republican candidate), This is
also known as a closed primary. But in other situations you can vote for whoever you wish. This is
called an open primary.
Rather than conducting a primary election like all the other states, Iowa has a system of local
meetings where voters decide openly which candidates they support. This is usually done by a show
of hands, or by breaking up into groups. This is the starting point of every election. Iowa is the first
state to vote, and it usually gives an accurate outlook of how the election is going to end up. It
determines which half of the candidates will go on. This is why the Iowa Caucuses is so important to
the presidential election.

Part II: Imagine you live in Smallville, Iowa and attend a Republican caucus for Precinct W1-P2 at
the Highland Golf Course. The meeting organizers ask the voters to select their preferences
for four candidates. The following preference schedule summarizes the results of the poll.
# Voters 19 6 36 39
1st B A T S
2nd A B A A
3rd T T B T
4th S S S B

B is Batman, S is Superman, A is Ant-man, T is Thor

i. How many people voted? 100 people voted.

ii. Who wins by Plurality Method? Superman wins by Plurality Method.

iii. Suppose we use Instant Runoff Voting? Remove the candidate with the least 1st Choice votes
and show the preference schedule.

# Voters 19 6 36 39
1st B B T S
2nd T T B T
3rd S S S B

iv. Remove the candidate with the least 1st Choice votes and show the preference schedule.

# Voters 19 6 36 39
1st T T T S
2nd S S S T

v. Who wins by Instant Runoff Voting? Thor wins by Instant Runoff Voting.
vi. Calculate a Borda Count for each candidate.

B: __205___ A. _306_____

S: __217___ T: ___272___
B: 19(4)+6(3)+36(2)+39(1)=205
S: 19(1)+6(1)+36(1)+39(4)=217
A: 19(3)+6(4)+36(3)+39(3)=306
T: 19(2)+6(2)+36(4)+39(2)=272

vii. Who wins by Borda Count? Antman is the winner by Borda Count.

viii. How many points does each candidate get using Copeland’s Method?

B: __1___ A. ___3___

S: __0___ T: ____2__

ix. Who wins by Copeland's method? Antman wins by Copeland's method.

x. Is there a Condorcet Candidate? Yes, there is a Condorcet Candidate.

xi. If so, who is the Condorcet Candidate? Antman is the Condorcet Candidate.
Part III: Imagine that the members of your group are selected as the delegates from Precinct W1-P2
and you must agree on one candidate to support at the Cerro Gordo County Convention.
Write a one-page (250-word) discussion explaining who won the election. The discussion
should include your interpretation of your calculations in Part II and which fairness criteria
helped you choose a winner.

There is no right answer (see Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem). As a group, it is your job
to make a decision and defend that decision in your discussion.

(type your group’s response here)

After looking at the outcomes of all of the different voting methods we have come to the
conclusion that Antman should win this election over all of the other candidates. If you look at the
fairness criterion you will be able to see that if Antman is not the winner of this election then that is in
violation of the Condorcet Criterion. The Condorcet Criterion is when “a choice wins in all of the one-
to-one comparisons with the other choices, that choice should be the winner of the election”. So this
goes against this criterion because Antman won all of the one-to-one comparison in this election. Due
to the fact that Antman won in all of these Copeland Method comparisons he should therefore come
out on top and this would also make him the condorcet winner. After calculating the results using the
Borda Count method Antman was also a huge winner in this running. By him also winning through
the Borda Count method we feel that this makes our case even stronger that Antman should most
definitely be the winner of this election. Antman not only won the election by one method but by
multiple different methods which is more than any of the other candidates can say, thus proving that
Antman is the best option for the outcome of this election. Out of all of the candidates in this contest,
being Antman, Batman, Superman and Thor, Antman is clearly the best man for the job when it comes
to this election.