it is 4:00 here in new york, 3:00 p.m. in des moines where in just a few hours, the doors will open at caucus locations across the state. and the first votes will be cast in the 2024 election. voters going to the polls today in 1600 precincts across all of iowa s 99 counties will do it in some of the most brutal conditions imaginable. tonight could be the coldest iowa caucus ever. windchills could gets a low as 45 degrees farenheit, that is freezing. that brutal cold is putting a damper on what is normally a frenzy of campaigning. trump campaign and haley campaign canceled three events, but it doesn t mean candidates aren t asking people to get out and vote. ex-president said even if you vote and then pass away, it is worth it. yes? he really said that. there is no early voting and no mail-in ballot, so all of it comes to turnout tonight. the last nbc des moines register poll released last night shows trump with a commanding 28 point lead. if he wins by anything close to th
That probably also helps donald trump. So turnout is one of the biggest things. I remember in 2008 General Election i ran the boilerroom on Election Day and they came and said huge problem, we have a milelong line in virginia with voters at 5 00 a. M. Ready to vote. Im like thats not a problem. Thats called winning. And these are the first things you see that are starting to tell you how big the turnout is going to be tonight. Were going to see it soon because these doors do open soon. Cornell, im going to come back to you, but were first goinging too to nbcs jacob soboroff. Talk to us about where you are, how this is going to work, what are you going to be watching. Reporter it would be my pleasure to give you a tour, jen. I think if you want to know whats going to happen tonight, you want to know about turnout numbers, this is one of the places to look. This is Ottumwa High School and were in wapelo county. Take a look at this auditorium
Ready for the caucus. We appreciate you. Not a problem. Keep it coming, jen. Ill show you the rest of this. Were following you. 121, 120. This ones a Spanish Classroom right here. Vicky, i just saw her here a few minutes ago, she was unlocking all the classrooms. People are going to bring their ballots into this room, put their ballot like a normal election with a Secret Ballot inside a box and theyre going to actually count the ballots in these rooms. But this is not where the Grand Total is announced. Im going to show you that too. The thing i want to point out, by the way, about Wapelo County is former President Trump back in 2016 did quite well here. I think he had something like see you in a minute. Dont worry. You can keep doing what youre doing. Whats that . You do the same. Okay. We will. I promise. Back in 2016 he had about 36 of the vote here. The question is is it going to look more like the polls do . Is he going to get 58 of the vote here . Where there could be as many as