The one purple county is Jefferson County, which voted for Paul. (It's the home of a Transcendental Meditation Community (& John Hagelin) which tends to swing the county in caucuses. In 2004, Kucinich came a very close second. Apparently they voted Republican this time).
Fairfield, IA is the seat of Jefferson county. It actually voted 46% for Obama in the Democrat primary, much higher than the state average. Also, yes its share of Ron Paul voters was much higher than the state average. Isn't it also the home of an orthodox Jewish community? Or is that potsville?
Well, the caucuses are indeed a bizarre phenomenon. I imagine fraud must be very easy. There were thousands of people in my room. I was never asked for an ID of any kind. Just told my name and they looked me up and handed me several slips of paper. There were thousands of people in that big hall. I found my way to the Ward5, Precinct2 table and waited a very long time for the speakers (Ron Paul, a former Louisiana Governor, fringe GOP Presidential Candidate Hugh Cort, etc.), then the 35 or so folks from my precinct were all gathered around that table and they asked for the yellow slip of paper (which I presume is mostly to collect email addresses so they can later ask for donations), then asked for the pink slip of paper (presidential preference poll), and then the precinct chair, a 70ish woman who moved and talked and walked very slowly, set that stack of pink papers on the table and walked away. In a huge room bustling with thousands of people, the only person guarding those pink ballots was a very small septegenarianette! Anyway, I understand they later asked for donations, then voted on some other issues, but I left after the pink papers were collected. Two and a half hours was quite enough for me. (5:40 to 8:10 I was there) At least there was a cafeteria where you could buy weak coffee for 50 cents, and cookies for a quarter. And I did get to meet Ron Paul though. Shook his hand and asked him some questions. He was a little dweeby, but disarming.
I still can't find an official count from my precinct, but it was all too easy to see how everyone was voting, so here's my best unofficial count for my precinct:
Romney: 20
Huckabee: 19
Thompson: 5
Paul: 3
McCain: 1
Hunter: 1
Giuliani: 1
Anybody know where I can get the official tally?
