Math 1030 Voting Project Allie Gutierrez

Crisol Garcia

The Iowa Caucuses

Part 1: Research the Iowa Caucuses and explain how they work. Your response should
be a one-page (250-word) narrative. Be sure to include a brief history, how a caucus
differs from a typical primary election, and why the Iowa Caucuses play such an
important role in American presidential elections.

Primary elections and caucuses are different in the form that the primary election can be
opened and people can vote for any person. While a caucuses gives specific people
that you can vote for. And unlike primary voters are mostly delegates. Those delegates
also provide funding for the people they will be representing. The Iowa caucuses plays
an important part in the election because it will usually tell us who will be the next
president. And since Iowa is not a solid state that always goes with a certain party,
people never really know with which party it will be going for. Also the elections kick off
with Iowa and so depending on how Iowa votes the next city reflects on them and start
to see which way they will be going with. The Iowa caucuses have been serving an
important role since 1972. They have successfully predicted around half of the winners
in both parties. Even though the Iowa caucuses meets every two years the one that
gets the most attention is the one going on around the election time. It also differs
because instead of people going behind a curtain and voting for the person they want in
a both people meet in schools, churches, and conference halls. So the people are out in
the open when voting and not hiding away from the peoples eye view.
 Part2: Imagine you live in Mason City, Iowa and attend a Republican caucus for
Precinct W1-P2 at the Highland Golf Course. The meeting organizers ask the voters to
select their preferences for four candidates. (B=Jed Bush, C=Ted Cruz, R=Marco Rubio,
T=Donald Trump)

B R C T 1st
R B R R 2nd
C C B C 3rd
T T T B 4th
19 6 36 39 #Votes
a. How many people voted?
_____ 100 people ____
b. Who wins by Plurality Method? ____Donald Trump_______

1. Instant Runoff Voting:

B B C T 1st
C C B C 2nd
T T T B 3rd
19 6 36 39 #Votes

C C C T 1st
T T T C 2nd
19 6 36 39 #Votes
Who wins by Instant Runoff Voting?
____Ted Cruz________

2. Borda Count:
a. Who wins by Borda Count? ___Marco Rubio_________

B: ___205_____ C: ___272______
(4)*(19)+(6)*(3)+(2)*(36)+(1)*(39)=? (4)*(36)+ (2)*(19)+(2)*(6)+(2)*(39)=?
76 + 18 + 72 + 39 =? 144 + 38 + 12 + 78 =?

R: ___306_______ T: ____217______
(4)*(6)+(3)*(19)+(3)*(36)+(3)*(39)=? (4)*(39)+(1)*(19)+(1)*(6)+(1)*(36)=?
24 + 57 + 108 + 117 =? 156 + 19 + 6 + 36 =?

3. Copelands Method:
a. Who wins by Copelands Method? ___Marco Rubio________
B: ___1 pt._____ R: ___3 pts_____ C: ___2 pts_____ T: ____O pts
B(25)vs.C(75) B(19)vs.R(81) B(61)vs.T(39) C(61)vs.T(39) C(36)vs.R(64) R(61)vs. T(19)

4. Is there a Condorcet Candidate? _____YES _________

a. If so, who is the Condorcet Candidate? ____ Marco Rubio ________
B (2)vs.C (2) B(1)vs.R(3) B(3 )vs.T(1) C(3)vs.T(1) C(2)vs.R(3) R(3)vs.T(1)
Part 3:

B R C T 1st
R B R R 2nd
rd
C C B C 3
T T T B 4th
19 6 36 39 T. Votes

B (25) vs. (75) B(19)vs.(81) B(61)vs.(39) C(61)vs.(39) C(36)vs.(64) R(61)vs. T(19)

Marco Rubio: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 points

Jed Bush: 1 = 1 point
Ted Cruz: 1 + 1 = 2 points
Donald Trump 0 = 0 points

The candidate that we support at the Cerro Gordo County Convention would be
Marco Rubio. We chose Marco Rubio because of Copelands Method. Copelands
Method was used to define the candidate we would support because we believe that it
was the fairest method due to the comparison of candidates one to one and then
assigning 1 point to the winner in the one to one comparison and in case of a tie we
assigned a point to each. The winner in Copelands method was Marco Rubio; who
won with three points, Ted Cruz with two points, Jed Bush with one point and Donald
Trump with zero points. The Fairness Criteria that helped us choose a winner was
Condorcet Criteria (the choice that is preferred on a one to one comparison and the one
most preferred would become the winner or Condorcet Candidate) because it follows
Copelands Method when comparing the candidates one to one in order to identify the
winning candidate.