What started out with election excitement ended in suspicion and few answers.
The Iowa Caucus of the Democrats went late into the night with confusion over the actual results, and candidates having to give their “victory” speeches without knowing even when the results would come.
In multiple precincts, callers said that caucus chairs did not know how to calculate the final math. The rules allowed people to leave the building they were caucusing in after the first round of “alignment.” Some caucus chairs counted only the total of those who remained in the room for the second round of alignment, rather than the total of all who had initially come through the door.
It’s a “ranked choice” voting method that ended in disaster, as it was calculated in different ways in different precincts.
Others said their technology was to blame. The precincts were using an application (an app) created for caucus officials. The app wasn’t giving accurate results.
Confusion reigned late into the night on Monday, with no clear results and fading confidence by the grassroots supporters of candidates. Was this yet another attempt to cut Bernie Sanders out?
Party officials finally held a call with the campaigns late Monday night, and said that the party had “found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.”
There is a paper trail, the party says, to allay concerns that the system was hacked.
“The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results,” a Democrat spokeswoman said.
Joe Biden’s campaign is now questioning the integrity and eventual results. The campaign sent a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party demanding a full explanation about the “acute failures” that were occurring statewide.
Bernie Sanders’ supporters across the country are already deeply suspicious of the Democratic National Committee rigging the process, like it did in 2016 when it awarded the majority of delegates to Hillary Clinton.
For Republicans on social media, the jokes were writing themselves:
“What’s the hold up? The Democrats are socialists. Just evenly distribute the delegates and call it a night,” wrote Keri Kellerman.
“Siri, show me what Democrats will do if they run America’s economy and healthcare system,” quipped media personality Ben Shapiro.
“Going just like the Obama Care rollout. What a disaster, but at least Democrats are consistent,” another trolled.
“On my second bowl of popcorn. This is fun!” wrote Laura Ingraham.
Even Alaska’s expert on caucuses and presidential preference polls got in on the fun:
“I thought about calling Tom Begich to see if he wants me to come run their primary,” quipped Randy Ruedrich, former chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.
WHAT ABOUT ALASKA DEMOCRATS?
Alaska Democrats have to be watching with concern. In just a few weeks, they will roll out their own ballot-caucus, in which they will attempt to use mail-in ballots, ranked voting, and in-person elections, all run by volunteers.
They, too, will be using technology to help them calculate the results, and calculating ranked-choice voting will require a bit of trust in the software and trust in the users of the system.
The Alaska Democrats’ plan was approved of by the Democratic National Committee late last year, but then in January, the party’s data director left in haste, and the FBI was called in to interview the staff and officers.
No explanation has been given by the Alaska Democrats about the reason the FBI was brought in.
To calculate these results will require knowledge of math. That’s racist, you know…
Just in . . . The APP failure affecting the Democrat’s caucus in Iowa is because it can’t translate from Ukranian back into English! Ha!
Bet they blame this on Trump.
Milwaukee gonna burn.
Yes, yes, it’s all very funny. Enjoy yourselves, because you won’t be laughing in November…
Why are Democrats already working on fixing that election the way they’ve fixed the Iowa caucus?
Are you ready for it? The Russian’s did it! What a bunch of tools.
And the Democrats in Alaska want us to vote for ranked choice voting here?
This is how elections are stolen. In the week or two leading up to Monday night, Bernie was said to be leading. Then the last authoritative poll before the caucuses is not published. Last night, the results are not reported because an untested app didn’t work.
Every single tweak, change, modification of election procedure and rules makes it easier to commit fraud and steal elections. It is what democrats have in mind for us here in Alaska with their Better Elections ballot initiative. Democrats are no longer a political party. They are a criminal conspiracy masquerading as one. Cheers –
As comrade Stalin said, it’s not who votes, it’s who counts the votes.
The actual quote is something along the lines of…Those who vote determine nothing, those who count the votes determine everything. Which is exactly what happened in Iowa. The final Des Moines Register poll was spiked because it showed Bernie leading and Slow Joe under 15 percent. So the caucuses were rigged to minimize Bernie’s lead and to put Slow Joe above the 15 percent threshold so he would remain viable. Had this been a straight-forward primary vote, Bernie would have been first and Slow Joe would have done no better than fourth.
The delayed result from the Iowa Democratic caucus in the US has put the spotlight on a start-up called Shadow, which is part of a wider effort by veterans of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to boost the party’s use of technology.
Shadow is closely linked to Pacronym, a new non-profit backed by big names from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Hollywood, which hopes to help the Democrats counter President Donald Trump’s formidable army of online supporters with greater digital marketing savvy.
Pacronym was founded in March 2017 by Tara McGowan, a former journalist turned digital marketer in the Democrats’ 2016 presidential campaign. Its board members include David Plouffe, head of President Obama’s 2008 election campaign and a former Uber executive who now works at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a multi-billion-dollar philanthropic group led by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.
Seems like with all that technological horsepower, if they wanted to, the D’s would be able to count the votes in a place where there’s more cows than votes. Anyway, great example why we should give these clowns the code to the nukes and the printing press for the greenbacks.
ERAK,
The U.S. government is not in charge of printing the money.
That privilege is currently saved for the Federal Reserve which is a private consortium of Bankers.
“Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders.” – The Honorable Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee in the 1930s
Steve, The conversation pertains to the recent Iowa democratic caucus. We are not discussing the federal reserve here. Please don’t interject unwarranted opinions into a topical discussion. MRA please take note.
He always does that pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. But yeah let’s talk about how a man with a husband wins the Iowa caucus … laugh out loud.
The POTUS appoints the board members of the Federal Reserve.
These are the same fools that have run most of America’s S–Holes for decades – nothing has changed.
Poor Democrat’s. Elephant tears for sure!
Iowa was to be all about D’s. One could have forgotten the Republicans even existed in Iowa from media coverage.
Now Nate Silver indicates democrats may have blown the entire electoral process. No Iowa “bounce.”
All they could report was Trump’s 97% victory. It likely diminishes subsequent state and cements the tone for failure. Follows failure to convict/remove. Failure to enact policies of substance such as illustrated in Trump’s superbowl ad. They set themselves up as all talk, no results.
Now Iowa results, if any, will be overshadowed by Trump’s speech tonight. The date having been set by Speaker Pelosi.
It will be followed by Trump’s acquittal tomorrow.
All Trump.
Zip, nada, nothing to show for almost a billion dollars ($800m) in spending by Democrat candidates in Iowa.
Wow.
Drowning in elephant tears!
In Iowa they’re using a kind of ranked choice system. And there is some kind of formula involved. Its all very murky, behind the scenes internal workings. But trust us.
That’s not what we need. We need real clear, easy to understand voting. Simple is better.
Whidbey Thedog
It is hilarious, yes much more than that, especially since it turns out that some old Clinton hands were the folks who devised the software or App that was used to calculate the vote. Could it have been corrupted?
And when Donald J Trump, an eccentric man with all of character flaws, ( which have now been on display for what 5 years?) , defeats whatever Troll the Democrats choose to run, (please let it be Joe Biden!) , it will not be funny. It will be pathetic. A once great Party that produced Truman and Kennedy is rudderless, leaderless, devoid of ideas and well, just ugly! (think Chuck Schumer) Long gone is the Scoop Jackson wing of the party or even a thoughtful leader like Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The Democrat party now is as corrupt as the soviet Politburo only less intelligent in economics. The rabid Dog persecution of Trump was and is nothing more than a cover up for the well documented corruption in DC, coupled with a seething hatred for the electorate that placed him in charge.
Another great Democrat once faced the same persecution in our nations capitol, his name was Andrew Jackson. a man of passion and zeal with a dubious background. I think Ronald Reagan said it best, ” I didn’t leave the Democrat Party, they left me”
Could it be that this caucus carcass was intentional? It’s getting lots of attention and giving the dems airplay while they “assure” everyone that it was clean and honest. This is the path to communist totalitarianism. Joe is done, Pete is a bad joke, which leaves the Bern and Liz… Liz will trip all over herself telling more donkey-tales than Schiff. So my guess is this was rigged to make Bernie look good – not an easy task, as Americans are smarter than that. They want to keep Bloomberg the gun-grabber off the podium (he wants everyone’s guns but his taken of course). And the other Ds? Not a chance. I hear a cackle in the wings…
Well spotted! Yes, Iowans are very well known for their conspiratorial tendencies. In this particular case, hundreds of them conspired together, meeting in secret out in the cornfields where they would not be seen, communicating using the encrypted FarmNet messaging service, and all directed by their leaders lurking in the safe houses of deep, dark Des Moines.
Or, you know, it could just be a software program that didn’t work all that great.
Geez.
It’s called “rigging the primary”. What happened in Iowa is even more brazen than what Hillary did during the last election. But the purpose remains the same…Stop Bernie.
Of course the Democrats sabotaged their own caucus in order to stop Bernie. It’s obviously worth it, even at the expense of making their party cannon fodder for the Republicans…
Geez.
The problem with Iowa (Democrats) is that they all have TDD and that means chaos in their minds. A mixed-up bunch, if there ever was. And that produces more chaos. Good for Republicans, though.
Dear Kemosabee, please allow me to refer you to the comment guidelines recently posted by the author. If you’re not already over the edge, you’ve definitely skated right up to it.
How the heck would you have any insight into the minds of your generalized “Iowa Democrats”, given that you probably don’t know a single one?
If you comment again, please try to add material that actually contributes to honest discourse instead of just relying on generalized insults and ad hominem attacks.
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