[Written by Professor Tun-Ying of the University of Iowa and reprinted here with permission]

Just got back from the caucuses -- although by now, you have probably already seen that Kerry has been projected to win Iowa.

Nevertheless, here's my ground's eye report for those of you who wonder what the caucuses are like:

Our location was the location elementary school, and the main room for the caucus was the gym.  However, turnout was about double what had been expected, so we were squeezed like sardines until we broke out into preference groups.  Dean and Kerry had on-site reps who were handing out "Dean" and "Kerry" stickers, respectively; they had "Dean precinct captains" and "Kerry precinct captains" -- the others may have too, I just didn't see them.  Dean had a number of young campaigners outfitted in Dean T-shirts with a slogan along the lines of it, "It starts right here, right now."

Registering was easy -- perhaps too easy.  Both my wife and I had previously registered as independents, so we had to re-register as Democrats.  We also had to register for the caucuses, which was a separate table.  No one checked IDs, much less passports (although I'd brought those just in case).  As far as I could tell, it was merely the honor system that kept carpetbaggers from taking part.  Well, carpetbaggers willing to sign under oath that they were eligible for vote.

After registering, we went to a third table, where we were given numbered nametags.  Visitors were given a different label, without a number.  The numbered nametags weren't for identification purposes, though, only to get a headcount.

A total of 443 voters showed up, and our precinct was allocated 11 delegates.  These are not the same delegates that the state apportions, but rather a reflection of local sentiment that leads to a further allocation of statewide delegates.  (I think that's right.)  That meant that for every 40 voters a candidate had, the candidate would get 1 delegate.  However, the "viability rule" requires that each candidate get at least 15 percent -- 66 in our case -- to be viable.  Thus, you could have enough voters to merit a delegate, yet not get the delegate if you aren't viable.

Each candidate had a representative who made a quick pitch for his/her candidate:

Clark: he's got the money, the military service, and the geographic roots (being a Southerner)

Dean: he's been energizing people

Edwards: civility, optimism

Gephardt: experience, international minimum wage idea

Kerry: war hero, 18 yrs on Senate Foreign Intelligence committee

Kucinich: the only one who voted against the war

No one spoke on behalf of Lieberman or Sharpton.  I thought about standing up and saying, noted blogger/securities guru/wine expert Stephen Bainbridge thinks Lieberman is better than the rest. 

We then broke up into different groups; I went to the "undecided" room.  Lest you think otherwise, the undecideds were not necessarily the most "moderate" voters; one young woman seemed quite anti-NAFTA, for example.  Others simply wanted to see how their vote would most matter (i.e., if a candidate were close to the threshold for another delegate).

Soon thereafter, representatives from each candidate stopped by to make their pitch.  We took the opportunity to find out how many voters they had presently.  The initial breakdown:

Kucinich - 75

Gephardt - 14

Clark - 26

Kerry - 104

Dean - 133

Edwards - 76

undecided - 16

The Kucinich supporters were very enthusiastic, but the whole pitch seemed like something out of Disneyland's Fantasyland -- peace, freedom, goodness, and so on.  The Dean supporters were pretty good; the Kerry supporters were all right; the Edwards supporter was pretty inarticulate.

The caucus chair announced after 20 minutes that there were 10 more minutes to the viability check.  Obviously, there weren't enough of us undecided to help make Clark or Gephardt viable.  But Edwards, Dean, and Kerry were pressing hard for more voters to get additional delegates.

The final count:

Kucinich - 84

Gephardt - 0 (not viable)

Clark - 0 (not viable)

Kerry - 122

Dean - 133

Edwards - 105

(Note: I haven't added the numbers up to make sure that they add up.)

I think this means that Kerry, Dean, and Edwards each get 3 delegates, and Kucinich gets 2.  But wait, apparently, the Clark camp cut a deal with the Edwards camp -- Edwards gets to report 3 delegates tonight, but one of the three is free to vote for Clark at the county convention.  Who knows what other deals were cut between other candidates.

Prof. Bainbridge brings up my apparently inaccurate prediction (Dean, Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt).  In my defense, that happens to be the exact order of my local precinct. . . .

Anyway, this was a very interesting experience.  On the downside, there seems to be an incredibly high potential for voter fraud, and it takes a long time, which is magnified when it's standing room only.  Listening to the pitches from the candidates' representatives is actually less interesting than it sounds.  Some of the representatives -- they're just local voters -- really were not able to answer questions about matters raised in their pitch.  For example, the Gephardt supporter declared the international minimum wage as one of Gephardt's strengths.  But she had no answer when I asked how exactly it was that Gephardt proposed to make other countries pass such minimum wages.  On the upside, it's a bit more exciting than simply punching out chads; and you get to see if your vote is actually going to matter.  If a candidate needs one more voter to get an additional delegate, you can be that voter.

It's a common mistake to generalize too much from one's specific situation, but even so, I was surprised to turn on the TV and see that with 77 percent of the precincts reporting, Kerry had 38 percent, Edwards 32 percent, and Dean just 18 percent.  I guess the one warning sign for Dean -- well, other than the disastrous third place finish -- is that in our precinct, he picked up only 2 voters from the undecided/Clark/Gephardt camps, whereas Kerry picked up 18 and Edwards picked up 29.  That suggests that Dean has his committed base, but others are not looking to him as the next best choice after their favored candidate.

To all of you who've tuned in to the Iowa caucuses: thanks for reading!  (Now, of course, we'll go back to being one of those flyover states often confused with Ohio or Idaho.)