The Iowa Democratic Caucuses Are a Huge Mess Right Now
Is it the ethanol?
The results of the Iowa Democratic caucuses have been delayed. Very delayed. Possibly due to problems with an app, possibly due to new rules, and possibly because of inconsistencies in the results.
A precinct chairman called into CNN to say that he was unable to report the results from his caucus and had been on hold for an hour. While he was explaining the delay to CNN host Wolf Blitzer, the man finally reached an operator, who then hung up on him while he told Blitzer that he needed to report the results:
Wolf Blitzer ruins county precinct secretary's reporting after waiting on hold for an hour!! ????????????????????????#cnnelection #IowaCaucus pic.twitter.com/DHeDmCqvjY
— Nathan Jundt (@NathanJundt) February 4, 2020
Here is the man's heroic tale in his own tweets:
https://twitter.com/shawnsebastian/status/1224538096571686912
A computer app may be behind the problem:
https://twitter.com/rubycramer/status/1224538785255391232?s=21
Bloomberg News reported earlier in the evening that the app, designed to make it easier for caucus secretaries to report results, does not, uh, allow them to do that. Could be user error, could be a broken app; neither scenario is without precedent. But the app really seems like a big problem. Maybe the problem:
A source in the IDP room where the results are being processed said they were being taken and entered manually on the phone, and said the apps were "barely" working. https://t.co/GxtYZNncsp
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) February 4, 2020
The Iowa Democratic Party has released two statements thus far. The first was shrouded in mystery and intrigue:
In its second statement, the Iowa Democratic Party reported "inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results." Also, don't blame the app!
"If Iowa hopes to maintain its privileged status, it's crucial that everything go smoothly tonight," The Atlantic's Elaine Godfrey wrote before caucus sites opened today. "During the 2016 caucus, volunteers were unprepared for the overwhelming turnout; there were technological problems, reporting errors, and multiple coin flips."
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Who cares? Democrats will never beat Trump in election 2020.
Let ‘em eat each others babies…bitch!
It shows the problems with using electronics for elections. That can make a big difference in the regular election. Fraud is much easier to perpetrate electronically. Paper ballots are the only secure system.
Yang is blaming Trump for the mess.
Andrew Yang????
✔
@AndrewYang
It might be helpful to have a President and government that understand technology so this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
Surprised it isn’t somehow Russia’s fault.
hey, if it’s Trump’s fault, it is Russia’s fault. Haven’t you been keeping up?
I mean, Yang… dude… you don’t understand that Trump and the Trump Administration have zero to do with Iowa’s Democrat Caucus?
I mean, that’s not what the Dems will say if they don’t like the result. He’s probably colluding with Russia to get an easy strawman through the primary. At least, that’ll be the story if Bernie wins the nomination and then loses the general. Right?
I’m sure any nationwide voting app wouldn’t be vulnerable to hacking at either the front end or the back end, no sir, not at all, we employ best practices on all cybersecurity measures…
(Never mind that our own email server was hacked in 2016 and our beans spilled, we’ve definitely learned our lesson)
Yep. Instead of “password” the password will be “Password”.
I don’t think Yang is blaming Trump for the mess so much as he’s trying to tout his tech credentials as to why Democratic voters should pick him (which is in keeping with his overall campaign). The thing is that the presidential candidates and the eventual nominee really don’t have anything to do with how the caucues are run or the apps that they chose. He’d be in a better position to fix the Iowa Caucus if he moved to Iowa and was elected state party chair.
I cant remember a president ever having to develop an app for a primary caucus. It is simply a bad tweet.
Yeah, I didn’t see that as some goofy TDS tweet. He was pimping his own tech credentials, but didn’t clarify it as well as he should have.
Regardless, this brings back fond memories of 2004, Democratic tears over electronic voting machines, and a couple years worth of thought-pieces by left-leaning pundits that demanded voting machines that produced a paper receipt if they used a GUI. Maybe they realized that voter fraud becomes exponentially easier to commit if you directly control the voting apparatus that people use.
Another vote for paper ballots.
Leaves a paper trail for recounts.
Can’t be hacked by “Russians”
Results available in one hour
Paper ballots cast in person
This whole “finding” totes of ballots is blatant cheating
Yeah, mention how paper ballots prevent fraud and you leave Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) smiling ear to ear.
Paper ballots don’t mean shit without a picture ID to verify that you’re authorized to cast your vote.
Pretty much this, but it’s still good to watch though.
TOP MEN, PEOPLE!
When a democrat tells you about their health insurance exchange; When they talk about their Climate Models; When they point to their economic models; Remember this.
Many people think that because Silicon Valley types are inordinately leftist, that the left can bring technology to the forefront. As someone in the tech sector, I can tell you this is completely wrong. For every lefty Google or Facebook, there are dozens if not hundreds of lefty also-rans whose technology solutions and approaches to problems failed miserably and lost investors millions. What has made lefties appear to be technological masterminds is the market. It has tested the technology of hundreds of politicians, pundits and the businesses enabling them, and culled the weak until only the strong survive.
When you only see the strong, and they happen to have technology strategies, it is easy to confuse this for saying that the ONLY strategy is to use technology. As we see here, that is totally not the case.
“No, but seriously, let us run your healthcare”
-stolen from Guy Benson, who is a dbag… but that’s a good line
The whole thing is fucking hilarious and proof positive that the DNC is colluding with its media-preferred candidates to cornhole Bernie again.
-In a repeat of 2016, Buttigieg was winning every single coin flip for delegates. He apparently has investments in Shadow, which runs the voting app that caused this shitshow.
-Shadow is run by a bunch of Hillary’s former cronies, including Robby Mook, her 2016 campaign manager.
-Apparently the DHS partnered with Shadow and Harvard’s D3 program to develop the app, which is especially interesting (Reason won’t let my account post links, but last night Max Blumenthal referenced an article from Forbes that talked about it when he was calling Mook out)
If you don’t realize the Democratic Party is hell-bent on committing voter fraud after last night’s shit show, you’re a liar or willfully ignorant. I’d bet cash money that they were planning to demand that this app needed to be implemented on a national scale because “modern needs demand modern solutions and refusing to authorize this for national elections is voter suppression!” The involvement of DHS in this is some especially weird, deep-state style crap.
Them damn Russkies again!
They have this every 4 years, and they can’t pull it together?
So who do you think they’ll run against Trump in 2024?
Whoever’s left after a few rounds of delegate roulette at the convention in the summer will probably be anointed. I wouldn’t envy them the position.
“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Iowa, the lunatic fringe struck out.”
“Once I had everything, I gave it up
For the shoulder of your driveway and the words I’ve never felt
And so for you I came this far across the tracks
Ten miles above the limit and with no seatbelt, and I’d do it again
For tonight I went running through the screen doors of discretion
For I woke up from a nightmare that I could not stand to see
You were a-wandering out on the hills of Iowa
And you were not thinking of me”
Hehe.
In Iowa of old,
Where knights were bold,
And toilets weren’t invented,
We stopped by the road,
And dropped our load,
And walked away contented!
(Things haven’t changed that much, in Iowa, especially on election day, even AFTER the invention of the toilet!)
Mike Bloomberg must have an epic boner right now. If the dem clowns can’t get their shit together, he is the de facto nominee
Meanwhile, Trump broke Obama’s Iowa Caucus record with almost 30,000 votes
With his son Hunter’s help, I believe that Biden has won the Caucasus.
Once they normalize (or whatever they do to the climate models) the data…
Word is Biden, at this point, Biden isn’t even top 3
Caucasus. As in Ukraine, not Iowa.
Yes, I got your joke.
Unfortunately, the Caucasus are not in Ukraine. They’re further southeast.
Georgia —-the country, not the state.
First Kansas Covfefe, Kansas and now this!?!
Damnit, my bad.
Good one
‘…Could be user error, could be a broken app; neither scenario is without precedent. But the app really seems like a big problem. Maybe the problem:..”
There are no ‘computer errors’ there are ‘human errors’ which show up when used to program computers.
Just from curiosity, was the app specially designed to avoid Russki interference and somehow missed DNC interference?
When the dust settles and the problems are resolved, I’m sure we’ll find that Hillary Clinton has swept the Iowa Caucuses.
“Andrew Yang????
@AndrewYang
·
6m
It might be helpful to have a President and government that understand technology so this sort of thing doesn’t happen.”
Umm…
I can think of several countries in which the executive is involved in selecting his opponent. It’s refreshing to hear one of the two parties in the US admit they envy them.
Ahem. Chief Executive. Carry on.
Robby Mook
@RobbyMook
· 1h
Sorry, folks. I did NOT have anythjng to do with building the Iowa caucus app. I dont know anything about it, had no role in it, and dont own a company that makes mobile appa. Please contact @iowademocrats with questions about it.
“Ken Miller
@kendmil
·
1h
Replying to
@mtaibbi
@ebruenig
Mook is part of Defending Digital Democracy project, worked with “Both parties in Iowa and their app and web development vendors … and simulated the different ways that things could go wrong on caucus night.” Not app developer?”
He’s the brains behind the app. Other than that he has nothing to do with it, whatsoever.
Also was tasked w testing it.
So Mook is as competent at his job as Blumenthal was at hiring Libyan embassy security. Sounds right for a Hillary crony.
Is that bitch competent at anything besides killing her political enemies?
It is more than just Mook. Hillary connections and old party connections surround the company who made the app.
https://pjmedia.com/election/hoo-boy-hillarys-campaign-manager-was-involved-with-that-disastrous-iowa-caucus-app/
that’s not suspicious at all
I think the Russians and the Ukrainians had secretly joined forces in order to be able to manipulate the Iowa caucus results so that they can assure that Klobuchar wins the nomination.
At first, they tried to have her use the repetitive ‘Trump joke” but they were afraid it wasn’t enough so now they took a more direct approach.
I saw a possible explanation on another site: maybe the app is stuck in a loop looking for Hillary votes.
“Democratic Party
@DNC
· 7h
For three years, we’ve been preparing for the process that officially kicks off tonight in Iowa: the Democratic presidential primary. Today our chair, @TomPerez, reflects on the reforms we’ve made to make this the most transparent primary in our history: https://bit.ly/2SgkWDX”
Ouch
Someone retrieve my sides from orbit.
Couldn’t they just put an Excel spreadsheet on SharePoint, and give the caucus chairmen the login info? Tallying the Iowa caucus vote should have taken about 10 minutes.
Somebody’s neice just got her ‘app developer degree’ from DeVry….
They fucked it up. Goodbye Iowa caucuses. Nice knowing you. Leave it up to the Democrats and their stupid three tier fucking bullshit voting and broke ass app to fuck it all up. First the Des Moines Register outs Busch Light guy on Game day at the Iowa/Iowa State game, then the same shit ass paper fucks up the final Iowa poll yesterday, and now no one believes or cares who the fuck won because no one will believe it. I fucking love it. Don’t just drop the fail, light the fucking dumpster on fire on the way out.
fail = ball. Who cares. Bring Terry Branstad back from Chine before he gets sick. So he can usher Iowa into the 22nd century. #governorForEvah
To anyone who supports antifa because “anti-fascist is right in the name” note how well this group executes democracy.
The irony is that these shenanigans are being pulled by the Dems’ establishment wing, not its Antifa insurgents.
The insinuation is that ‘democrat’ =/= someone supporting democracy, despite it being in the name.
They have to rig the outcome a different way this time. They were too transparent about it in 2016
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Why are the delegates split that way?
Sanders got almost 3x as much as Bootygig. Shouldn’t it be proportionally distributed as 3-2-1 rather than 2 each?
Has to do with their viability numbers. On the 2nd vote pass, delegates of non viable candidates, those with too few votes, started fucking with vote totals. Booker got some delegates while Biden got none.
Just seems odd to me. In that district Sanders dominated but he gets equal delegate representation to the third finisher
Its the party way.
Democracy is too important to leave in the hands of average voters.
If they can make the delegate count based on pleb support be equal all the way to the convention then the party elite (super delegates) can make the ‘right’ choice and it all look nice and legitimate.
But she won by 3 million in the popular vote.
If they can dilute the caucus state votes by spreading them out to everyone it hurts Bernie the most. This was always the goal.
I don’t know how all Democrat voters aren’t crying foul at how ridiculous is their primary process. The party certainly doesn’t lived up to their name in how it chooses candidates
They’ve bent over and accepted it for nearly 50 years, why would they stop now?
Dems R Da Reel Consurvativs
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I can’t click your link because I’m allergic to malware, but I finally put the clues together and figured it out. The job is for an online proofreader and editor!
“During the 2016 caucus, volunteers were unprepared for the overwhelming turnout; there were technological problems, reporting errors, and multiple coin flips.”
Did any top level decision makers lose their job?
They are the party of big government, so I doubt it. It’s the Government Way.
The App kept outputting Hillary as the winner. Everyone is confused.
+1000
Shoulda just used MySpace.
I am now absolutely sure I don’t want any of these clowns anywhere near “the button”. One more forced to go Trump.
“The results of the Iowa Democratic caucuses have been delayed. Very delayed. Possibly due to problems with an app, possibly due to new rules, and possibly because of inconsistencies in the results.”
Or, most likely, the DNC hasn’t decided who will win yet.
Or they have the results, but it’s hardly a good look for them to say that instead of last go around’s 171k voters, they only got 70k. My vote at the moment is that they took a hit in voter numbers and don’t want to admit it.
This is so emblematic of Team D. A completely FUBAR process that promises unicorns and pixie dust and delivers a load of manure.
You can’t tell me that Team D is not trying to shut out The Bern.
I wonder what the MSNBC crowd will blame for this mess. Is it:
1. Putin!
2. Global Warming!
3. Trump Tax Cuts!
4. Melania’s Dress!
5. Fox News!
6. Gun Nuts!
7. Christians!
How is just plain old “Trump” not included on your list?
All of the reasons (and any others we can think of) = “Trump”.
Duh, net neutrality.
Don’t let this little snafu make you reconsider that Democrats are the only adults in the room who know how democracy should work.
Nothing like watching our betters build a Rube Goldberg machine.
I’m announcing right now on Reason my candidacy for Congress on a “Save our Ethanol for what it’s good for” platform.
Dispisating our resources for big agriculture, and big oil, making our gas and food more expensive, while screwing up our car engines, and not doing a damn thing about addressing our severe alcohol shortage (my glass is way more than half empty) is criminal.
Interesting lack of mention about Buttigieg and a hefty political contribution he made to a company called Shadow (yes, that’s their actual name). Shadow designed the app that the Caucus is using and Buttigieg suspiciously gave a premature victory speech despite the contested results and everyone else holding off. Really makes me think.
The Dem establishment seems to be rallying around him in this caucus to screw over Bernie, since Pete appeared to have the widest appeal in the state outside of Sanders.
Did anyone happen to catch Warren’s campaign slogan on the video pop-up?
“Hope Over Fear”–first she appropriates Native American identity, then she steals Obama’s line.
Is there anything that about that harpy that wasn’t procured from somewhere else?
Over-under on Hillary Clinton making a late entry?
Now that Bloomberg has lost Nick Gillespie’s vote, which of these nutcases will he go for now?
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Isn’t prostitution illegal, even if done at home?
Not prostitution, pimping. Iva’s a child sex trafficker.