Oliver Koken

Part 1:

The Iowa caucus was first introduced in 1846 that were held in March or April in the middle of

the presidential nominating schedule. The word caucus or cau´-cau-as´u from the Algonquin

Indian language means “the one who advises, urges and encourages”.

What the Iowa Caucus is, Is an electoral even where the residents of Iowa gather together to cast

their pick for the upcoming political election. Basically, it’s like a neighborhood meeting of

sorts. Both Democrats and Republicans hold their own Caucuses, but are very different in style.

Democratic Caucuses, you don’t vote by ballot. You show your vote by standing in designated

areas of a certain room where the number of people attending is counted and sent in as “votes”.

For Republicans, it’s a much more formal event where they meet at a given location, listen to

speakers address the voters, and then turn in a secret ballot for their choices. Caucuses are

different from traditional ballot voting because whereas traditional voting it showing up at a poll,

casting your ballot and going home. Caucuses are a much more involved where you listen to

speakers state their case as to persuade you one way or another.

The reason they are so important to a presidential election is that the votes cast by the residents

of Iowa are much more coveted than those of other states. A strong showing in Iowa, sends a

message to national party leaders. The press has a lot to do with the significance of the Iowa

caucus. People look to this to get an idea of how the election is going. It’s held in Iowa because it

is the first major contest of the presidential election, so it gives people a good idea of how things

are turning out.

 Oliver Koken

Part 2

i. 100 people voted in this election

ii. Donald Trump wins with the plurality method

iii.

iv.

v. Ted Cruz wins by instant runoff voting

vi. B:205 C:272 R:306 T:217

vii. Marco Rubio wins by Borda count

viii. R: 3 points C:2 points B:1 point T: 0 points

ix. Marco Rubio wins by Copeland’s Method

x. Yes, there is a Condorcet candidate

xi. Marco Rubio is the Condorcet candidate

 Oliver Koken

Part 3

Comparing the different types of theories and methods to voting, I believe that Jeb Bush should

have won the election. Seeing that Trump won from the plurality method, that only takes into

consideration the first-place votes. In an instant runoff voting, Jeb Bush would have been the

winner. This method makes the most sense to me in an electoral sense. The reason this method

works the best in my opinion is because it takes into consideration the other candidates and how

they compare to 1st place, 2nd place, and so on. This is also affected by who is running and

doesn’t affect the others if someone were to drop from the election. Just because Donald Stump

won the plurality vote, it didn’t take into consideration the other candidates and how they

affected the rest. I don’t believe there is a best-case scenario for and voting method, explained

well by Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. If the first place candidate were to drop, you would

have to look at how the second place candidates stack up and how that would affect the election.