Politics
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Democratic voters attend a precinct caucus in Des Moines, Iowa, on Feb. 3, 2020, to select the person to take on President Donald Trump in the November presidential election from a crowded field of Democratic candidates.
- Monday night's Iowa caucuses descended into chaos after the results were indefinitely delayed by problems likely caused by a glitchy app.
- For the first time ever, the Iowa Democratic Party went into Tuesday morning without declaring any results from the caucuses at all.
- The meltdown in reporting results was a shocking outcome for one of the most highly-anticipated political events since the 2016 election, and it could lead to the end of the Iowa caucuses as we know them.
- Democratic candidates in this cycle have criticized the DNC outright for putting Iowa, which is over 90% white and largely unrepresentative of the nation, first in the primary process.
- The caucus model has also been criticized for being inaccessible to people with disabilities, elderly Iowans, people who don't work a typical nine-to-five work schedule, and parents of young children.
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Monday night's Iowa caucuses descended into a chaos when results were delayed by a glitchy app. For the first time, the Iowa Democratic Party went into Tuesday morning without declaring any results from the caucuses at all.
The unprecedented meltdown in reporting was a shocking outcome for the most highly-anticipated and watched political event since the 2016 election.
Since 1972, Iowa has been a huge deal simply by virtue of being first in the Democratic nomination process and setting the tone for the rest of the process - but Monday night's catastrophe could lead to the end of the Iowa caucuses as we know them.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images
Ari Rabin-Havt, deputy campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks to the media about the delay in releasing caucus results late Monday, Feb. 3, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Iowa Democratic Party's attempts to streamline the process spectacularly backfired
Caucuses, unlike primaries, are run by individual state parties and not official government agencies tasked with managing and overseeing elections, leaving the process open to more human error without government-established protocols.
In an effort to bolster transparency around the caucus process, this year the Iowa Democratic Party decided to release three sets of results: the vote counts from the first alignment, the count from the second alignment, which determines what candidates pass the viability threshold to receive delegates, and each candidate's vote share from the second alignment converted into what are called "state delegate equivalents."
To streamline the reporting of results, the Iowa Democratic Party told their precinct captains to use an app developed by tech firm Shadow to report the results from the nearly 1,700 caucus locations across the state - but reportedly without doing the proper tests and prep work to ensure the app would work.
On Monday night, precinct captains recounted not being able to use the new app designated to report precinct-level results and facing hour-long waits to call in the results to the state party, which didn't have the capacity to take so many calls at once and later convened an emergency conference call with campaigns.
Beyond the app issues, reports surfaced that some "caucus chairs did not know how to calculate the final math" of the results.
"The app was designed to feed the intense demand for immediate results, and we all need to take responsibility for the outcome," David Becker, a voting rights attorney and the director of The Center for Election Innovation & Research said on NPR's 1A show Tuesday morning. "It's more responsible to get it right than get it fast."
The party clarified in a statement just after 10:30 p.m. CT on Monday that the delay was due to "inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results," not any kind of "hack or intrusion" into the app itself.
On Tuesday morning, the IDP continued to maintain that the app itself was not compromised, saying they had "determined with certainty that the underlying data collected via the app was sound. While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data...due to a coding issue in the reporting system. This issue was identified and fixed."
The party added that every precinct also kept a paper trail of the results, allowing them to sort out the inconsistencies from the app. "Our plan is to release results as soon as possible today, our ultimate goal is to ensure that the integrity and accuracy of the process continues to be upheld," they said.
Despite the party's best efforts to fix the debacle, the damage had already been done. In addition to candidates not knowing their own performance in Iowa, the night was a huge blow to the hundreds of the campaign staff and volunteers who uprooted their lives to work in Iowa.
Associated Press
A supporter for Democratic presidential candidate businessman Andrew Yang waits in the stands before a Democratic caucus at Hoover High School, Monday, Feb. 3, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
The disastrous caucus night was the third strike against Iowa this cycle
For decades, it was considered an unthinkable third rail of America politics for any politician - much less a presidential candidate - to openly criticize Iowa or its historic caucus tradition.
In a highly notable shift, Democratic candidates in this cycle have criticized the DNC for putting Iowa and New Hampshire, two states that are over 90% white and largely unrepresentative of the nation, first in the nomination process.
Former presidential candidate Julian Castro went as far as to call on the DNC to change the order of primary states, arguing that two overwhelmingly white states being tasked with winnowing the field puts candidates of color at a huge, built-in disadvantage.
Unlike traditional primaries, where voters go into a voting booth and cast a ballot expressing their choice for the Democratic nominee, caucuses are much more communal and collaborative.
Every caucus-goer is assigned to a caucus location, like a high school gym, for example, in their voting precinct where they gather in groups, deliberate, and use preference cards to publicly express their choice for the Democratic nominee instead of casting a secret ballot.
The caucus model has been criticized, however, for being inaccessible to people with disabilities, elderly Iowans, people who don't work a typical nine-to-five work schedule, and parents of young children.
As Iowa-based writer Lyz Lenz recently reported, women, in particular, are more likely to be the primary caregiver in their households and are often excluded from caucusing altogether.
Caucuses often experience far lower turnout rates than regular primaries due to being far more time-consuming and inconvenient to participate in, and requiring people to state their preferences in front of dozens of strangers.
Despite Iowa adopting reforms - like establishing satellite caucuses - to encourage participation, 2020 Iowa caucus turnout looks like it'll be on par with 2016-level turnout.
Beyond the structural criticisms of Iowa's role in the process and the caucus model, the IDP's sheer logistical inability to execute a smooth 2020 caucus and its handling of the release of the results has shaken Democrats' faith in the state party, leaving candidates and their staff angry and frustrated.
Associated Press
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign stop at Hiatt Middle School, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
There might be strategic advantages to other states going first
While Iowa gets a disproportionate amount of attention from both candidates and the media by virtue of going first in the country, it's only responsible for 1% of the total pledged delegates allocated throughout the nomination process from every US state and territory.
Beyond the the problems with the caucus model and Iowa's unrepresentative demographics, other states may be better targets for the amount of firepower and clout Iowa currently has.
Some suggested that since the first state to vote in the primary process is bound to be flooded with money and resources anyway, the Democrats should consider killing two birds with one stone by picking a state more crucial to their general election fortunes than Iowa.
In a tweet late Monday night, former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer argued that the Democratic Party should pick a battleground state in the general election - like Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, or Arizona - to go first, allowing the party to build up crucial infrastructure.
"There are plenty of arguments against the Iowa Caucus, but one I don't hear enough: hundreds of the best organizers in the party just spent a year knocking every door and accumulating mountains of data and most are leaving tomorrow," he wrote. "What if that all happened in Wisconsin?"
Read more:
'What a goddamn mess': Democratic activists are furious about the catastrophe in Iowa
Iowa Democrats blame app 'coding issue' for vote-tallying delay
What we know about the app that threw the Iowa caucuses into chaos
A completely sincere thought: Thousands of totally well-meaning people spent a year of their lives working for candidates and their reward was being part of a historic debacle, because the state party fumbled an app. It's infuriating.
- Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 4, 2020Iowa county Democratic party chairman to me on the future of the caucuses:
"There were 49 other states saying why does Iowa get to do this?... And now we just poured a gallon on kerosene on what was a shouldering ember."
- Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 4, 2020