Idaho votes still matter

The first contest in the 2016 presidential race is in the books with Ted Cruz as the GOP winner and Hillary Clinton taking the win for the Democrats.

Leaders from local political parties said they don’t think the Iowa caucuses determine the end-all winners, but they do say it gives better numbers than polls.

“What’s most important is that it’s the first time we’re counting actual votes, as opposed to assessing poll results,” Idaho Republican Party chairman, Stephen Yates said. “So when you’re conducting a poll, you’re taking people at their word, if they’re a registered voter, who they’re committed to or who they’re likely to support, in this instance, it’s the first time someone’s actually gone in committed and cast a ballot. “

“Poll numbers don’t always translate into actual votes,” Miranda Marquit, Bonneville County Democrats executive committee, said.” Just because people are polling saying one thing does not mean once they get in there, they’re going to vote another way.”

“National polling and Iowa polling that had been widely consistent throughout the media had Donald Trump with a bit of 4 or 5 percent lead over Ted Cruz,” Yates said.

Polls didn’t foreshadow the outcome for the caucuses leading to surprises for both parties.

“That it was so close,” Marquit said about the democratic caucus. “A lot of people were very surprised at how close it really was. You know there was the coin flip, happening in one of the precincts and trying to figure out how close it was.”

“Cruz, Trump and Rubio, all got above 40,000 votes, and the total vote on the republican vote side was north of 180,000, so it was exceedingly high, historically high turnout on the Republican side,” Yates said. “To have this top three so clearly defined and much together with only a 5 percent difference between first and third place I think that was a surprise.”