The case for ending the Iowa caucuses
WHY IOWA SHOULD NOT BE FIRST
NOR A CAUCUS BASED PRIMARY
Iowa Caucus Night Is an Utter Disaster
FUBAR
What happened Monday evening bolsters the argument that the state should not have the first primary.
Matt Taylor
National Editor
Updated Feb. 04, 2020
ALSO WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER USE AN APP WITHOUT TESTING ITS CRASH ABILITIES AND LEARNING CURVE FAILURES
Democrats' bid to challenge Trump off to a messy start
The Democratic Party's effort to choose an election challenger to President Trump got off to a chaotic start in Iowa, with officials blaming "inconsistencies" for an indefinite delay in the state's caucus results.AP Explains: In Iowa, complex caucus now even more intricate
ALL OUT FAILURE TO HAVE A BACK UP SYSTEM (PHONE IN) AKA PLAN B, RELIANT ON NEW APP. TO SMART FOR THEIR OWN GOOD. PHONE IN WHICH HAS BEEN USED FOR YEARS, WAS UNDERMANNED AND QUICKLY JAMMED UP.
IOWA CAUCUSES ARE AS VESTIGIAL AS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE THEY ARE BOTH OF THE HORSE AND BUGGY ERA.
Without Iowa Results, Everybody’s On Stage And A Winner On Caucus Night 🇺🇸
An Iowa Caucus Official Was Hung Up On While Trying To Report His Precinct's Results
Stephanie K. Baer“This is an unbelievable explanation.”
Ruby CramerBuzzFeed News Reporter
Henry J. GomezBuzzFeed News ReporterReporting From Des Moines, Iowa
Last updated on February 4, 2020, at 2:50 a.m. ET
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
The Iowa Democratic Party is delaying releasing the results of Monday night’s Iowa caucus because of reporting inconsistencies, infuriating campaigns eager to move on with the election.
"We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” IDP communications director Mandy McClure said in a statement. “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.”
McClure emphasized that this was not the result of a “hack or intrusion” and that the “underlying data and paper trail is sound.”
The IDP told campaigns in a call just after midnight Tuesday that they would release the results on Tuesday, according to two people on the call.
IDP chair Troy Price delivered a brief statement to reporters after 1 a.m., via conference call, echoing what he just told campaigns: The party experienced reporting issues, are verifying results against a "paper trail" and "back-up system," and the process is "taking longer than expected."
In an earlier short conference at around 10:30 p.m. in Des Moines on Monday, with representatives from each campaign, the IDP said they currently had just 35% of precinct numbers reported and that due to “user error” with their reporting app, they found some slight “inconsistencies,” according to participants on the call. Some numbers, the party said, “didn’t add up.”
The party told campaigns they were comparing the app results with cell phone pictures of the caucus paper worksheets, where caucus results are recorded manually by hand.
The IDP did not take any questions.
At one point, a participant could be heard shouting on the call: “This is an unbelievable explanation.” Another person chimed in, “I think he speaks for all of us.”
One campaign aide described the call as being “hung up” on.
Early Tuesday morning, after the second call, an aide with one of the campaigns told BuzzFeed News they were still unhappy. The IDP, the aide said, "provided no specificity" about when results would be released Tuesday, or how they would verify official results.
"It's not just the app that didn't work," the aide said. "There are numerous reports that precinct chairs did not gather preference cards from every caucus goer, precinct chairs that left because they couldn't report results. It's a real question on how results could be verified at all."
On Twitter and even on radio and television, local officials have reported hour-long hold times with the Iowa state party while trying to report results.
The Biden campaign’s general counsel, Dana Remus, sent a sternly worded letter to the state party’s top leaders Monday night, expressing frustration with “considerable flaws” in the reporting process.
“The app that was intended to relay Caucus results to the Party failed; the Party’s back-up telephonic reporting system likewise has failed,” Remus 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.”
Remus also asked that official results not be released until campaigns had a chance to hear more about “quality control” measures and respond to such information. It was not immediately clear if the letter was sent before the conference call.
"The integrity of the process is critical, and there were flaws in the reporting systems tonight that should raise serious concerns for voters," Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager, tweeted later.
J.D. Scholten, a Democratic congressional candidate in northern Iowa, was also perplexed by the glitches.
"I’m not sure what to make of it," Scholten told BuzzFeed News. "I tried reporting, but I was on hold forever, so I decided to hit up my favorite local bar."
MORE ON THIS
There Are No Official Iowa Caucus Results Yet Because The State Democratic Party Is Doing “Quality Control”Otillia Steadman · 10 hours ago
WARREN CAMPAIGN: 'INCOMPLETE NUMBERS CONTRIBUTE TO CHAOS'
With results delayed, Sanders claims lead as Iowa caucus turns into fiasco
After Democratic party suffers technical problems with results of first primary, Bernie campaign publishes its own unofficial tally, with Buttigieg 2nd, Biden 3rd and Warren 4th
Last updated on February 4, 2020, at 2:50 a.m. ET
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
The Iowa Democratic Party is delaying releasing the results of Monday night’s Iowa caucus because of reporting inconsistencies, infuriating campaigns eager to move on with the election.
"We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” IDP communications director Mandy McClure said in a statement. “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.”
McClure emphasized that this was not the result of a “hack or intrusion” and that the “underlying data and paper trail is sound.”
The IDP told campaigns in a call just after midnight Tuesday that they would release the results on Tuesday, according to two people on the call.
IDP chair Troy Price delivered a brief statement to reporters after 1 a.m., via conference call, echoing what he just told campaigns: The party experienced reporting issues, are verifying results against a "paper trail" and "back-up system," and the process is "taking longer than expected."
In an earlier short conference at around 10:30 p.m. in Des Moines on Monday, with representatives from each campaign, the IDP said they currently had just 35% of precinct numbers reported and that due to “user error” with their reporting app, they found some slight “inconsistencies,” according to participants on the call. Some numbers, the party said, “didn’t add up.”
The party told campaigns they were comparing the app results with cell phone pictures of the caucus paper worksheets, where caucus results are recorded manually by hand.
The IDP did not take any questions.
At one point, a participant could be heard shouting on the call: “This is an unbelievable explanation.” Another person chimed in, “I think he speaks for all of us.”
One campaign aide described the call as being “hung up” on.
Early Tuesday morning, after the second call, an aide with one of the campaigns told BuzzFeed News they were still unhappy. The IDP, the aide said, "provided no specificity" about when results would be released Tuesday, or how they would verify official results.
"It's not just the app that didn't work," the aide said. "There are numerous reports that precinct chairs did not gather preference cards from every caucus goer, precinct chairs that left because they couldn't report results. It's a real question on how results could be verified at all."
On Twitter and even on radio and television, local officials have reported hour-long hold times with the Iowa state party while trying to report results.
The Biden campaign’s general counsel, Dana Remus, sent a sternly worded letter to the state party’s top leaders Monday night, expressing frustration with “considerable flaws” in the reporting process.
“The app that was intended to relay Caucus results to the Party failed; the Party’s back-up telephonic reporting system likewise has failed,” Remus 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.”
Remus also asked that official results not be released until campaigns had a chance to hear more about “quality control” measures and respond to such information. It was not immediately clear if the letter was sent before the conference call.
"The integrity of the process is critical, and there were flaws in the reporting systems tonight that should raise serious concerns for voters," Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager, tweeted later.
J.D. Scholten, a Democratic congressional candidate in northern Iowa, was also perplexed by the glitches.
"I’m not sure what to make of it," Scholten told BuzzFeed News. "I tried reporting, but I was on hold forever, so I decided to hit up my favorite local bar."
There Are No Official Iowa Caucus Results Yet Because The State Democratic Party Is Doing “Quality Control”Otillia Steadman · 10 hours ago
WARREN CAMPAIGN: 'INCOMPLETE NUMBERS CONTRIBUTE TO CHAOS'
With results delayed, Sanders claims lead as Iowa caucus turns into fiasco
After Democratic party suffers technical problems with results of first primary, Bernie campaign publishes its own unofficial tally, with Buttigieg 2nd, Biden 3rd and Warren 4th
By ELODIE CUZIN
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, with wife Jane Sanders (R), addresses supporters during his caucus night watch party on February 03, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AFP) — Iowa’s vote kick-starting the 2020 US presidential contest degenerated into a fiasco marred by major delays on Monday, with Bernie Sanders claiming a slim lead in the Democratic caucus citing partial unofficial results.
Figures released by the leftist senator’s campaign showed Pete Buttigieg in second spot, a strong showing for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who was a national unknown just one year ago.
“Iowa, you have shocked the nation,” the 38-year-old gay military reservist told loudly cheering supporters in what sounded very much like a victory speech. “Because tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.”
With chaos on the ground as Democratic party officials reportedly told campaigns not to expect results before sometime Tuesday, Sanders, running as a democratic socialist, took to the microphones to proclaim he had “a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa.”
“Tonight in this enormously consequential 2020 election, the first state in the country has voted, and today marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” said the 78-year-old.
Iowa is a closely watched test in the months-long process to determine who will face the Republican president in November.
Sanders later took the bold step of releasing internal, unpublished results from nearly 40 percent of precincts, showing him with 28.62 percent of the state delegate equivalent, the all-important figure used to determine who wins the Iowa caucuses.
Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg arrives at a watch party at Drake University on February 03, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP)
Buttigieg earned 25.71 percent, followed by progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren with 18.42 percent, the data indicated.
Former vice president Joe Biden, the national frontrunner, was in fourth spot, at 15.08 percent, a disappointing showing for the candidate who has consistently claimed he is the person best positioned to take on and defeat Trump.
The Warren campaign pushed back at Sanders’ move, with her chief strategist Joe Rospars tweeting: “Any campaign saying they won or putting out incomplete numbers is contributing to the chaos and misinformation.”
But as the waiting dragged on, with zero results reported, other candidates also made claims to have beaten expectations.
“I’m feeling good,” Biden said before Sanders released the internals. “So it’s on to New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, well beyond. We’re in this for the long haul.”
Democratic presidential candidate former vice president Joe Biden takes the stage to address supporters with his wife Dr. Jill Biden during his caucus night watch party on February 03, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP)
New Hampshire votes second, on February 11, and tradition dictates that the top performers in Iowa board jets and race to The Granite State to capitalize on the momentum.
With the results in limbo, Senator Amy Klobuchar, from the neighboring Midwestern state of Minnesota, insisted “we are punching above our weight.”
Sanders’s data shows Klobuchar in fifth, at 10.93 percent.
The Iowa embarrassment is particularly bad timing, as US officials are under pressure to demonstrate the integrity of the voting system following 2016, when Russia stood accused of interfering in the presidential election in an effort to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In a statement read on US networks, Mandy McClure, communications director at the Iowa Democratic Party, said further checks were ordered after “inconsistencies” were found in the reporting of three sets of results.
“This is simply a reporting issue,” she said, denying there was “a hack or an intrusion.”
Biden’s campaign counsel Dana Remus wrote a stern letter to Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy Price complaining of the “considerable flaws” of the night’s caucus.
“We believe that the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond, before any official results are released.”
Republicans meanwhile rushed to suggest either incompetence or foul play by the Democratic leadership.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren takes the stage to address her supporters during a caucus night rally at the Forte Banquet and Conference Center February 03, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP)
“Democrat party meltdown,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a stinging tweet.
“They can’t even run a caucus and they want to run the government. No thank you.”
Trump — who has been weighed down by an impeachment process expected to end with his acquittal on Wednesday — is almost certain to mention the chaos on Tuesday night when he addresses Congress and the nation during his annual State of the Union speech.
Unlike secret ballot voting, Iowa caucus-goers publicly declare their choice by standing together with other supporters of a candidate. Candidates who reach 15 percent support earn delegates for the nomination race while supporters of candidates who fall short can shift to others.
It appeared the delays may have been exacerbated by new rules that the Democratic Party instituted after the 2016 election that now require caucuses to report three sets of numerical data throughout the process, rather than one set previously.
Held across nearly 1,700 sites, the Iowa vote offers a critical early look at the viability of the 11 Democrats still in the race — even though just 41 delegates are up for grabs, a fraction of the 1,991 needed to secure the nomination in July.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-app-that-disrupted-iowa-caucuses.html
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/published-on-tuesday-february-04-2020.html
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, with wife Jane Sanders (R), addresses supporters during his caucus night watch party on February 03, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AFP) — Iowa’s vote kick-starting the 2020 US presidential contest degenerated into a fiasco marred by major delays on Monday, with Bernie Sanders claiming a slim lead in the Democratic caucus citing partial unofficial results.
Figures released by the leftist senator’s campaign showed Pete Buttigieg in second spot, a strong showing for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who was a national unknown just one year ago.
“Iowa, you have shocked the nation,” the 38-year-old gay military reservist told loudly cheering supporters in what sounded very much like a victory speech. “Because tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.”
With chaos on the ground as Democratic party officials reportedly told campaigns not to expect results before sometime Tuesday, Sanders, running as a democratic socialist, took to the microphones to proclaim he had “a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa.”
“Tonight in this enormously consequential 2020 election, the first state in the country has voted, and today marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” said the 78-year-old.
Iowa is a closely watched test in the months-long process to determine who will face the Republican president in November.
Sanders later took the bold step of releasing internal, unpublished results from nearly 40 percent of precincts, showing him with 28.62 percent of the state delegate equivalent, the all-important figure used to determine who wins the Iowa caucuses.
Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg arrives at a watch party at Drake University on February 03, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP)
Buttigieg earned 25.71 percent, followed by progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren with 18.42 percent, the data indicated.
Former vice president Joe Biden, the national frontrunner, was in fourth spot, at 15.08 percent, a disappointing showing for the candidate who has consistently claimed he is the person best positioned to take on and defeat Trump.
The Warren campaign pushed back at Sanders’ move, with her chief strategist Joe Rospars tweeting: “Any campaign saying they won or putting out incomplete numbers is contributing to the chaos and misinformation.”
But as the waiting dragged on, with zero results reported, other candidates also made claims to have beaten expectations.
“I’m feeling good,” Biden said before Sanders released the internals. “So it’s on to New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, well beyond. We’re in this for the long haul.”
Democratic presidential candidate former vice president Joe Biden takes the stage to address supporters with his wife Dr. Jill Biden during his caucus night watch party on February 03, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP)
New Hampshire votes second, on February 11, and tradition dictates that the top performers in Iowa board jets and race to The Granite State to capitalize on the momentum.
With the results in limbo, Senator Amy Klobuchar, from the neighboring Midwestern state of Minnesota, insisted “we are punching above our weight.”
Sanders’s data shows Klobuchar in fifth, at 10.93 percent.
The Iowa embarrassment is particularly bad timing, as US officials are under pressure to demonstrate the integrity of the voting system following 2016, when Russia stood accused of interfering in the presidential election in an effort to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In a statement read on US networks, Mandy McClure, communications director at the Iowa Democratic Party, said further checks were ordered after “inconsistencies” were found in the reporting of three sets of results.
“This is simply a reporting issue,” she said, denying there was “a hack or an intrusion.”
Biden’s campaign counsel Dana Remus wrote a stern letter to Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy Price complaining of the “considerable flaws” of the night’s caucus.
“We believe that the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond, before any official results are released.”
Republicans meanwhile rushed to suggest either incompetence or foul play by the Democratic leadership.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren takes the stage to address her supporters during a caucus night rally at the Forte Banquet and Conference Center February 03, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP)
“Democrat party meltdown,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a stinging tweet.
“They can’t even run a caucus and they want to run the government. No thank you.”
Trump — who has been weighed down by an impeachment process expected to end with his acquittal on Wednesday — is almost certain to mention the chaos on Tuesday night when he addresses Congress and the nation during his annual State of the Union speech.
Unlike secret ballot voting, Iowa caucus-goers publicly declare their choice by standing together with other supporters of a candidate. Candidates who reach 15 percent support earn delegates for the nomination race while supporters of candidates who fall short can shift to others.
It appeared the delays may have been exacerbated by new rules that the Democratic Party instituted after the 2016 election that now require caucuses to report three sets of numerical data throughout the process, rather than one set previously.
Held across nearly 1,700 sites, the Iowa vote offers a critical early look at the viability of the 11 Democrats still in the race — even though just 41 delegates are up for grabs, a fraction of the 1,991 needed to secure the nomination in July.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-app-that-disrupted-iowa-caucuses.html
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/published-on-tuesday-february-04-2020.html
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