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The walking subcaucus system is a method of proportional voting used in political party meetings to choose delegates to higher meetings. It is designed to ensure that people in the minority are able to elect delegates representing their views to the higher body, as opposed to plurality at-large voting, in which the majority may elect all the delegates from members of the majority viewpoint.
The walking subcaucus system was designed in the late 1960s in the Minnesota DFL party, in reaction to the Eugene McCarthy – Hubert Humphrey contest, when it was noted that the previous rules allowed a bare majority to fill all the delegate spots with their supporters, thus denying any representation to minority viewpoints. It was a way of meeting the requirements of the Democratic Party Rules Reform Commission while retaining a caucus rather than a primary system.
The walking subcaucus system was planned so that minority viewpoints were elected to delegate spots in proportion to their support at the meeting. One of the principal designers was Leo Hurwicz, a 1968 McCarthy delegate and later Nobel Prize winner in Economics. [1] [2]
This process is typically used at a party meeting (such as a caucus) where a large group of people has to elect a smaller number of delegates to represent them at the next higher party meeting or convention.
It basically means that the caucus meeting breaks into smaller sub-caucus meetings, and that rather than electing delegates at-large, each sub-caucus elects their own delegates from within their own group. The number of delegates elected from each subcaucus is determined by the size of that subcaucus.
It is also used in the Democratic caucuses of Iowa, calling the sub-caucuses preference groups. [3] [4] It was highlighted in news stories in February 2016 when a coin-toss was used to assign the final delegates for some precincts when the number of participants dropped during the process and an insufficient number of participants existed to assign all the delegates. [5]
The Iowa caucuses are quadrennial electoral events for the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S. state of Iowa. Unlike primary elections, where registered voters cast ballots at polling places on election day, Iowa caucuses are meetings where voters gather to discuss and select candidates for their registered party. Political parties hold the caucuses, in contrast to most state-run primaries. Both presidential and midterm elections in Iowa use caucuses. The caucuses are also held to select delegates to county conventions and party committees, among other party activities.
The Utah Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Utah. The party describes itself as a big tent party.
The 2008 Iowa Democratic presidential caucus occurred on January 3, and was the state caucuses of the Iowa Democratic Party. It was the first election for the Democrats of the 2008 presidential election. Also referred to as "the First in the Nation Caucus," it was the first election of the primary season on both the Democratic and Republican sides. Of the eight major Democratic presidential candidates, then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois received the most votes and was ultimately declared the winner of the Iowa Democratic Caucus of 2008, making him the first African American to win the caucus and the first African American to win a primary state since Jesse Jackson in 1988. Former U.S. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina came in second place and then-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York finished third, though Clinton received more delegates than Edwards. Campaigning had begun as early as two years before the event.
The results of the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries are the detailed outcomes of a series of contests by which members of the United States Democratic Party chose their candidate for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The contests are held in each of the fifty U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Democrats Abroad. The Northern Mariana Islands was the lone U.S. state or territory which did not have a primary or caucus election in 2008. The outcomes include totals of delegates selected as well as popular votes.
The 2008 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 4, 2008, as part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 2008 Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses took place on January 19, 2008 after having been moved from a later date by the Nevada Democratic Party. The Nevada Democratic Caucus was considered important in determining the eventual party nominee, as many described it as the "Bellwether of the West" seeing as how it is the first Western state to vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary season.
The Nevada presidential caucuses are an electoral event in which citizens met in precinct caucuses to elect delegates to the corresponding county conventions. In 2021, Harry Reid passed legislation (AB321) to include primaries in hopes of increasing voter turn-out. Nevada has for decades and still does have a caucus. The caucus is where the delegates receive the votes that will be carried to the National Convention and not the primaries. There are 17 counties in Nevada and the state has 26 delegates. The Nevada caucuses began in 1981. The Kerry/Dean caucus was held on February 14, 2004. In 2008 the DNC gave Nevada the official first in the west status reflecting the growing importance of the West as well as Nevada's electoral bellwether status. The 2008 Nevada caucuses were the third major electoral event in the nominating process for President of the United States. In 2016, the Democratic caucus was held on February 20 and the Republican caucus was held on February 23.
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The 2008 Idaho Democratic presidential caucuses were held on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008, with 18 national delegates at stake. For the first time, caucuses were held in all 44 counties, all of them open caucuses organized at the county level rather than the precinct level.
The 2008 Nebraska Democratic presidential caucuses took place on February 9, 2008, where 24 of the state's 31 convention delegates were chosen. Like he did throughout many other states that held caucuses instead of primaries, Barack Obama won the Nebraska Democratic Caucus by more than a two-to-one margin of victory over Hillary Clinton. On May 13, 2008, the state also held a non-binding primary election which Obama also won but the margin of victory was considerably smaller.
The 2008 Maine Democratic presidential caucuses took place on February 10, 2008, and had 24 delegates at stake. The winner in each of Maine's two congressional districts received all of that district's total delegates, which totaled 16. Another eight delegates were awarded to the statewide winner, Barack Obama, at the Maine Democratic Party Statewide Convention on May 31, 2008. These 24 delegates represented Maine at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Another 10 unpledged delegates, known as superdelegates, also attended the convention and cast their votes as well.
The 2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses were a series of events to determine the delegates that the Texas Democratic Party sent to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Delegates were selected using results from two sources: the Texas Presidential Primary held on March 4 by the Secretary of State of Texas's office, and a series of caucus events held between March 4 and June 7 by the Texas Democratic Party. The indecisive results of Super Tuesday, and the fact that Texas had the largest number of delegates among the states remaining on the Democratic primary calendar, resulted in the Texas primary receiving significant attention from both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns.
The 2008 U.S. Virgin Islands Republican territorial meeting, also known as the Republican caucuses, took place on the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas on April 5, 2008. Virgin Islands Republicans could select six pledged delegates for the 2008 Republican National Convention; three party leaders also attended the convention as unpledged delegates. However, the delegates chosen in the meeting did not support any presidential candidate, so all nine Virgin Islands delegates attended the convention as unpledged delegates.
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