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Have We Seen the Last Iowa Caucus?
The Iowa Democratic Party is in disarray after its debacle Monday night. They had four years to prepare for their first-in-the-nation Caucuses; as the night draws to a close they have no results, no explanation for their failure, and no excuses.
The results of the Republican caucuses came in fast, showing Trump the overwhelming winner. After hours of silence, the Democrats said they are delaying any results. “We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” communications director Mandy McClure said. “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, after bragging about how ready they were for this pivotal night.
In preparation for one of the most consequential elections of our lifetimes, we have taken historic steps to ensure a secure, accessible, and transparent caucus process. #IACaucus https://t.co/XY61GJ9AAD
— Iowa Democrats (@iowademocrats) February 3, 2020
We have staff on the ground working to help protect the integrity of our democratic process. And we’re doing everything we can to make sure Iowans’ voices are heard and the caucuses are secure. https://t.co/UJSQGQoiPA
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) February 3, 2020
Their website claimed the results would be posted after 7 p.m. CT. Below the declaration, a long line of zeroes. During an emergency phone call with the campaigns, one participant shouted, “This is an unbelievable explanation.” Another person added, “I think he speaks for all of us.”
Joe Biden’s general counsel quickly sent a letter to the state’s party leaders. “The app that was intended to relay Caucus results to the Party failed; the Party’s back-up telephonic reporting system likewise has failed,” she wrote. “Now, we understand that caucus chairs are attempting to — and, in many cases, failing to — report results telephonically to the party. These acute failures are occurring statewide.”
It’s past time for Iowa to end its bizarre, arbitrary, and confusing voting rules. After tonight, the national parties will demand it.
Published in Elections, Politics
Whole lotta #caucusblocking going on.
Remember, these are the folks that know they can run your life better you can.
The beauty of this after crying RUSSIA! RUSSIA! and creating distrust in “the vote” they will have the opportunity to give full reign to their paranoia.
(More popcorn, please. And with lots and lots of butter.)
So… they can’t even use a telephone? What, do they still have rotary phones and the young campaign volunteers can’t figure out how to work the dial?
Not to worry, comrades. Is beta test for national vote-by-phone. Evidently still some bugs, because socially just results difficult to obtain.
Is well integrated. Bloomberg finances candidates, Bloomberg voting systems and Party Central Committee will work out kinks and all the votes will be counted and recounted until correct and socially just results obtained.
Will be better in Nevada and perfected by November.
You mean the DNC failed to fix the election? Epic fail. This goes together with the Des Moines Register refusing to publish their last poll, for mumble mumble reasons. It stinks and may as fairly assigned to inept corruption as to simple ineptitude.
The Iowa Democratic Party is not admitting anything yet [Screen shot after midnight PST Tuesday]:
Did they check the trunks of their cars? That’s where they typically keep their missing votes.
just trying to help.
This whole thing works to further split the Democrats. Unless they declare Bernie the overwhelming winner his supporters are going to (reasonably) assume there is a fix going on. And, of course, they are the most likely to refuse to vote for any other Democrat.
Clearly, they did not like the results and are working to fix the vote.
Oh, might not be the case, but if Sanders does not win, his supporters are going to believe that.
I find these results delicious.
BREAKING
DNC BLAMES RUSSIA, CRUZ
Washington Post team report:
Forensic analysis by highly respected computer security firm Crowdstrike which is a Ukrainian-owned DNC-paid firm but like totally unbiased today said preliminary findings of the failed Iowa caucus app indicated Russian hackers working out of the offices of both Robert Barr and Ted Cruz implanted malware that goes by the name of “Impeach This”. The Post is able to confirm that a number of senior Democrats on the Hill totally believe this and also assume that Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow did the actual coding. Because we want it to become a meme and a new impeachment drive, there will be no corrections or retractions, ever. Developing.
LOL. And they want to run the country.
Okay. The app failed. It happens. Best if it happens during testing … you did do testing, right?
But how did the “back-up telephonic” system fail? Did everybody lose everybody else’s phone numbers?
Translation: Bernie won.
Crowdstrike knows because the hackers used tools that Russian hackers use — like text editors and browsers and stuff.
The final results are in for Bennet, Delaney and Patrick @0%. That much they know…
Other is doing pretty well too.
On 538 they described it as one of the most bizarre nights in American politics. I pretty much agree. Not being able to count votes? And communicate that count in a preliminary manner to the press? Even Florida in 2000 was able to give an initial tally.
There’s video on Twitter of a caucus chair calling into the state party; the state HQ hung up on him!
My (tongue-somewhat-in-cheek) theory: Bernie won big, but since it’s a caucus and attendees at each location know how many attendees caucused for each candidate, the state HQ is having a lot of trouble “fixing” the results.
This never happens with Republicans.
For years I’ve often wondered, “Why Iowa?” I soon realized someone has to go first. However, racking up that first win is crucial in a crowded primary field. To use a confusing process which cannot be adequately described has no place in a functioning democracy.
All the Democrats have to do to win the presidential election in 2020 is not be crazy. Turns out they’re both crazy and incompetent.
I imagine a grapevine in the telephone system.
“Sanders with fourteen hundred. Pass it on.”
“Sanders with fourteen thousand. Pass it on.”
“Sanders with forty thousand.”
Or “This can’t be right. They forgot a zero at the end.” [scribbles a number… next to the last scribble]
I sincerely haven’t felt schadenfreude like this since the Obamacare website went tits up.
The one Republican Caucus I attended in Colorado we passed around scraps of paper (literally) on which to write our preferred candidate’s name (Santorum won, if you recall; was it 2012?). Then several caucus-goers volunteered to count and cross-check the “ballots” and called in the results. Pretty hard to screw up — if you trust your own voters! And the Republican Party of Colorado is famous for screw ups!
There’s a bad, bad odor coming out of this. If you thought Bernie Bros were pissed before. . .!
BREAKING
HILLARY WINS IOWA; PARTY MOURNS MAYOR PETE, BERNIE SANDERS
The surprising results in from Democratic Iowa caucuses: Hillary Clinton 71% followed by Pete Buttigieg at 15%. Vladimir Putin led the rest of the pack in first-round voting with 6%. Meanwhile, Iowa state police are investigated the electrical mishap in which Mayor Pete’s microphone delivered a 6,000-volt charge at his final rally, killing him instantly at the same time an apparently despondent Bernie Sanders used his left-hand to shoot himself in the back of the head at least twice.
Former Vice-President Joe Biden was hospitalized last night after angrily shouting at no one in particular that he had once made love to a giraffe but that Trump had whisked the poor animal off to one of Jupiter’s moons.
Developing.
According to Fox News, much of the executive staff of the company that produced the app are former Clinton staff people. How many messes with Clinton connections are we going to continue to see?
And the company that produced the app is named “Shadow.” Can you imagine a branding less likely to instill confidence in the company’s product? Especially when run by people associated with the Clintons?