News 14 Carolina - Political Connections

Entrance polls..

So, if exit polls weren't bad enough in some people's eyes on election day, we are now seeing entrance polls for the Iowa caucus because exit polls are worthless.

I'm sure the voting advocate people will love this one. CNN is reporting in its entrance poll that caucus voters have John Edwards lagging behind.

I know these caucuses can be confusing and daunting to understand but they are fascinating. I'm watching a man in overhauls and a long silver beard with some hat making a push for Edwards.

Here's a very simple way of looking at how they work.


Instead of going to polls and casting ballots, Iowa voters gather inside churches, school, and libraries. There are nearly 1800 caucuses across the state of Iowa. For Democrats the process works like this, participants literally stand in different corners of the room to show their support for a candidate.
They then have 30 minutes to try and convince their neighbors to switch and support their candidate. After 30 minutes, each candidate must have 15-percent to move on to the next round. The groups then have 30 more minutes to once again convince people to switch candidates. Once that 30 minutes is up a final head count is conducted and those numbers are recorded. This is huge for John Edwards, he needs at least a top three finish to move on and have a chance in his birth state of South Carolina. He finished second in Iowa in 2004 behind John Kerry.