"That’s When Things Got Loud..." - TPM

[WillyT]

‘I’m Shocked’: Inside An Iowa Precinct That Went Full Force For Bernie Sanders
by Emily Atkin - ThinkProgres
Feb 2, 2016 1:38 pm


ernie Sanders supporters line up at Central High School in Davenport, Iowa, precinct D-33.

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DAVENPORT, IOWA — It honestly seemed like it was over before it even started.

At around 6:30 p.m., a half hour before voters would break up into groups to choose their preferred Democratic presidential candidate, the music room at Central High School in Davenport, Iowa, was saturated with Bernie Sanders stickers and signs. People white and black, young and old crowded around a life-sized cardboard Sanders cut-out on the right side of the room. On the left, a smaller contingent of Hillary Clinton supporters held pleasant-sounding conversation. Three people with Martin O’Malley signs stood quietly in the middle.

When 7:00 p.m. rolled around, precinct chair Carlton Wills called the room to order. “Everybody has to work tomorrow, so let’s do this as fast as we can,” he said, and directed voters to where they needed to go: Sanders to the right, Clinton to the left, and O’Malley to the middle.

It then became clear that Clinton — who exactly one year ago was leading Sanders by more than 50 points in Iowa state polls — was about to get clobbered.

The final count at this precinct would eventually be 96 votes for Sanders, and 42 for Clinton — no one for O’Malley, and no one undecided. In delegates, that translated to three for Sanders, and one for Clinton.

Getting to that final count, however, was a process. After Wills asked them to split into groups, the right side of the room crammed literally shoulder-to-shoulder together, while the left side was spaced out and visibly unhappy. As the three O’Malley supporters in the center were deemed unviable to receive a delegate, Wills allowed residents to start offering their opinions on why people should switch sides.

That’s when things got loud...

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More: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/02/3745128/davenport-iowa-caucuses-bernie-sanders/

[AtomicKitten]

1. k/r

But Davenport’s liberal precinct D-33 wasn’t the only place where Sanders won on Monday. All night, Clinton and Sanders appeared tied across the state. On Tuesday morning, Clinton narrowly declared victory by just 0.2 percent. But as many noted, some precincts were so close that they literally had to be decided by a coin toss — a coin toss that Clinton won every time.