The Iowa Caucuses

Part I: ​Research the Iowa Caucuses and explain how they work. Your response should be
a one-page (250-word) narrative. 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.
In the 1800’s the Iowa Caucus was designed to pick and choose party leaders and candidates

for office. There are a couple different stages when it comes time for an election. In the

majority of states there is a primary election, this is when registered voters will go to different

polling places to cast their ballot. Instead of doing this, Iowans will gather at a caucus meeting

to vote and discuss the candidates. Because of this, during presidential and midterms elections

Iowans who are registered to vote will go to a meeting based on the political party that they are

assigned with. The importance of this is to select delegates to county conventions and party

committees, and other party activities. The caucus meetings are not typically representatives of

the overall vote for the country, but soon after it is easy to see that the people who were

running tend to drop out of the race, due to low votes during the Iowa Caucus. Caucuses are

held every two years, during the midterms and the presidential election. However, for the

presidential election there will be a caucus meeting every four years, instead of two. The rules

of the caucus process to determine delegates to national conventions are determined by the

party, and then they will differ between the Democratic and Republican parties. It is important

to note that caucus voters can also vote in the regular voting times and they begin the process

of writing their specific parties’ platforms by writing in a solution.

Part II: ​Imagine you live in Mason City, 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 R C T
2nd R B R R
3rd C C B C
4th T T T B

B is Jeb Bush, C is Ted Cruz, R is Marco Rubio, and T is Donald Trump

Use this preference schedule to answer the following questions about various
voting methods. Vocabulary words in bold are defined in the Voting Theory
section in ​Math in Society​.

​ ow many people voted?

i. H

100 people

ii. ​Who wins by the Plurality​ Method​?

Donald Trump
Part II: (Continued)

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

1 B B C T

2 C C B C

3 T T T B

iv. ​Remove the candidate with the least 1st Choice votes and show the
preference schedule.
VOTERS 19 6 36 39

1 C C C T

2 T T T C

​ ho wins by ​Instant Runoff Voting​?

v. W

C = TED CRUZ

vi. ​Calculate a ​Borda Count ​for each candidate.

B: ​205 C: ​272

R: ​306 T: ​217

​ ho wins by ​Borda Count​?

vii. W

RUBIO WON

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

B: ​ 1 C: ​2

R: ​ 3 T​: 0

​ ho wins by ​Copeland's Method​?

ix. W

RUBIO

x. ​Is there a ​Condorcet Candidate​? Y or N

YES

xi. I​ f so, who is the ​Condorcet Candidate​?

 RUBIO WON
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.
When it came to deciding who will win the election overall it was kind of tricky. It was easy to

decide that Jed Bush would not be the winner of the election due to the fact that he did not win

any of the voting theory matchups. I think it would be kind of absurd to choose someone who

could not even win the popular vote or majority vote as a candidate. Now that Jed Bush was

out of the race, I had to choose between Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or Donald Trump. Out of the

one hundred people that voted, thirty-nine percent had voted for Donald Trump. Which makes

him a candidate that could be easy to choose. However, when it came to the other matchups

Donald Trump did not compare, or do as well as the others. Because of this reason I had to

cancel Donald Trump. Therefore leaving the race between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Ted

Cruz won the majority vote, and I think it is important for a candidate to win the majority or be

liked by the majority vote to even be considered as a president. However, when it came to

Marco Rubio, he was liked a lot by the one hundred people that voted. When we look at the

data we can easily tell that when Marco Rubio was going up against someone one on one, he

won by a long shot. I think that Marco Rubio would/should win this election because when

going up against anybody else he notably won.