What Did — And Didn’t — Go Down In The Iowa Caucuses

Here in Philadelphia, Pete Buttigieg becomes viable with four supporters, matching Warren. Sanders wins the precinct with six. Generalize at your peril!

If you ever wondered how the caucus organizers count all of the people in the candidate groups, here’s your answer. The people sitting in chairs are a piece of cake, since there are a finite number of chairs in each section. People sitting or standing were organized into groups of 10 by the volunteers, and now everyone is standing in place, waiting for the action to begin.

About a third of caucusgoers live in a city of over 50,000 people; in contrast, 28 percent live in suburbs and 41 percent live in small cities or rural areas. While the urban/rural divide has become an increasingly important political fault line, preliminary results don’t appear to show extreme differences between these types of voters — except for Sanders, who appears to be doing better among voters in larger cities and suburbs than among small cities and rural areas.