The Story Behind the Iowa Caucus

The 2020 presidential election has officially begun and until Election Day in November, the politicians running for president are in a race to win as many states as possible. Iowa was the first state of the election and the democratic candidates are Petter Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, and Andrew Yang. Each of the candidates are working hard to gain as many votes as possible in the hopes of becoming the party’s candidate. However, the results of the Iowa Caucus took an expected turn.

Unlike other states, Iowa uses a caucus system as opposed to voting machines. The caucus system involves voters lining up in different groups for the candidate that they want to vote for. This is meant to gather the votes for each candidate much easier. What made this election different from other elections is that a new app that would have counted up all of the votes together and gotten the results by counting all of the state delegate equivalents each candidate won, not from the votes of the citizens of Iowa, was defective. Two rounds of voting were set to happen in one day, but the app was filled with bugs and was not tested prior to the polls’ release. In an article by The Vox, members of the Democratic Party in Iowa reported that, “...volunteers were unable to download or properly use the app suggesting that this new way of doing things did not go smoothly. A number of volunteers resorted to calling the state party to report results, and many reported being left on hold indefinitely due to busy phone lines.”

On midnight of February 3rd, the final results were expected to be released, but the first release was said to be inaccurate and miscalculated. The app failed to get the complete results in time for the Democratic Party to count, and a delay was announced in order to get all of the results, leading to confusion amongst the people. Many feared that the results were hacked, but that was not the case. A day after the poll release of February 3rd, the party explained the error in greater detail: “While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in our reporting system. This issue was identified and fixed. The application’s reporting issue did not impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately.”

The Iowa Democratic Party has been criticized for their decision to release the results with incorrect information. Elizabeth Warren commented on the events on the same day. In her report to CNN, Warren stated, “I just don't understand what that means to release half of the data," adding, "So I think they ought to get it together and release all of the data, that's what we need.”

On February 7th, the final results were posted, displaying the true winner of the Iowa Caucus. According to BBC News, all of the precincts show that Peter Buttgieg and Bernie Sanders were nearly tied, but Peter won with 26.2% of the votes and Sanders 26.1% (a 00.1 difference). Warren came in third place with 18% of the votes, and Biden at 15%. (At last, Iowa results. So who won and lost?).

Things are looking good for Buttgieg as of now, which could potentially help him in winning the next state of New Hampshire. But for other candidates like Sanders and Biden, they will need to remain motivated to gain as many supporters as possible. But what happened in Iowa is still fresh in the minds of the public. When asked about his stance on the Iowa Caucus, Sanders reported to CNN, “All I can say about Iowa is, it was an embarrassment. It was a disgrace to the good people of Iowa who take their responsibilities in the caucuses very seriously. They screwed it up badly, that is what the Iowa Democratic Party did.” Furthermore, on February 12th, the head of the Iowa Democratic Party, Troy Price, resigned from his position, writing in his letter of resignation to the Iowa Democratic Party's State Central Committee that,“While it is my desire to stay in this role and see this process through to completion, I do believe it is time for the Iowa Democratic Party to begin looking forward, and my presence in my current role makes that more difficult. Therefore, I will resign as chair of the Iowa Democratic Party effective upon the election of my replacement."

What happened in Iowa was unexpected, to say the least. This was a bad start for the Democratic Party in the 2020 election, even though one of their candidates won the state. Many are hoping that the issues in Iowa will not be repeated in New Hampshire in the upcoming future.

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