[xjcsa]

Official vote totals (so far) from my caucus location:

908 Huckabee
748 Romney
385 Thompson
283 McCain
274 Paul
61 Giuliani
9 Hunter

These are actual individual votes, although they actually add up to a lot less voters than reported by local media (and it seems low for what I saw, although it's really hard to judge crowd size in the building we were in). This adds up to 2,668 votes, vs. over 5,000 reported by local television. It's also possible that some of the precincts haven't called their results in yet; they all called in separately by precinct even though they were in the same building, and I see that 7% have not yet reported.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Any idea how many of the Huckabee voters were Democrats?

[OKIEDOC]

Thanks, good report.

[writer33]

Yes...Florida 2000 all over again, calling the results early. It’s the old trick.

[mike-zed]

Nice write-up.

Do you have to register in Iowa or is it an open ballot state?

Given that the Dem candidates are pretty much clones, I can’t help but think that a lot of Huckster votes came from Dems voting for the biggest glass jaw Republican candidate they could hope for.

[rightinthemiddle]

Thanks for answering my post!

[Monterrosa-24]

Can you retrieve the name of that kooky guy from Alabama. Did he want to “annex Mexico”? We have a local perennial candidate who “ran” for Governor and is now “running” for Prez.

[rightinthemiddle]

Did the Huckabee voters seem informed on the issues? What seemed to be their reason for supporting him?

What were their impressions of Fred?

These are the folks Fred needs. Just a few of them.

[hsalaw]

Thanks for the report, and good work in derailing a couple of the Huckster’s supporters over to the right side (GO FRED!).

[mommya]

Thanks for the report. You said Paul spoke there and received a mixed reaction - could you elaborate?

[tubebender]

Thanks for a on the scene report and thanks much for stumping for The FRed...

[pissant]

Well, at least we know there are 9 conservatives in Iowa.

[Domandred]

By the time we had adjourned to go to our precincts and vote, the night had been called by the media for Huckabee (yes, before we even started voting at the largest location in the state)

That just irks me. Yea with the differences in percentages it probably didn't change anything but I really wish news outlets would stop calling elections before some people have even voted.

[rightinthemiddle]

Learn something about Iowa voters ping.

This is real information, not cheerleading. The Thompson campaign needs to learn from people on the ground.

[WOSG]

Thanks for a great report.

[TheLion]

Thanks for the report. I am sad that out of 125,000 people, only 5000 turned out to vote. Americans are truly sheep!

[Pappy Smear]

I'll post a report from my precinct in Roland, which is 6 miles due north of the geographical center of Iowa. It is in Story County, which has Iowa State University. Voter registration in the county is about 40% D, 30%R, 30% Indy. My precinct has about the highest R registration in the county. It is a town of 1300 people. Demographically to Iowa, it is younger, wealthier, and higher educated. Though rural, it has more of a suburban feel, as most adults leave town to work in Ames or Des Moines.

The Rs were in the middle school library, and the Ds were across the hall in the lunch room. Soon we were too crowded, so we moved to an older gymnasium and the bleachers. Then the Ds got too crowded, and they had to move to the new gym. Funny thing is, the only way there was thru the old gym, and every D caucus attendee had to parade in front of all the Rs in the bleachers. There was some light hearted jawing going on, so that was fun.

We said the Pledge of Allegiance, formalized the meeting chair, and elected two central committee members. A supporter for each candidate was found, and given up to 3 minutes to discuss the candidate. Guiliani's guy read the website bullet points, no one spoke for McCain, or Hunter.

I was the speaker for Ron Paul. I know his majority opinion on FR. I'm not psycho. I like Fred and didn't decide until yesterday. I started with a "I'm Pappy Smear (well actually my real name), and I approved this message." Got the cheap laugh. Mentioned how next door they were talking about the witch. More cheap laughs. Talked about how instead of voting for the lesser of two evils, we all had a lot of pretty good choices. A older guy spoke for Huck, a reluctant guy got up for Fred, and a guy got up for Tancredo, and then basically said he was voting for Paul. That was nice for me. Everybody pretty much clapped for every speaker.

Ballots were passed around, and the reps for each candidate went to observe the vote counting. Very friendly, we are all on the same team you know. We double counted the votes, and after 149 votes it went:

Huck 64, Paul 25, Romney 25, Fred 25 (freaky, huh?) McCain 8 and Guiliani 2.

We called in our votes to the Iowa Gop, and then whatever people were left voted on platform planks for the county convention. I didn't stick for all of that, and was home by 8:30.