The word being used now to describe the Iowa caucus vote — where, in the end, problems with a new app meant the evening ended with no winner announced — is “chaos.”
Or a kind of “show” proceeded by another word that we don’t often use on The Moderate Voice because we largely adhere to old-fashioned newspaper standards.
At the least, the Democratic Party ended the evening with a bad image that just screamed out “Inept/”
At a little more than least, the Democratic Party will now get lots of publicity as late night comedians, comedians in comedy clubs and Donald Trump can create all kinds of one liners.
At the worst, the question becomes: what is the impact of no winners being announced and the candidates immediately scrambling to get on their planes to New Hampshire for the next big vote? The fact that no one lost and no one has to pull out of the contests because of a hideous showing means Iowa failed it’s most basic test. The fact that it was an app that didn’t work right signifies a lack of quality control.
The fact that an app was used in a vote that isn’t a monster vote is also puzzling: it’s sort of like someone developing an app that with the touch of your phone will flush your toilet.
But no matter how you describe it the way the election results were handled (or not handled) could not only impact the outcome of the nomination race, hurt the party’s image — and lead to the demise of the Iowa caucus. Which many believe is way overdue and since some argue the caucus system is undemocratic. The LA Times:
The first electoral contest of the 2020 campaign turned into a major debacle Monday night as the Iowa Democratic Party failed to report the results of its influential presidential caucuses.
The nearly 1,700 community gatherings proceeded smoothly as eager partisans flocked to church basements, senior centers, school libraries and other warm places to make their preferences known.The problems began when it came time to declare a winner, which will not come until Tuesday at the earliest.
Preliminary tallies showed the main competition was among former Vice President Joe Biden; ex-South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and the perceived front-runner, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
A party spokeswoman explained the indefinite delay by citing “quality checks and the fact that the [Iowa Democratic Party] is reporting out three data sets for the first time.” The party said there was no sabotage involved.
“This is simply a reporting issue; the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion,” said communications director Mandy McClure. “The underlying data and paper trail is sound and [it] will simply take time to further report the results.”
But Democratic leaders and precinct chairs around the state reported problems with the computer application intended to relay results to the party headquarters in Des Moines.
…The reporting issues led to the odd spectacle of candidates giving what sounded like victory speeches to their bemused supporters without anyone knowing who actually won or lost. The confusion also yielded a flurry of finger-pointing, conspiracy theories and efforts to shape perceptions by touting partial campaign returns.
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Satirist Andy Borowitz (the jokes are starting already):
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (The Borowitz Report)—Calling the delay in the release of the Iowa caucus results “a threat to democracy,” the state of Florida has offered to help Iowa with the vote-counting process.
Harland Dorrinson, a spokesman for Florida’s official electoral commission, said on Tuesday morning that “Florida stands ready and willing to restore credibility to Iowa’s vote-tabulation procedures.”
Dorrinson added that Katherine Harris, Florida’s former secretary of state, was eager to “roll up her sleeves and clean up Iowa’s mess.”
“Just say the word, Iowa, and Katherine Harris will be on the next plane out,” he said.
For their part, Iowa Democratic Party officials said that they were already making great progress in counting the caucus results, and that early returns indicated that a white person had won.
Go to the link to read all of it.
Politico reporter Tim Alberta calls Iowa caucus day “a date that will live in electoral infamy.”
There can be no doubting it now, not after so many years spent in the crosshairs, not after active presidential candidates began challenging its privileged position atop the nominating calendar, and certainly not after Monday night’s debacle that left seven candidates and millions of viewers waiting for results that never came: Iowa’s reign is over.
Oh, sure, the state and its fabled caucuses may live on in some ceremonial capacity, perhaps clinging to a sort of emeritus role in the earlier stages of the nominating season. Presidential candidates will still pay occasional homage to the state, observing the time-worn traditions of tractor shows and food on a stick, unwilling to ignore a place and a people that have been so central to the making of the modern American presidency.
The disaster that unfolded here Monday night—improper recording of results, failed transmission of precinct tallies, botched management of the voting procedures themselves—will leave no recourse for the national parties. Iowa’s blood has been in the water for years, its sacred-cow status a source of resentment for states like Florida and Michigan that claim to be more representative of the nation. Iowa has survived, cycle after cycle, on the strength of strategic alliances, none more critical than between the Democratic and Republican parties in the state, each one recognizing that one’s failure could doom the tradition clung to by both.
There have been close calls before, but nothing approaching the catastrophe of Feb. 3, a date that will be remembered as the beginning of Iowa’s end after a nearly half-century-long run kicking off the presidential primary process. As it became clear in the twilight hours of Monday that Democrats would not produce timely, trustworthy numbers by which to judge the candidates after two years of campaigning in the state, it was equally obvious that Iowa’s day of reckoning had arrived.
“This will probably be the last caucus we’ll have to worry about,” David Yepsen, the longtime Des Moines Register scribe and dean of the Iowa press corps, wrote on Twitter.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.