Part I: Jarrett Anderson and AJ Bates

The Iowa Caucuses is an electoral event where residents of Iowa meet in their
caucuses
in all of Iowas 1,681 precincts. There are 99 counties in the elect delegates. About
1% of the
nations delegates are chosen by Iowa State Convention. The media attention
receives during a
presidential election year is noteworthy, this will have been since 1972. The Iowa
Caucuses has
had a 43% success rate in predicting which democratic candidate for president,
they have a 50%
success rate predicting the republican for president will be nominated for the party.
Iowa is a
good way to indicate which candidates are likely to drop out to lack of support.
Primary are residents simply cast their ballots. A caucus is where local voters openly
decide a candidate to support. States choose if they want to do either primaries or
caucuses.
Most states hold primaries, but Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota and Maine.
Iowas predictor of what is to come in the race to the white house is right about half
of
the time. One of the reasons Iowa is important is that its the first state where a
ballot is cast. 1
percent of the nation delegates is the first indicator of whether a prospective
presidential
candidate support holds up. The media interest generated by the race to the house
means
candidates can secure positive coverage at a smaller amount.
During the 2016 Primary Elections, a total of 27 caucuses were held in the
various states.
Historically, caucuses are modern, as they have been an important part of the
primary election
process since 1980. These caucuses serve a much different purpose than the typical
primary
election because each neighborhood (called a precinct) has a chance to discuss
candidates
together and vote for representation and the county and state conventions. While
the voting
method used may be like a primary, it gives individuals an opportunity to debate
and discuss
together. The Iowa caucus plays a vital role in American politics because it is the
first state to
vote for presidential candidates and sets the tone for the remainder of the
primaries, many
times ending ailing presidential campaigns.

The process for Republicans in Iowa is the same as the process for
Republicans in Utah. When a
precinct meets, they begin by laying the agenda and the rules for voting.
Subsequently, a
precinct chair is selected and begins the voting for the rest of the positions.
Representatives for
the various presidential candidates then briefly speak to convince the members of
the precinct
to vote for their candidate. The members of the body, per parliamentary procedure,
then ask
questions, discuss, and debate the candidates and vote by secret ballot. These
results are then
passed on to the county political party representatives and counted. The rest of the
caucus is
spent voting for members of the precinct to represent the interests of the precinct
at the
county and state conventions as delegates. At these conventions, these delegates
will vote for
state and federal congressional candidates, gubernatorial candidates, and other
state and
county wide candidates to become the nominees for their political party. They also
vote to
select the presidential electors who comprise the Electoral College.

Part II: Amber Petersen

1) How many people voted? 100 voters 2) Who wins the plurality method? T
3) 19 6 36 39 B B C T
C C B C
T T T B

iii.) instant runoff T gets votes again iv) 19 6 36 39 C

C C T
T T T C
C wins this one. So, C wins the instant runoff
vi) what was the borda count for each candidate?
B= 205
R=306 C=272 T=217 vii) who wins borda count? R wins borda count.
viii) How many points do each candidate get using Copelands Method?
B=10 pts
C=10 pts
R=13 pts T=7 pts

ix) R wins Copelands Method. x) Is there a Condorcet candidate? No

xi) there is none

Part III: Gage Yakovich

Based on the fairness criteria, Rubio would be our winner because he won
two of the
voting theories. Trump would win the plurality, Cruz would win the instant runoff,
but Rubio
would win the borda count and Copeland method. So, in terms of fairness, Rubio
should win
because he gets two out of the four theories. And considering there is no Condorcet
candidate,
there are only four theories that can be taken into consideration.
Trump easily takes the plurality because of the first-place votes, Cruz gets
the most first
place votes with the instant runoff vote. But with the borda count, Rubio has almost
a hundred
more points than any candidate except for Cruz. Cruz is the only one who even
comes remotely
close to Rubio in the borda count, while Rubio also got more points in the Copeland
method.
The only argument that could come against Rubio would be that he had the least
amount
of first place votes than any of the candidates in the plurality vote. But even with
that, Rubio still
won two of the methods. As a group, we may all have different opinions of the
candidates in a
vote when it comes to their views or policies, but if we are only looking at fairness
and who
comes out on top due to a fair count, then Rubio wins two of the four methods.
Another theory that could work against Rubio is the fact that there was no
Condorcet
candidate, but considering that it would have been the same for any of the
candidates, it doesnt
necessarily hurt Rubio. Because no matter which candidate would have won, there
would have
been no Condorcet winner.
So, overall, in fairness, Rubio wins because he has the majority when it
comes to all the
methods being put together. Rubio wins two, Cruz wins one, Trump wins one, and
there is no
Condorcet winner, so Rubio should be the winner.

Reflection of Math 1030

 I have really enjoyed this math because it has not been just a ton a random
numbers and letters. Each of the modules in this course had real life scenarios, that
applies to everyone in the class and not just the people that are going to fly plains
or be engineers. The group project above shows that the things we learned can be
applied to everyday life. We had to learn about the different ways to count votes.
We learned about how or current voting system works and other methods that we
could use as well.