Occupy Members Plan to Vote "Uncommitted" at Iowa Caucuses

Some Occupy Iowa members are planning to caucus this year, but they say they won't support any of the candidates on the ballot.

Instead, Occupiers are pushing an effort called "Occupy Iowa Caucuses: Caucus for Uncommitted." The plan is to attend a caucus and play by the rules, but vote "uncommitted" on Jan. 3. The move is directed at both Democrat and Republican caucuses.

"This is a way of participating without having to give in to the lesser of two evils," said Brandon Long, 24, a member of who helped organize the idea.

He said the point is to send a messasge that they want to participate in the process, but feel it has been hijacked by the "1 percent."

The idea has some historic precedent. In both 1972 and 1976 in Iowa, the uncommitted vote won the Democratic caucuses. In 1972, uncommitted support was 35.8 percent, narrowly edging Edmund Muskie with 35.5 percent. In 1976, uncommitted nabbed 37.2 percent of support, while Jimmy Carter got 27.6 percent. And the uncommitted vote got to send 18 delegates to the national Democratic convention both years.

The process is a little different between the GOP and Democrat caucuses.

Democrats organize into preference groups and allow the option to vote uncommitted. With enough uncommitted votes, uncommitted delegates can be elected to participate in the nominating convention. In the GOP caucus, participants cast a vote, and can choose to vote "undecided." Those uncommitted votes will be tallied and reported, but won't nominate delegates. At both caucuses, preference groups have a chance to make speeches before voting.

In Johnson County, a caucus organizer said the group is free to show up, so long as they are not there to disrupt, and can even have their say at a time when activists make pitches for their candidates.

"We give the opportunity for people to make a quick pitch before their vote is taken. If they say, 'We don't support any candidates,' we'd let them do it," Johnson County Republicans caucus/conventions committee chairman Todd Versteegh said. "But if they choose not to make a vote for any candidate, they'd almost be wasting their time showing up at the meeting."

Drew Veysey, 24, a member of Occupy Ames and Occupy D.C., said he is going to caucus with the Republicans and vote undecided.

"We are just going to give it a go," he said. "I don't think there is much to lose to caucus for uncommitted, and it sends out a message that we don't support this system that the one percent lays out choices they've already approved and we just rubber stamp it.

"If you're not satisfied with choices, not happy with the system, this is a way to have our voices heard," he said.

Black Hawk County Democratic Party chair Pat Sass said the group was prepared for uncommitted voters.

"We know this could happen," she said. "The Democratic party is going to support all of our Democrats from the top of the ticket to the bottom of the ticket. Our main goal is to have a lot of people show up to elect delegates, adopt platforms and elect new county precinct captains."

Occupy members may not be the only ones planning to be uncommitted this year. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reported members of the Iowa Healthcare Not Warfare Caucus Campaign are planning to caucus for "uncommitted" at the Democratic caucus, because they are unhappy with President Obama.

More information about the Occupy groups' caucus for uncommitted movement can be found at their website. This group of Occupy protesters are not affiliated with another Occupy-sponsored site, despite the similar urls.

That site lists plans for a week of Occupy-related events leading up to the Jan. 3 caucus date, something Long said not everyone affiliated with Occupy groups in Iowa will participate in. And not all Occupy protesters plan to participate in the "caucus for uncommitted" idea, he said.

"We didn’t want to disrupt the caucus," he said. "We're not trying to organize people. This is grassroots. We are educating people about their options. If the idea takes hold, that’s fine, and if it doesn’t, that’s fine, too.

"Worse case scenario, this is not really a big deal, just pushing an idea out there," he said. "Middle case scenario is that other states pick up this campaign. Best case scenario is we have uncommitted delegates who go all the way to the national committee."