Iowa Caucus: Coin Flips For Hillary; O’Malley Says Goodbye

by  on  in FEATURES, Shimbo • 0 Comments

 

hillary-coin

Photo: Getty Images/Kidwiler Collection/Diamond Images

After a night full of coin flips and concessions, Hillary Clinton takes a .3 percent lead in the Iowa Caucus over Bernie Sanders while Martin O’Malley drops out

If we told you six months ago that the most contentious race at the Iowa Caucus would be the Democratic one, chances are we’d be laughed out of the room.

Now, after a night where six precincts had to use an actual coin toss to determine who won a delegate, Hillary Clinton comes out of Iowa with a razor slim .3 percent over Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to nab 28 delegates to Sanders’ 21.

While games of chance were used to determine a winner in Iowa, one candidate’s luck ran out as Martin O’Malley, who received zero delegates, decided to suspend his campaign, which is gracious loser speak for bowing out.

According to the Des Moines Register, using something as simple as a coin toss isn’t all that out of the ordinary, and in six precincts, the vote count was so close the only way to award a delegate was to flip a coin and go with the winner.

Clinton won six out of six coin tosses.

Naturally, the Sanders camp didn’t cotton too well to losing to a coin, immediately choosing to contest the results in the contested precincts, which sounds like a bit of an oxymoron in and of itself.

To understand how these things come down to coin tosses, it’s important to try (emphasis on try) to understand how these caucus votes are counted and determined.

David Schweingruber, an associate professor of sociology at Iowa State University (and Sanders supporter) explained the process to the Des Moines Register:

A total of 484 eligible caucus attendees were initially recorded at the site. But when each candidate’s preference group was counted, Clinton had 240 supporters, Sanders had 179 and Martin O’Malley had five (causing him to be declared non-viable).

Those figures add up to just 424 participants, leaving 60 apparently missing. When those numbers were plugged into the formula that determines delegate allocations, Clinton received four delegates and Sanders received three — leaving one delegate unassigned.

james-spader-lincoln

Now that O’Malley is no longer a part of the equation (not that he ever was) the focus shifts squarely on the battle between Clinton and a surprisingly strong Sanders.

Both candidates claimed victory in Iowa, well, Clinton declared outright victory…

While Sanders declared a victory by calling the race a “virtual tie”.

With the madness of Iowa safely behind us, the traveling salvation show now shifts to New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Feb. 9. A Sanders win could ruffle more than a few feathers in a race that was originally thought to be a coronation for Clinton.

That said, there are plenty of primaries to go, and with a much smaller field than the Republican circus, expect this battle to go to the final rounds.

Hashim R. Hathaway (Uncle Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.