60 Iowa satellite sites help the often-excluded join Caucus Day. But some still got left out

IOWA CITY, Ia. — Alana Porter, the mother of two small children, was able to caucus Monday without the need for a babysitter.

That’s because the hospital where she works as a nurse had a satellite caucus that met at 5:30 p.m. instead of the usual 7 p.m. start time.

Porter, 32, brought her 4-year-old son Sullivan to the small gathering at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. They wore matching stickers indicating their support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“He’s a candidate that we think is going to do something for climate change and also move our country in a better direction,” said Porter, whose husband, also a nurse, was at home with their 10-month-old son and would attend a later caucus. “And we want (Sullivan) to see that it’s very important to us and that it should be important to him, too.”

Though the Iowa Democratic Party has experimented with satellite caucuses, they were introduced on a far grander scale this year to help accommodate a desire to make the caucuses more accessible and inclusive.

Eighty-seven such caucuses were being held across the world, according to the Iowa Democratic Party. Sixty were in Iowa, 24 in other states and Washington, D.C., and three were overseas.

They included 14 in workplace-related locations, 24 on college campuses, 29 designed to accommodate accessibility needs, 11 for people needing language or cultural accommodations and nine for Iowans who spend the winters in other states.

In Iowa City, the 18 who attended the 5:30 p.m. caucus at the hospital, which was requested by Service Employees International Union Local 199 for its members there, swung strongly for Sanders. He got the support of 16 in the final alignment; former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg ended up with the other two. There was another caucus at the hospital at 7:45 p.m., and organizers expected a larger turnout because participants didn’t have to register in advance.

In Des Moines' Highland Park neighborhood, a group of mostly Sanders and Warren supporters, many of them disabled, showed up for a satellite caucus at the nonprofit Central Iowa Center for Independent Living in the basement of a strip shopping center on Euclid Avenue.

After about 10 minutes of politicking, 35 lined up for Warren and 15 for Sanders, earning her five delegates and him two.

Reyma McCoy McDeid, the precinct leader and head of the nonprofit, had 11 large pizzas waiting for the crowd when they arrived. They quickly demolished the pies.

She also had a raffle for books that went over well, including “Bernie Sanders’ Guide to Political Revolution” and “One Person, No Vote,” a piece on the ills of gerrymandering.

More: At a Des Moines mosque satellite caucus, Sanders backed by majority of caucusgoers

In an adjacent room, a group of 17 people had a caucus for the deaf in American Sign Language. They awarded two delegates to Warren and one each to Buttigieg and Biden.

Sanders was the choice at the satellite caucus held in the Drake University Fieldhouse in Des Moines, with 46 supporting him and 22 choosing Warren.

Misty Rebik, Iowa State director for Sanders, joined a large group of enthusiastic Sanders supporters cheering and waving signs in the bleachers before the 4:30 p.m. caucus began.

“I’ll be working later tonight,” Rebik explained.

Sanders supporters kept their cheers going throughout the process, chanting, “Come on over, come on over!” as the second alignment began.

Rebik and other Sanders staffers spent the final minutes of the realignment period talking with Buttigieg supporters, who remained one person short of viability.

Only seven caucus-goers turned out for the satellite caucus at the LULAC Club in Fort Madison. Six of them supported Sanders.

The bar and event center is decorated with a Mexican flag as well as an American flag and, as part of the League of United Latin American Citizens, is a frequent stop for Latinos in the area. Dave Martínez, 67, a member of the LULAC Club, said he believes the reason more didn’t turn out to caucus here is that they’re not registered to vote or are registered as independent.

Gage Lane, 18, attempted to participate but was turned away because he had not pre-registered, as is required for satellite caucuses. He had to work Monday night, but was hoping he’d be allowed to leave work early to go to his regular caucus site.

”I have to work tonight from 3:30 to 10 p.m.,” he explained. “I guess you’re supposed to register for this, which I didn’t know at the time.”

In Ottumwa, a satellite precinct caucus at the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 230 union hall — which began off at noon — was the first of roughly 1,700 caucuses in Iowa on Monday. It was intended to accommodate those who work the second shift at the local pork processing plant and during the evening at service industry jobs.

Sanders won the precinct's first alignment, with 14 of the precinct's 15 people. One person caucused for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, insufficient to make her a viable candidate.

Warren's supporter said she did not wish to caucus for Sanders on the second alignment, so there was no need for caucusgoers to realign.

The Iowa Democratic Party awards delegates from the satellite caucus locations based on their final turnout. The ultimate winner of Iowa's caucuses is based on those delegate numbers.

The Ottumwa group was largely comprised of Ethiopian immigrants who work at JBS Pork in Ottumwa. Chris Laursen, president of UAW Local 7, observed the caucus as a Sanders supporter. He said the Sanders campaign had been canvassing outside of JBS during shift change between midnight and 2 a.m.

"The Bernie campaign was actively sitting outside trying to talk to people as they were coming in and out of work late at night," he said. "That’s what’s special about Bernie’s campaign. It’s not a campaign, it’s a movement. Bernie literally has an army."

Des Moines Register reporters Brianne Pfannenstiel and Katie Akin contributed to this story. Miriam Arias, reporting for Telemundo and the Des Moines Register, also contributed.