Idaho Democratic caucuses, 2008
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The Idaho Democratic Presidential Caucuses were held on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008, with 18 national delegates at stake. For the first time, caucuses were held in all 44 counties, all of them open caucuses organized at the county level rather than the precinct level.
The Idaho Democratic Caucus was overwhelmingly won by Barack Obama, who won 15 of Idaho's 18 delegates, 44 of the 45 county-level caucuses, and the support of 79.54 percent of caucus attendees statewide, his largest margin of victory in any state during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary season. A handful of caucus attendees pledged to support John Edwards on the first ballot even though he had dropped out of the race the previous week; this residual support was sufficient to give him a third-place finish.
Each of Idaho's 44 counties held its own caucus except for Ada County, which held two: one for the part of the county in the First Congressional District, and the other for the part of the county in the Second Congressional District. Collectively, both Ada County caucuses (which convened at Qwest Arena in Downtown Boise) were notable for the unprecedented mass public participation which made them the largest caucus gathering of Super Tuesday 2008: 3,075 votes were cast by the constituents of the 1st Congressional District and 5,215 votes were cast by those of the 2nd Congressional District for a grand total of 8,290 votes cast at a single venue. Thousands of freshly printed ballots were rushed to those caucusing outside the arena in frigid weather. Much higher than anticipated attendance was also reported at other caucus locations throughout the state. Statewide some 28,000 people caucused, an order of magnitude increase over the approximately 5,000 who had caucused throughout Idaho in 2004.
Since at the time Idaho residents did not choose a political party preference at voter registration, the 2008 Idaho Democratic Caucus was open to all individuals who were or would have been qualified to vote in the general election in Idaho on November 4, 2008, including those who were not registered or who were not yet legally old enough to vote (but were going to be legally old enough to vote at the national election). Caucus attendees were required to sign a pledge that they planned on voting Democratic in the county in which they were caucusing. After signing in, participants either marked their first presidential preference or declared themselves uncommitted.
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