Want to be a part of the Iowa primaries? Find out here :-)

[La_Serpiente]

How to Be an Iowan for a Day

SEATTLE--It is a grand and glorious thing to be a footnote to a presidential election.

I was in Iowa in January 2000 to write about the Republican caucuses when I came down with the flu. Gary Bauer, a Republican candidate, had been running around the state comparing gay marriage to terrorism. Annoyed, I decided that if Mr. Bauer was going to call me a terrorist, well, I would act like one — a biological terrorist. (I know, I know, but this was pre-9/11, when terrorism was still a cheap bit of hyperbole for the likes of Mr. Bauer and me.) So I hung out at Bauer headquarters in Des Moines, where I worked the phones, masqueraded as a volunteer, and tried to give Gary Bauer the flu. To that end, I may or may not have licked a few doorknobs at Bauer HQ.

I wrote up all of this up for Salon, and for my trouble — what can I say? I was young and foolish — I was slapped around in the national press, slammed on the Sunday political chat shows and charged with a felony. When people heard that the gay guy who licked the doorknobs in Gary Bauer's office had been charged with a crime, most assumed it was for licking those doorknobs. This was not the case. Licking doorknobs is not a crime in Iowa. No, Iowa tried to send me to prison for six years because I registered to vote while I was in Iowa. I did this even though — I mean, come on — I had no intention of ever living there.

As a citizen and, um, a respectable journalist, I was appalled when I learned that you didn't need a valid voter registration card or proof of residency — any identification at all — to take part in Iowa's caucuses. All you had to do was show up at a caucus site and fill out a voter registration card. While Iowa's caucuses don't determine the Democratic or Republican nominee, they play a big role in shaping the presidential race. With huge numbers of volunteers and true believers flooding into the state, the potential for mischief seemed huge.

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How to Be an Iowan for a Day

Free Registration Required

[maddezmom]

1. isn't that interesting :)

[JNelson6563]

2. For Michigan caucuses

you do not have to be a registered voter, unless voting by absentee ballot. You have to be old enough to be a registered voter by the time of the election.

To vote in person you do have to show ID to prove where you live so we can knwo if you are in the right polling place.

Other than that it's open to all. You do not have to be registered with the state or local party but you have to claim you are a Democrat and be willing to sign your name to it.

I wonder how many "good Christian" followers of St. Shrub are willing to lie and sign their name to it. Probably a lot.

Julie

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. Well now,

I have been enlightened. That is very interesting, indeed.

[maddezmom]

4. kick

:)

[Jerseycoa]

7. Don't get any ideas

You know the General doesn't like us to be bad. :evilgrin:

Seriously, I can't think how the Iowa caucuses have survived this long. I kind of like the rough democracy of it all, but this no identification required is weirdsville.

[trogdor]

5. This is wildly speculative.

It's also BS.

Nobody's suggested at a Meetup or anything that we all convoy to Iowa to actually participate in the caucuses - just ordinary campaign activities. A conspiracy to commit this sort of fraud on any significant scale would have been discovered by now, thoroughly reported in the news, the perps hauled off to the pokey, and Dr. Dean thoroughly dragged through the mud (which would have had broken glass, boards with nails driven through them, and sharp rocks added to it for good measure).

Dan Savage is making a lame attempt to smear Howard Dean by suggesting that the hordes of volunteers field-tripping to Iowa and New Hampshire are there to stuff ballot boxes rather than pass out buttons and bumperstickers, then making it seem OK by including the other candidates after the fact. I, for one, refuse to don the Reynolds Wrap helmet in response.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. Really? Why all the traffic about going to Iowa?

seems a lot of caucus day activity is planned on DFA. The fact is it is quite possible for illegal activity to occur.

[Jerseycoa]

6. Kind of neat

"Gepharatchiks" - I hadn't seen that one before. :)