On the day of the Iowa political caucuses, Tuesday, February 3rd, The Mayflower Community was proud to host a satellite caucus. 72 residents pre-registered for and participated in the afternoon caucus.
Residents entered the Carman Center, which was set up with round tables, surrounded by chairs. After checking in, the caucus-goers then went to the table that was marked for their preferred candidate.
The meeting was called to order by resident Nancy Wolff, who was elected Chair. Resident Nancy Brown was elected Secretary. The initial count of caucus voters for each candidate was recorded. For supporters of any candidate not “viable,” meaning they garnered less than 15% of the attendees, they had the option of joining another candidate’s table, joining together, or staying uncommitted.
After this second round of positioning, another count was made. That was the final count, as four candidates were deemed viable. The meeting then moved on to a limited party platform discussion and adjourned.
In the state of Iowa, three were 1,678 regular caucus Monday. In addition, 99 satellite caucuses were held in the state. Of this number, 38 were hosted at locations that offer nursing facilities, the rationale being that there would be a high likelihood that some residents would not find the regular caucus sites accessible.
There are 443 nursing facilities in the State of Iowa, so only 9% made the effort that Mayflower did to host a caucus. Only one other site in Poweshiek County, the Drake Community Library, was a satellite location. We are proud to be a part of the democratic process.
By the way, Chairperson Nancy assures us that Mayflower’s reporting did not delay the statewide vote tally!
