February 2, 2016

Where is Aaron Rodgers when you really need him? Hillary wins a delegate with a coin flip.


Watch it happen: #IowaCaucus delegate awarded to Clinton based on coin flip in tied precinct. w/ MoveOn.org's Benjamin O'Keefe
Posted by Ben Wikler on Monday, February 1, 2016

Via my son John Althouse Cohen, who says:
My friend Ben Wikler, the Washington Director of Moveon.org (which is supporting Bernie Sanders), describes how one of the Iowa caucus precincts was decided:
[T]he first vote was roughly evenly split between Bernie and Hillary. (Nobody for O'Malley.) There are five delegates at stake, divided between the candidates in proportionate to their votes in the room. So it'll be two and two, with one delegate at stake.

The four undecideds go into a corner to hear pitches from supporters of either side. The rest of the crowd mills around; a few go to the bathroom; one or two don't come back.

Three people make up their mind for Bernie; one for Hillary. Back to seats.

Final vote. 61 for Bernie. For Hillary it's 59... 60... 61. Tie!

Recount. Slower this time. Still 61-61. Whoa.

So how do you break a tie? At this precinct, the answer is apparently: COIN FLIP.

Bernie's people call it: heads. Up goes the coin. Back down. Everyone clusters around to look.

Tails.

Cheers go up on the Hillary side, frustration on Bernie side, and boom, that's it: three delegates for Hillary, two for Bernie, a bajillion fail points awarded to the people who left in the middle of the caucus, and we're off the Bernie victory party.
ADDED: There were 6 precincts where a delegate was awarded by coin flip. Somehow, Clinton won them all!

Was anyone keeping an eye on those flips, Aaron Rodgers style?

25 comments:

rehajm said...

Six in a row? What are the odds?

.015625

tim in vermont said...

64-1

Heads Hillary wins, tails Bernie loses.

MikeR said...

Odds: 1 in 64. If you'd have been as impressed by a result where Sanders won all six, 1 in 32.

Curious George said...

"Cheers go up on the Hillary side"

No they didn't.

SteveBrooklineMA said...

Statistically significant corruption at the p<0.05 level!

tim in vermont said...

Well, it is not as unlikely as those Texas voters in 1960 who showed up at the end of the day and voted in alphabetical order, and since we know 1960 wasn't stolen by the Democrats, that really happened.

MikeR said...

I thought Romney was called a flip-flopper?

tim in vermont said...

Obviously God is for Hillary.

tim in vermont said...

This was punishment for the representative of the downtrodden to not choose tails. It was lack of faith that cost them.

Ignorance is Bliss said...


There were 6 precincts where a delegate was awarded by coin flip. Somehow, Clinton won them all!

Wow, she's even better than the Patriots

wendybar said...

Ahhhh....Moveon.org the George Soros bought organization.....MoveOn.org is but one agency of international financier George Soros, from which it has received millions of dollars. Soros, who calls the United States a danger to world peace and blames Israel for anti-Semitism, wants to subordinate the United States to the United Nations or some other international government


No thanks...I would rather that George Soros would go back under the rock he came from....

Hagar said...

Was it the same quarter?

Original Mike said...

Hillary "Cattle Futures" Rodham.

chickelit said...

Hillary to Bill: Head I win, tail you lose.

Rocketeer said...

COINS R THE TOOLS OF THE 1% AND WALL STREET FAT CATS

tim in vermont said...

Was it the same quarter?

No,but likely stamped from the same die. The Clinton machine leaves very little to chance.

tds said...

Lucky in cards, unlucky in love

Lance said...

These delegates decided by coin-flip are not the statewide delegates. The Des Moines Register explains:

The delegates that were decided by coin flips were delegates to the party's county conventions, of which there are thousands selected across the state from 1,681 separate precincts. They were not the statewide delegate equivalents that are reported in the final results.

Anonymous said...

Loaded dice, loaded coins.

Double tailed coins and double headed coins. If Sanders said heads, the coin tosser uses the Double Tail; if Sanders said tails, the coin tosser uses the Double Header. Magic 101.

Ken B said...

https://youtu.be/RjOqaD5tWB0?t=50

YoungHegelian said...

This is why I never trust coin tosses.

Rock-Paper-Scissors. Always.

PB said...

I'll bet money changed hands for the folks who left the room not to come back.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Well, that's the Democrat party for ya'. If you like your candidate, you can vote for your candidate.

Except if fewer than 15% of the voters at your Caucus support your candidate. Then Party rules do not allow you to vote for your candidate.

Also, if you leave the Caucus early, or maybe have to go take a whizz, your vote will be decided by a coin toss. So then you don't get to vote for your Candidate.

And of course no secret ballots. Your neighbors, your boss, and the rest of us want to know how you voted.

==========

Couple of days ago, went Googling for something on how these Cauci worked. Found this at NPR radio.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=464960979&m=464960980

NPR being what it is, I had the BULLSHIT flag ready. Evenso, was dumbfounded to hear Dominico Montanaro declaim that the Dems procedure was more "egalitarian" than the Repubs. What an asshole!

Original Mike said...

PB said..."I'll bet money changed hands for the folks who left the room not to come back."

Hmmmm...

JackOfClubs said...

I think her new nickname should be Hillary "Coin Flip" Clinton. Since Clinton only beat Sanders by two delegates (23/21) those coin flips won her the caucus. If the results had been evenly divided she would have lost 20/24. Bad luck for Bernie, but Hillary doesn't really get to brag here.