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Voting Theory Project

Alexandra Tomsik, Erin Larson, Joshua Rogers, Karee Peterson, Alexsandra Caraveo

Salt Lake Community College

Math-1030-Sp17-McGrade

February 2, 2017
Voting Theory Project 2

Part 1

Merriam-Webster defines the word caucus as a closed meeting of a group of persons

belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on

policy (Definition of CAUCUS, N.d.). The first Iowa Caucus took place in 1972. In the early

70s the Iowa Democratic Party made several reforms to their delegate selection process. Once

the 1972 Democratic State Convention was dated for May 20th the new rules dictated that the

precinct caucus would be January 24th. This made it the first statewide test for presidential

candidates in the nation. In 1976, the Republican Party of Iowa recognized the growing exposure

and moved their caucus to the same date as the Democrats. The candidates and national media

have observed the Iowa Caucuses as the first in the nation ever since ("Iowa Caucus History",

2015).

The difference between a caucus and a primary election is that a caucus is a process of

local gatherings in which voters openly decide a candidate to support and choose delegates for

the nominating conventions. A primary on the other hand, is a statewide voting process in which

voters cast secret ballots for their preferred candidates (Gore, 2008). The main reason why the

Iowa Caucuses are important is because it is the first state in the nation to cast a ballot and sets

the tone for the rest of the election.

The Democratic and Republican Iowa Caucus differ in how they work. Iowa Democrats

get together based on their caucus precincts, in which Iowa has over 1,600 of. Once everyone is

together they form preference groups by physically joining other supporters of that candidate and

then there is a head count to see how much support each candidate has. If a candidate doesnt get

at least 15% of the caucus they are considered not viable. The more support a candidate has at

caucuses across the state, the better their chances are of winning Iowa, therefore every single
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caucus around the state matters. The Republican caucus is a lot simpler and more orderly.

Someone from the campaign may present a case for a candidate, but then voting proceeds by an

informal secret ballot (Montanaro, 2016).

Part 2

i. How many people voted? 100

ii. Who wins by Plurality Method? T (Trump)

iii. Suppose we use Instant Runoff Voting. Remove the Candidate with the least 1st

Choice votes and show the preference schedule.

# Voters 25 36 39

1st B C T

2nd C B C

3rd T T B

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

schedule.

# Voters 61 39

1st C T

2nd T C

v. Who wins by Instant Runoff Voting? C (Cruz)

vi. Calculate a Borda Count for each candidate.

B: 12 C: 11

R: 17 T: 8

vii. Who wins by Borda Count? R (Rubio)

viii. How many points does each candidate get using Copelands Method?
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B: 2 C: 1

R: 3 T: 0

ix. Who wins by Coplands Method? R (Rubio)

x. Is there a Condorcet Candidate? Yes

xi. If so, who is the Condorcet Candidate? R (Rubio)

Part 3

We the delegates from Precinct W1-P2 have agreed to support Marco Rubio as the

winner of the Cerro Gordo Country Convention. This decision was reached on the basis that

Rubio won the majority of methods. Marco Rubio had a stronger outcome with 30 votes, more

than the other candidates. Trump won the Plurality Method, and Cruz won the Instant Runoff

Voting, but Rubio wins with bigger number of votes. Rubio also was the winner for the

Copeland Method. In this election, Rubio won the Borda Count by 306, and Cruz 272. If Cruz

had 34 more votes Cruz would have won the Borda Count. All of the four candidates were either

close or very far from beating Marco Rubio. In the Instant Runoff Voting Trump, Cruz, and

Bush were eliminated. Those candidates wouldn't have had a chance of beating Rubio. He had

more votes than the other candidates, and being the Condorcet candidate from the beginning to

the end in this election swayed us to choose him. The voting systems made it very clear to us

who was to be selected as the overall winner.

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References

Definition of CAUCUS. Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 1 February 2017, from

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caucus

Gore, D. (2008). Caucus vs. Primary. Factcheck.org. Retrieved 1 February 2017, from

http://www.factcheck.org/2008/04/caucus-vs-primary/

Iowa Caucus History. (2015). Brown and Black Forum. Retrieved 1 February 2017, from

https://brownandblackforum.org/about-us/iowa-caucus-history/

Montanaro, D. (2016). How Exactly Do The Iowa Caucuses Work?. NPR.org. Retrieved 1

February 2017, from http://www.npr.org/2016/01/30/464960979/how-do-the-iowa-

caucuses-work