It just doesn’t add up!!!
Democrats never bother to test the results: Gore in Florida 2000, Kerry in Ohio 2004 and party chair McQuire in Iowa caucus 2016. Report of overcrowding, too few volunteers, poor reporting of precinct results and yet 2008 record turnout was 69,000 souls higher or 40% than on February 1, 2016. Who organized this year’s Democratic caucus?
Iowa nightmare revisited: Was correct winner called on caucus night? or The Des Moines
- Reports of disorganization and lack of volunteers also emerged Monday evening. Party officials reported a turnout of 171,109, far less than the record of 240,000 seen in 2008.
Democratic voters reported long lines, too few volunteers, a lack of leadership and confusing signage. In some cases, people waited for an hour in one line, only to learn their precinct was in a different area of the same building.- Democrats have never released actual head counts, and Andy McGuire said they would not be released this time, either.
- New voters made up nearly 40 percent of the caucusgoers — 207 of 521 — at Democratic precinct No. 59 at Des Moines Central Campus, organizers said. The precinct ran out of voter registration forms and had to print more. When the caucus began, the one-by-one head count discovered 58 more people voting than had checked in.
- Ames precinct 1-3 started caucusing two hours late, at 9 p.m., because the crowd was so big and the check-in line so slow. Capacity at the caucus site, Heartland Senior Center, was 115, but 300 people turned out, Myers said. At one point, caucusgoers considered moving to the parking lot of the Hy-Vee grocery store.
- An Indianola precinct that gathered in Hubbell Hall at Simpson College had a discrepancy between the number who checked in, and people counted in the first vote.
“The chair and secretary knew the count was off but proceeded anyway,” said Paige Godden, a reporter for the Indianola Record-Herald.
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Democratic caucusgoers divide into groups at the University of Iowa Field House (Photo: David Scrivner / Iowa City Press-Citizen)- Democrat Mary Ann Dorsett of Des Moines said 492 voters turned out in her precinct, but there were only a handful of people assigned to check people in. “It was a very large room so clearly they expected a large turnout,” Dorsett said. “The lines snaked through the corridor and out the door. It took over an hour to check in. Republicans in the same precinct were seated long before this, and already listening to speeches.”
- Microsoft, one of the premiere tech companies in the world, had developed websites to deliver results in real time. But both the Democratic website, idpcaucuses.com, and GOP website, iagopcaucuses.com, struggled intermittently throughout the night, crashing for periods of time and locking out the public from access to the results.
Tech Is Finally Disrupting the Archaic Iowa Caucuses | Wired |
Foe a process that plays such a major role in determining the future leader of the world’s most powerful country, the Iowa Caucuses can seem archaic, opaque, and hard to understand. But this year, thanks to mobile tech and social media, they’re about to become more open and transparent–an evolution that could also play an outsized role in influencing the outcome of the nation’s first presidential contest.
Back during the 2008 Iowa Caucus, Rachel Paine Caufield says she had never even heard about Twitter. The platform was not quite two years old and hadn’t yet broken into the mainstream. But that year, a friend came to town to observe the proceedings and told Caufield this new tool had the power to radically change the process.
At the time, Caufield, a professor of political science at Drake University in Des Moines, thought her friend was crazy. Today she believes her friend was prophetic.
Four years have passed since the last Republican caucus, and eight years have gone by since the Democrats have had to choose a nominee. That, of course, was before most Americans had a smartphone permanently affixed to their palms. This year, when Iowans gather to caucus on February 1st, all that will change.
“We all have smartphones, and we not only tweet regularly, but we have Instagram and YouTube and video cameras in our pockets,” she says. “This will be a caucus that’s documented in a way no previous caucus has been documented.”
h/t fladem for reporting from Iowa:
Iowa midnight: of revolutions and stolen election (update 7x)
More below the fold …
Iowa Midnight: Revolution and Stolen Election
This is via IPhone and I can’t format easily.
But at 2:05 am a post Warning my blood is up They gave me the packet at 5. Precinct 224 a single delegate that we would lose. But the sanders had Iowans for precinct captains everywhere in Des Moines but my Pricinct. It was in a gym that was shared with [precinct] 225 and 226 and I could help 10 delegates at stake.
The start was slow. As in 08 the Clinton people filled up the bleachers (which they allocated for themselves). And then someone said look outside the gym. And at 6:35pm a line snaked outside the school and into parking lot. It was in that moment when we realized everything written about turnout was nonsense Out precincts plus two other at the scool would blow turnout away. And we precinct [officials] looked at the bleachers full of old people and the line [outside] full of people under 40. Our hand count at 650 was bad. But we saw the line and thought there was hope.
But the party didn’t have enough new voter forms. It was a few minutes later that I got into it with the Iowa site chair. The party fucked up. At 7:30pm no caucus had started and the party person suggested the people in line should have gone home.
Let me explain something. I have been a part of Florida legal protection for a decade. I play by Florida rules. And in front of about 30 people I lit into him. The party support was awful and young people – likely Sanders supporters were leaving. I have seen this shit before, but in Florida I had backup. A boiler room willing to go into federal Court. I had none if that. So I bluffed. Some of the Clinton people agreed. But make no mistake, what I saw was the same shit as I saw in Florida …
Precinct 224 went first. A clear and expected loss.
Precinct 226 went second. 67 votes for Sanders 54 for Clinton. A 2 to 1 delegate split.
Precinct 225 went last; 117 for Clinton 103 for Sanders. A 3 to 3 spliced Total Raw vote 195 Clinton 191 Sanders. Delegates split 5 – 5.
It is 8:45pm. But [precincts] 221, 222 and 223 were still checking people. i One of those precincts of which we expected a 4 to 2 split has not reported. Much more to say. But too tired 3 delegates split 2 to 1 351
Three hours left. No one really knows what will happen Q poll this morning giving everyone hope. Notes O’Malley may win one county Jasper. The worry is still about the kids. One county chair is changing location supposedly to allow for higher turnout. No Sanders person believes this.
At 6:00 am Two new [Republican] polls side. One has it 20-19-19 the other has it 27 25 22 Clear sign of a late Rubio surge. That has been the buzz over the last 12 hours. Talk to some people who think Trump support is real in rural areas. But Trump has no real organization and Cruz and Rubio do. In every Iowa cycle a candidate has beat their number 5 days out. Rubio looks like the most likely to do that.
It’s late, and I start at 4am tomorrow. So I am putting this at the top.
Diary UPDATE for fladem in Iowa – add comments in diary please:
○ Iowa midnight: of revolutions and stolen election (update 7x) by fladem
