I went to bed at 9 pm, because I’m keeping up with my “winter sleep schedule.” It’s called self-care. God bless any of you for staying up to watch what was happening with the Iowa Caucuses last night. I fully expected to sit here this morning and write about how Pete Buttigieg or Bernie Sanders swept the caucuses. They did not. Or they might have, who knows. We don’t know because the caucus process was… absolute chaos, and the winner (winners?) won’t be announced until later today, after a lot of sh-t has been sorted out:
Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, said shortly after 1 a.m. Central time that he expected to have caucus results to report “later today” after party officials had manually tallied the data. On a brief conference call with reporters, Mr. Price stressed that the caucus results were being delayed because of problems reporting delegate totals from the more than 1,600 precincts, not because the system had been hacked.
“This is taking longer than expected,” he said. “The system is in place to make sure we can report results with full confidence.”
Several hours after the caucuses ended, the state party still has not publicly reported any results. Mr. Price did not take questions, and the call ended after he finished reading his statement. He said the system the party put in place for 2020, which requires written records for each precinct’s results, was implemented in case such a communications breakdown took place. “We have backups in place for this reason,” he said. “We are updating campaigns and will continue to provide updates as they are available.”
“We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” said Mandy McClure, the party’s communications director. “In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report. This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
On a conference call with the presidential campaigns, Iowa Democratic Party officials said the delay was because of the new rules requiring caucus leaders to report three sets of numbers to party headquarters, rather than just the delegate totals. Representatives from the campaigns became angry at the party officials, who hung up after being asked about when results might be known, according to two people who listened to the call. Since the caucuses began 50 years ago, Iowa Democrats reported only one number: the delegate count from each of the state’s precincts. But after the razor-close 2016 race in Iowa between Hillary Clinton and Mr. Sanders, Mr. Sanders’s allies pushed the Democratic National Committee to require caucus states to track and report the raw numbers of how many people backed each candidate.
Imagine how tired we already are. I get that it’s “history” and Iowa loves being “first” but enough is enough. Either fix this system or you don’t get to be “first,” Iowa. I’m saying that as someone who is not particularly eager to see the results too – Iowa is a massively white state and Iowans have clung to candidates with massive racial blind-spots like Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders. Sorry, peeps. I’m waiting to see how South Carolina votes, then I’ll be there in line on Super Tuesday a few days later.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
There is no good reason to give such power to a homogenous state that chooses a chaotic process. Caucuses can and often do exclude night shift workers, people with disabilities, those without cars, parents, etc. And we haven’t even gotten to women bullied into voting against their preferences. It’s a national embarrassment. Why not some of the other states floated to go first? Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New Jersey all make more sense.
I think every state should hold their primary on Super Tuesday. One and done, let’s stop dragging this stuff out.
Yes, I think the argument for splitting them up doesn’t hold water in this day and age. The candidates aren’t traveling by train to all the different locations to have a chance to get their message out; technology is a thing.
This makes a lot of sense.
And I wish we could have three presidents, not just one. So that if one is insane, hopefully the other two aren’t. And we need more parties, not just two.
I absolutely agree
I agree. I’d also love to see ranked voting in the primary (which I get is similar to caucusing, but I just think the model sucks and is biased against a lot of people).
I agree. It’s turned into an undemocratic sh**show.
Iowa is too small and too white to have this kind of power.
Iowa brought us Barack Obama so don’t tell me it’s too small and too white. I was born there and there’s plenty of character there. Caucuses are staffed by volunteers. But they can go to a primary. And don’t let the DNC and Tom Perez pressure them. He needs to go.
Especially since at the end of the day Iowa is a red state. A deep deep red state
Iowa has never been a very red state. Bush lost it in 1988, Clinton won it twice, Gore won it, Bush won it in 2004, Obama won it twice, and Trump won it.
The caucus system is dated and should be dropped. I think more voters would turn out if they did not have to commit to a pointlessly complicated system.
It seems like they could have essentially the same process as caucusing by just using ranked ballots, but without the charade of everyone standing in a room yelling at each other, couldn’t they? Or maybe not, since I’m not really sure I understand how any of this works!!
Iowa is too white and not diverse enough economically to really have this power. Given that agriculture is still very dominant there, I’m surprised Sanders was polling so well. My thoughts were that the millionaire corporate farmers wouldn’t want their generous tax breaks and ability to write off personal purchases like fancy pickups as business expenses taken away from them.
Minnesota or Illinois would be better states in the Midwest to kick off the primary cycle. Both are more solidly Democrat in national elections. They are also more diverse population wise and more urban and suburban. Minnesota historically used a caucus but has transitioned to a mixed primary/caucus.
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So this mess is because they implemented a system to appease Bernie Sanders? Who is not an actual Democrat? Again, his candidacy exists to cause chaos.
I keep saying this. What is the letter next to his name? It’s certainly not a D. Why are we bending over backwards to accommodate him?
This has always been my issue with Sanders, he’s an Independent not a Democrat, at least not until it’s time to run for President. Why doesn’t he just run as an Independent? I mean if he and his supporters are all about shaking up the status quo and eliminating the two-party ballot, allowing for more choices & representation, then do it. Don’t hijack the Dem ticket. It’s the political version of category fraud.
Sanders pays his Democratic Party dues like other Democratic senators. He can call himself whatever he wants, but he is as establishment as the rest.
I don’t care for Sanders at ALL, but it’s good that he runs as a Dem. If he ran independent, it would split the leftist vote in the general and we would most assuredly lose to Trump.
THANK YOU! I continue to be confused by this.
Yeah, my jaw dropped at that. Somehow they managed to do this without problems before 2016, why fix something that isn’t “broken?”
In any case, knowing how Trump and the right wing are watching and gloating, all I can think is WAY TO F THIS UP RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE, IOWA!
Maybe a redo is in order? The faster this is all wrapped up, the better.
Right there with you, @Lightpurple.
I don’t care enough about Bernie to hate him truly, but if I were a hating type person, I’d loathe him with the fire of a thousand burning suns. He’s a narcissistic old buzzard who needs to go home to be with his grandchildren and take up knitting.
Goddess above, can you imagine a ticket with Saint Bernie as POTUS and Tulsi as VP? I’d have to break ranks with the Vote Blue No Matter Who herd if that ever came to pass.
Why would he make that Communist spy a running mate? Sorry Tulsi is a Pudding plant and that’s all I have to say about that. Lose Bernie Lose (Orangino is guaranteed a second term if that idiot is the Dem rep sorry).
Agree. He signs on as a Dem for a few months every 4 years. Disqualifying. One should be a member in good standing for at least five years before being allowed to run at this high level.
No, it is a mess because it took them decades to attempt any kind of transparency. Parties should be accountable to their voters, not the other way around. Had the DNC operated under less opaque practices (and eliminated superdelegates) long ago, it would be standard practice AS IT SHOULD BE.
Watching the coverage last night, it was notable how Bernie was not getting support in the 2nd wave votes (where if a voter’s 1st choice isn’t viable, they can move to a viable candidate in the 2nd round).
I think Bernie is like Trump, where he has a 25% hardcore base that will never leave him. But with Bernie, there are like 60% of Democrats who really don’t want him, so they will pick any of the others over him.
My impression from friends in Iowa was that turnout was incredible. And while such high volume may impact the efficiency of determining results, it would be a great sign to have high numbers of people participating.
Some reporting is saying not so much…more like 2016 than 2008 numbers.
That is what I heard on Morning Joe. The turnout was similar, so not a huge chance of being overwhelmed by much larger crowds.
This story is understandably going to take over the news cycle, instead of the video showing Orange acting like a toddler during the national anthem.
I would guess turn out was huge. And in defense of Iowa, much of the state is very liberal. But also: Steve King. Yikes.
Grassley is also very bad and should go.
Joni Ernest too! Get rid of that traitor.
At least it was paper fail and not Russian hackers this time?
Honestly, America; your ‘democracy’ needs work. I am so thankful for the very boring way my country created a constitution because the founders really benefited from your mistakes.
I guess I’m a bit more forgiving. If we want a secure election system, one thats much more resistant to foreign interference, then this is the price. Sometimes the results will take time to verify. My very limited understanding is that Iowa was using a new app to report exact vote totals and making sure the numbers added up was causing the delay.
You are right, Erin. People are super salty about a certain candidate being behind in the polls and are ignoring that the DNC has been a giant cluster for like 20 or more years. I know y’all are anxious about Drumpf winning again but I would rather have Iowa take their time and deliver concise results than mess this up.
Agreed. You can have it right or you can have it fast.
This is true. Also, they were reporting multiple sets of stats.
The 1st vote, the 2nd vote, etc. Not just the final numbers.
I was listening to NPR podcast a few days ago and it was reported that Illinois would be the best place to go first because it most closely represents the democratic party demographics.
I read a WaPo op ed arguing Georgia should be first for similar reasons. At this point, I don’t even care who wins Iowa. It doesn’t mean anything real.
I think that whoever primary is first doesn’t matter as long as the electoral college is used to choose the POTUS. I’d tend to say all primaries should happen on the same day: it’d be cheaper, faster, and not influenced by previous results
They might not say the system’s been hacked, but seriously, after all we’ve been told of foreign forces trying to mingle in the primaries and general elections, to rely on an app developed by god knows who to gather the data is beyond foolish.
They’ll never learn or don’t want to
Yeah, I find it hard to trust anything anyone says, when the stakes are so high, when the race is contentious, and when they’re in frantic damage control mode.
It doesn’t matter if the system has been hacked though. There are paper ballots and these things are done in public. Everyone present has the right to see the results just by virtue of being present. Even if the app was hacked, it doesn’t make any difference. They’ve got the paper ballots that were filled out in full view of everyone present.
From what I understand, the process was more complicated this year because they made it more transparent – they are publishing three (I think, someone correct me if I’m wrong) sets of data instead of one (first vote, after realignment, final vote rather than just the final tally).
No wonder it’s a mess, I had to read a g-d tutorial from the NY Times to figure out how this works. What a disaster. It’s interesting for sure, and really kind of civilized, but when you have those kinds of turn-outs (which is great), not really very efficient.
Confusing, isn’t it? I listened to an explanation of it all…the 3 different types of votes, the who’s viable, etc etc…gotta say, still ??? The trouble isn’t in which state, it’s putting a year’s work and so much $$$ into any one place…and idiot voters expecting candidates to shake every hand in the country.
I’m also terribly confused even after reading a detailed primer on the process. I figured it was because I’m Canadian! It sounds exhausting as well as exclusionary to a lot of people who can’t afford to spare six or seven hours to stand around.
I’ve done it before and I’m still confused. The problem I have is that it’s a long process. If you have to get a babysitter to do it, then you’re keeping people away from the table. If you work second shift, then you’re out.
I’m less concerned about the messiness of the caucuses (although it just adds more fuel to the fire of the idea that the Democrats have no idea what is going on withing their own party) than I am the number of people who are already saying that if their candidate doesn’t win the caucus (not even the ultimate nomination, just the caucus) then they’re just going to vote for 45.
Clearly we have learned absolutely nothing from the last four years of this nightmare.
Something interesting I’ve seen is that it’s not overwhelmingly Bernie Bros this time. It’s middle aged, white, Democratic women crying about how their candidate is doing poorly and vowing not to vote and claiming the DNC is rigged. Funny because they were whining about Bernie Bros doing it last election.
We have to be “blue no matter who” this time and a lot of websites and articles are not pushing that narrative.
If you’re talking about Warren voters, that’s entirely inaccurate. In one poll, not a single Warren backers has said they wont vote for the primary winner (vs 16% of Bernie Bros and 50% of Yang Gangers who say they won’t!).
I live in Iowa. I don’t understand the issue. I was the precinct captain during the Obama years including his first election when our district was expected to go Hillary and I majorly turned it Obama (okay, memory lane). It’s never been hard before. in our precinct we have an internal process where everyone agrees on results then You call in the results to an official line with your co-captain. I don’t get this at all. Seriously embarrassing. I do wonder if they’re trying to bury a Bernie win.
I think the same thing. This is going to add fuel to the “establishment is against Bernie” fire. It may or not be true but if that’s where our heads went you know that’s where everyone’s head is going.
That’s where everyone’s heads are going because people are spreading unsubstantiated rumors!
I agree, the process is not that complicated and it worked fine for decades. It really makes me question wtaf is going on behind the scenes. And the fact that it gives Trump and the deplorables more ammunition is…discouraging.
It’s my understanding that the process this time is different with the ranked choice voting, and that this is why they went with an app, hoping it would simplify calculating the results.
Sorry to be annoying and correct you Eleseridge, but that has always been the case. There’s a first round and if your candidate does not have enough votes, you have to reallocate to other candidates. Nothing in the process changed. It sounds like the reporting mechanism changes. Just embarrassing for my state.
The process is the same, but they apparently didn’t report the results of every stage before and now they are. From my understanding they used to just report the final vote and not the first vote and then reallocation.
Oh, enough with the Bernie perpetual victim hood!!!!! There is NO PROOF of that, and it is propaganda to suggest that his campaign is being victimized without ANY evidence behind it.
BECAUSE of Bernie they had to report not just the final numbers, but the results of the 1st and 2nd voting. Much more data than previous years. So they tried to create an app. Not a bad plan overall, but where they went wrong as not keeping more phone lines open as a back-up option, and not having more stress testing of the app before the caucus.
Silver lining may be that this proves the need for paper ballots and hand counts in every election across this country. Receipts. Get rid of all electronic voting. Remember that China just gave Ivanka Trump several voting machine trademarks last year? How gullible are we?? We have to stop falling for tech scams, when paper ballots are a safe, scalable solution!
There are paper ballots in a caucus. There is a paper record/receipts that can be verified.
Stupid app crap. What were they thinking?
And after the 2016 election was fought between two old people who couldn’t turn a computer on, one of whom could admit it and the other who couldn’t and who just looked pathetic for pretending. Fundamentally, what happened with Hillary Clinton’s emails, is she tried to pretend to be technologically proficient, but couldn’t keep up the pretence. Then along came Donald Trump who freely admitted that he only knew how to use a single website that someone else had set up on his phone for him. The Democrats just made the same mistake as Clinton. Tech for its own sake, except, oops, didn’t work.
did I hear correctly this morning when they said an app? Have we not learned how easy it is to alter outcomes. I am also hearing that Pete was a major investor in the app?
They have paper ballots (not to mention it’s not private – the votes are done in the open). They were trying the app to make it more efficient (obvious fail!!) but they still have the paper backup. Given that each caucus publicly records the vote for anyone present to see and verify, altering outcomes is not a concern here. Actually adding up the results and submitting them (which is where the app failed), is the problem.
Pete is not an investor in the app. His campaign uses a different product owned by the same company to organize phone banking. Several other candidates also used this company for phone banking.
It’s total misinformation and like saying because I bought word and you bought excel, we are connected somehow. Obviously not true.
It’s scary how quickly dems are smearing THEIR OWN CANDIDATES with rumors probably sourced from Russia.
I strongly object to several of the comments here that echo concern trolls everywhere that the Democrats are in “disarray.” It’s a primary; no one is supposed to have coalesced around anyone yet! Furthermore, the Democrats are once again dealing with a series of non-Democrats who keep trying to hijack the party for their own perverted (narcissistic) purposes: Bernie (AGAIN – someone said he swore that if Warren ran in 2020 he wouldn’t run, but I can’t find the quote), Bloomberg (who helped Moscow Mitch keep the Senate FFS!), Yang (nope. Sorry. No more inexperienced nobodies.), and Tulsi the Russian Republican.
Add to this all the longtime Republicans who voted for each step of the insanification process of the GOP, some of them even voting for Trump, who now want the Democratic candidate to appeal to them. Wtf, no, I’m sorry. You were good soldiers for whatever candidate the GOP threw out, you need to be a good soldier for America now and vote for the Democratic candidate no matter who (and oh holy god I hope it’s not Bernie that useless fck).
Why dont you mention the app that Buttiegiegs campaign developed with DNC money? Sanders has raised the most individual donations out of all candidates, has constantly been on the right side if history, doesnt take corporate money…what is to hate about that? Centrism is going to get us more Trump. Its absolutely ridiculous to say if Sanders is the front runner, one would break the “vote blue no matter who” sentiment. Why, because you like shooting yourself in the foot?
@Oopygoopy, thanks for posting this! I don’t get the Bernie hate either. If he ran as an independent then there’s a chance that could split the vote and put tRump back in the White House. Wasn’t that also the criticism about Howard Schultz and why he dropped out?
No one should be talking about the “Pete app” because there is no such thing.
A bunch of people who have worked in politics developed an app, which was used by the state party (not the dnc) to tally votes. That same company makes other products, one of which is a phone bank platform. Pete, and other candidates, used that platform.
The presidency is about more than who has the most donors. Donors are overwhelmingly white. That’s not how we pick a president.
Sanders should not be the nominee; he has no record of accomplishment, just talk, and he will make the election about socialism and cause Dems to lose up and down the ballot.
Thank you!! I’m reading all these anti-Bernie comments and not getting it at all. Bernie has been a consistent progressive his entire life. Maybe he’s not a “democrat” but I’m buying what he’s selling. I’m voting for Bernie in the primaries and I really hope he wins.
All this anger directed at Bernie and Yang and Mayor Pete should be directed at Biden. Biden is profoundly tainted not only because of his own horrible voting record, weird pervy behavior, and bad policies, but by trump’s impeachment. It doesn’t matter if Joe and Hunter Biden are actually squeaky clean and innocent of what they’re being accused of, the GOP has had nonstop coverage for months about them being corrupt and it’s going to stick. I’ll vote blue no matter who but if I have to vote for Biden it will be very much against my principals and what I feel is best for this county. I don’t have this concern with any of the other viable candidates (that’s meant as a dig at Tulsi, btw.)
“Why dont you mention the app that Buttiegiegs campaign developed with DNC money? ”
Because it isn’t true. You are SO WRONG in so many ways.
1st, the caucus app was created at the direction of the IOWA DEMOCRATIC PARTY, not the DNC. They are different entities. Basic facts.
2nd, Buttigege had a product created by the same company, but it was a totally different product.
Stop trying to spread conspiracy theories. It is incredibly irresponsible.
I’m waiting for South Carolina as well. I still think it’s going to be Biden because black voters don’t take their cues from white voters in Iowa while white voters are still pretty split. I’m in no mood to debunk the whole “Obama only won black voters in SC because of Iowa nonsense” that people tell themselves. No one is going to win Iowa w/ more than 30% of the vote and even that’s suspect given that it’s a low turnout caucus in a state where the white demographic differs from others.
As for “Vote Blue, No matter who” that was always nonsense. It’s a good sentiment, but it’s been used to squash discourse and complaints about the process and the candidates. Bernie is a sore winner riling up his base to reject the outcome in which he loses while doing absolutely nothing to unify the other segments of the party if he wins. “Vote blue no matter who” isn’t going to fix that.
This reminds me of when Obamacare first rolled out and the computers crashed. So primary season kicks off with a big dud. Still don’t know who won Iowa yet. Trump and his minions are laughing. You know the GOP are cueing the attack ads.
So Celebitchy celebrates people of colour, but not Mayor Pete who is gay? Got it.
Lol, what a ridiculous comment
From the article “Iowa is a massively white state and Iowans have clung to candidates with massive racial blind-spots like Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders”. As you were saying?
@ Mrs.Peel
You do know that you can be white, gay, and have a massive racial blindspot. If Celebitchy feels that is the case with Pete, why shouldn’t they mention it?
Meh. Iowa. South Carolina is a better bet since the demographics are more diverse. No one thinks that Iowa is where Democrats have any sort of chance — except maybe when the general election comes. I mean look at their Senators: Grassley and Ernst — Trump bootlickers extraordinaire. And Steve King — too racist for the racists in Congress who yet KEEPS GETTING RE-ELECTED. Their governor is a republican, their state government is dominated by republicans–At this point it’s a total mystery to me why Iowa has so much “power” given to them for the Dem Caucus. It’s a joke.
Ugh, Steve King. Why does he keep getting reelected?
I don’t see how South Carolina is much better honestly. It’s got more black people but it’s still going to go for Trump in November so the South Carolina Dems are irrelevant too. (I live in an always blue state so my vote is equally irrelevant). All in care about is the rust belt. It’s not fair but it’s the the reality.
AT least the last 3 primaries Iowa on some level has failed the rest of the country. I dont know how to go back and check previous years…. but since 2012 not a single caucus has gone smoothly.
Update your system Iowa. A less than 50 year tradition is not enough to justify the messes you have caused.
Sanders’ supporters find economic injustice just as abhorrent as social injustice. The socially progressive/fiscally conservative Democrats can’t seem to get their heads around that.
Perfectly stated.