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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D.Austin who wrote (918690)	2/2/2016 10:34:06 AM
From: TideGlider	1 Recommendation Recommended By D.Austin Respond to of 1572594

Money DOES win elections: How Hillary won at least six Iowa precincts by coin toss State rules say a coin-toss is the way to settle a dead heat in Iowa caucus Six precincts tossed to decide between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Clinton won all six coin tosses. The odds of that are 64-to-1, or 1.5 per cent Her supporters called heads for two of them, and tails for another two, it is not clear what they called for the other two successful coin tosses Clinton announced her victory in Iowa as votes were still being counted Half an hour after she declared, Sanders countered saying 'it's a virtual tie' Clinton ended with 49.8% - inching ahead of Sanders who took 49.6% Hillary Clinton claimed victory over Bernie Sanders in at least six Iowa precincts after winning a coin toss. It was a dead heat between the Democrat candidates, and official rules dictate administrators settle a tie by tossing a coin. Video posted on social media on Monday night and Tuesday morning caught six astonishing moments where Clinton came out on top - to the ire of some visibly disgruntled Sanders supporters. There have been no reports of Sanders winning a coin toss to settle one of the dead heats on Monday night. Clinton supporters chose tails in Des Moines's precinct 70, and won. It was tails again for Clinton in Davenport's precinct 13 - marking another victory. In Ames precinct 2-4, Clinton won with heads. The odds of winning six coin tosses is 64-to-1, or 1.5 per cent. Party rules call for a coin flip when support for candidates is even but a precinct has an odd number of delegates to award. The rules read: 'Note: In a case where two or more preference groups are tied for the loss of a delegate, a coin shall be tossed to determine who loses the delegate.' The Des Moines Register reports that Clinton won coin tosses in at least six precincts. The newspaper says party officials ordered coin flips in Ames, Newton, West Branch, Davenport and two in Des Moines. Iowa Democratic Party spokesman Sam Lau noted that the flips were to determine county convention delegates, which are only fractions of the state delegates awarded to candidates. Univision reporter Fernando Peinado, who was present at the precinct 70 caucus in Des Moines, tweeted a picture of what he said was a guide for Democratic precinct chairs showing rule 28, which contains the stipulation about tossing a coin to break ties. The Democratic caucuses were a very close race Monday, with Clinton saying she was 'breathing a big sigh of relief' at 10.30pm local time. Just half an hour later, Sanders said the results were a 'virtual tie'. Although a coin toss is the legitimate way to determine a dead heat, Twitter users found the situation incredibly amusing. 'Order of operations to determining Iowa winners: 1. Tallied votes 2. Coin toss 3. Rock paper scissors 4. Staring contest,' wrote one user. Another wrote: 'Bernie Sanders must have fallen for the old "Heads I win, Tails you lose trick.' The Republican Party operates its caucus like an election - akin to a straw poll. Voters are given a piece of paper to write down the name of the candidate they'd like to win. The papers are then folded, put in a box, then counted by caucus workers. The results are announced, counted, and written down. It means you know how many people turned up to vote, and exactly how many voted for each candidate. The Democrats, however, elect 'delegates' - usually at least four in each precinct. There are 1,681 precincts. Each county then adds up how many delegates each candidate has. Then, a mathematical formula is used to work out how many state delegates they have. Whoever has the highest percentage of state delegates wins the caucus. Votes for Martin O'Malley were redistributed between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in most precincts because he did not reach the benchmark of 'viability'. If there is just one delegate position in a precinct, a candidate needs 50 per cent or more of the vote to be viable. If there are two delegate positions, they need 25 per cent. If there are three delegate positions, they need 17 per cent. If there are four delegate positions, they need 15 per cent. When the votes are counted, organizers announce whether there was an out-and-out winner, and if not: which candidates are viable. At this point, voters can choose to pick another candidate or try to persuade other voters to join their side so they can be viable. Fierce support for both Clinton and Sanders meant O'Malley was declared not-viable in thousands of precincts. The Democrats have a formula, that all caucus workers are trained to understand, which calculates how many delegates a candidate gets. It goes: (number of votes Candidate A received x number of delegate spots in the precinct) ÷ total number of voters = number of delegates awarded to Candidate A.