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.

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
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  1. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

     

    • #91
  2. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Kozak (View Comment):

     

    Wow. And they put the young guy in the room up to the deception. It’s some freaky Orwellian times. 

    • #92
  3. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):

    We can certainly have fun today and laugh at these folks.

    But this was not a mistake. This was an intended feature.

    I’m inclined to believe that was a failure, not the intended outcome.  Stuff happens.

    • #93
  4. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):

    We can certainly have fun today and laugh at these folks.

    But this was not a mistake. This was an intended feature.

    I’m inclined to believe that was a failure, not the intended outcome. Stuff happens.

    It seems like a pretty good assumption that the fix was in again. “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.” If the right candidate didn’t win, or of serious doubt was not cast on the process if the wrong candidate won, it’s not a failure.

    • #94
  5. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: It’s past time for Iowa to end its bizarre, arbitrary, and confusing voting rules.

    Our electoral college system is bizarre, arbitrary, and confusing. Let’s keep it. 

    • #95
  6. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    …See the Stave Bannon theory.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/steve_bannon_lays_out_a_shocking_scenario_of_the_real_reason_behind_bloombergs_investment_of_2_billion_in_politics.html

    Bloomberg is doing a buyout of the Democrat Party.

    The picture is beginning to come together. Kevin Williamson is praising Bloomberg with a faint damn:

    I]sn’t he exactly the kind of guy progressives and independents always say they want? Pragmatic, non-ideological, results-oriented, and bipartisan enough that he’s already been elected as a Republican and an independent? …

    A problem-solving realist with a strong, non-hypothetical record in the real world? No, no, say Democrats, give us the rampaging socialist wackadoodle that’s never had a real job.

    Ace of Spades:

    Williamson does note that Bloomberg’s position as an abortion absolutist and gun confiscator may make conservatives “detest” him, “of course.”

    But he sure does load up a lot of compliments for Bloomberg.

    NeverTrump is in a difficult career position: They need to maintain their brand identity as Alleged Conservatives Who Hate Conservatives (and Trump), because that’s their entree into the media.

    But they can’t endorse Sanders — which they may very well wind up doing — and still cling to their Brand Identity of being “conservatives who are really, really, really open to Democrat ideas.”…

    And it seems that the Grifter Guild of Conservatism, Inc. is staring to talk up Bloomberg as their own Plan B.

    So, if Biden is going to lose to Sanders — which he might very well end up doing — NeverTrump needs an alternate candidate they can claim is “bipartisan” and therefore can support for president while still pretending, for mercenary careerist purposes only, to be “conservative.”

    And that’s why you’ll be seeing a lot of NeverTrumpers talk up Michael Bloomberg as someone who has previously run and won “as a Republican.” Sure, he ran in an ultraliberal city and governmed [sic] as a nannystate liberal and had been a Democrat just months before he decided to run, but hey, he was “a Republican.”

    And so “True Conservatives” can support him. Despite a couple of superficial flaws.

    And sure, he’s doing that LBO of the Democrats to push them farther to the Left, and sure, he bought the impeachment, and sure, he bought Virginia’s flip…

    • #96
  7. Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC Inactive
    Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC
    @Roberto

    With all of 18 days to get it done, well that should be interesting.

     

    • #97
  8. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    This in:

    Buttigieg Leads in Iowa With 26.9% of Delegates With 62% Precincts Reporting

    Sanders second at 25.1. Warren 81.3, Biden 15.6

    “This was a coding error in one of the pieces on the backend, but the raw data, the data that has come in, is secure.”

    • #98
  9. Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC Inactive
    Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC
    @Roberto

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    This in:

    Buttigieg Leads in Iowa With 26.9% of Delegates With 62% Precincts Reporting

    Sanders second at 25.1. Warren 81.3, Biden 15.6

    “This was a coding error in one of the pieces on the backend, but the raw data, the data that has come in, is secure.”

     

     

    • #99
  10. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Judge Mental (View Comment):

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    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?

     

    Yes, I can. Fly-By-Night Consulting, a subsidiary of Strictly Legit Enterprises.

    Represented by the Law Firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

    • #100
  11. Hugh Member
    Hugh
    @Hugh

    Ah yes….

    http://i.imgur.com/pEQIg5N.png

     

    • #101
  12. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    The Babylon Bee “reports” that “Surprise Candidate Hiltasha Clintonov Declared Winner of Iowa Caucuses.” The report also includes, “In an unrelated development, all the other candidates have turned up dead.”

    • #102
  13. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    Caucuses in general seem archaic and outdated.

     

    • #103
  14. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Suspira (View Comment):

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Belt (View Comment):

    Speaking as an Iowan, I’m perfectly happy to see the caucuses go away, as long as we also end up reforming the whole primary system in general. But I don’t think the Iowa caucus is a bad idea in itself. It does give some hard information for politicians and campaigns, and it helps demonstrate how well a campaign can organize turnout. The process is idiosyncratic, but when run competently it will produce results. And anyway, because it is usually dealing with a large field of candidates, some sort of ‘winnowing’ process is probably a good idea.

    But many, many aspects of our politic system have gotten badly broken in the past few cycles…

    I have a love/hate relationship with the caucus system after my one experience. I hate the inconvenience of having to go out on a cold winter night to cast my vote — especially when it doesn’t usually mean much as Colorado caucuses comparatively late, Colorado is turning blue, and the Colorado GOP seems incompetent and feckless.

    However, sitting in a room with 50 of my politically involved neighbors, several of whom are willing to stand up and make their case, seems like how a democratic republic should be.

    IDK. I rather like my secret ballot.

    For the general election, definitely! But for primaries, you’ve already signaled your intentions to vote for a Republican when you walk into the caucus room. And, really, when you write your preferred candidate’s name on a scrap of paper, it’s pretty anonymous.

    It’s a room full of like-minded people debating and choosing their candidates. It feels pretty safe.

    in other words, jury duty/deliberation

     

    • #104
  15. Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC Inactive
    Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC
    @Roberto

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    Caucuses in general seem archaic and outdated.

     

    I find it odd you think the problem here was the caucuses. Iowa somehow managed for several decades before this mess.

    • #105
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Guruforhire (View Comment):

    Did they check the trunks of their cars? That’s where they typically keep their missing votes.

    just trying to help.

    Maybe that’s the problem.  The left doesn’t believe in driving any more.

    They need to check with Uber!  and Lyft!

    • #106
  17. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    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?

     

    My theory is that Shadow was originally coded in 2016 but not released in time to help Hillary win Iowa by a falsely enhanced margin. The updated version of the app crashed because Hillary was not among the selections so there was no one to whom to give the fictitious votes the app had created. And when Bernie came out on top, it was Abort, Retry, Fail right here in River City.

    And we know how fond the left is of Abort…

    • #107
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: It’s past time for Iowa to end its bizarre, arbitrary, and confusing voting rules. After tonight, the national parties will demand it.

    Jon, I don’t see anything bizarre, arbitrary, or confusing about the Iowa caucus process. In many ways, it seems preferable to a simple primary election. As I understand it, it requires active participation, consideration of presentations presented at the caucus locations, and narrowing of the field by winnowing out candidates that have very low support. It seems better suited to building consensus, and allowing participants to express a wider range of preferences, than a primary.

    I haven’t yet seen any serious diagnosis of what went wrong for the Democrats last night. The process doesn’t seem very complicated. People move around the room, and you ultimately count them, and then report. Why would that be difficult?

    One possibility is simply over-reliance on technology. There was this nifty app, you see, which was going to count everything up automatically. So perhaps no one bothered to keep paper records, so when the app failed, no one could agree about the results. One would think that the precinct captains for each of the candidates would work together to agree as to the counts, write it down, and sign. This, however, relies on good faith and fair play. Perhaps these virtues are lacking among Democrats at the moment.

    People do get over-reliant on technology. I sometimes think that the Millenials and GenZ would be unable to find their own way home from school or work, if the Map App on their phone were to fail.

    And they can’t feed themselves either, without Door Dash, etc.

    • #108
  19. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    Caucuses in general seem archaic and outdated.

     

    I find it odd you think the problem here was the caucuses. Iowa somehow managed for several decades before this mess.

    1. Iowa caucus was an embarassment for DNC
    2. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

     

    • #109
  20. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    Caucuses in general seem archaic and outdated.

     

    I find it odd you think the problem here was the caucuses. Iowa somehow managed for several decades before this mess.

    Roberto,

    Wouldn’t it be interesting if a large quantity of Bernie ballots is discovered only partially destroyed? The app failure would provide plenty of time for separating out those Bernie ballots. Just a thought.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #110
  21. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):

    We can certainly have fun today and laugh at these folks.

    But this was not a mistake. This was an intended feature.

    Late last night, even as this was going down, my twitter feed was filled with people, who I never witnessed on twitter before, talking about how mean Bernie Sanders is, and how maybe there is room for Hillary in the list of candidates.

    Okay, so again, we can still make fun of all of this. But these people run the voting processes in Calif, New York, Illinois and many other parts of our nation.

    This should be wake up call to everyone here who wants their vote to count next November. We need E-verify, we need to return to each voter receiving a paper ballot and a pen. (And if you are in Calif, I already realize we re given those – but the paper ballot and its inked in votes are counted on electronic machinery.)

    There is a lesson for us in how in Jan 2017 a judge in San Diego county ruled in favor of voting activists, that the DNC flipped Bernie’s Primary victory electronically, giving Hillary the votes needed for her team to declare her the winner. If the DNC cheats its own party members ,what do you think is gonna happen in November with those Republicans on the ballot?

    The various loyalties around that notorious software are starting to make it look as though the Hillary camp is backing Buttigieg. For now.

    If Steve Bannon is right about Bloomberg, that would suggest that after the Democrat convention, he will have engineered a Clinton-Buttigieg ticket, probably with the promise made that Hillary will be a one term president.

    • #111
  22. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    I haven’t yet seen any serious diagnosis of what went wrong for the Democrats last night.

    Too much water. Not enough hose.

    This isn’t a difficult task.

    • #112
  23. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    • #113
  24. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    the constitution is not outdated, it may be old but not outdated.

     

    • #114
  25. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    the constitution is not outdated, it may be old but not outdated.

     

    The Constitution is not outdated and archaic, but it seems like it is.   Just as you said caucuses seem outdated and archaic. They may seem to be that, but they aren’t that.  

    • #115
  26. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    the constitution is not outdated, it may be old but not outdated.

     

    The Constitution is not outdated and archaic, but it seems like it is. Just as you said caucuses seem outdated and archaic. They may seem to be that, but they aren’t that.

    caucuses are outdated

     

    • #116
  27. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    the constitution is not outdated, it may be old but not outdated.

     

    The Constitution is not outdated and archaic, but it seems like it is. Just as you said caucuses seem outdated and archaic. They may seem to be that, but they aren’t that.

    caucuses are outdated

    Today is February 6, 2020 and we still have caucuses. This proves they are not outdated.

    • #117
  28. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    the constitution is not outdated, it may be old but not outdated.

     

    The Constitution is not outdated and archaic, but it seems like it is. Just as you said caucuses seem outdated and archaic. They may seem to be that, but they aren’t that.

    If caucuses are not outdated, why does NH have a primary? why do most states have a primary?

    which states have caucuses: Iowa, Michigan, Utah, Wisconsin?  

    the problem with caucuses is they lack transparency and have zany arcane rules.

    the comparison to the constitution is flawed because there is nothing in the constitution that mentions ‘caucus’ or ‘primary’.

     

    • #118
  29. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    the constitution is not outdated, it may be old but not outdated.

     

    The Constitution is not outdated and archaic, but it seems like it is. Just as you said caucuses seem outdated and archaic. They may seem to be that, but they aren’t that.

    caucuses are outdated

    Today is February 6, 2020 and we still have caucuses. This proves they are not outdated.

    terrible argument

    why do most states have primaries?

     

    • #119
  30. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    1. Caucuses in general seem outdated and archaic.

    the two points are not mutually exclusive.

    and i never said that was the problem.

    please don’t try to read my mind – you obviously suck at it

    Our Constitution seems outdated and archaic. We should keep it.

    the constitution is not outdated, it may be old but not outdated.

     

    The Constitution is not outdated and archaic, but it seems like it is. Just as you said caucuses seem outdated and archaic. They may seem to be that, but they aren’t that.

    caucuses are outdated

    Today is February 6, 2020 and we still have caucuses. This proves they are not outdated.

    what is the point of a caucus if you can’t determine the winner

     

    • #120
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