Chaos In Iowa: Thousands Of Furious Supporters Claim Iowa Caucus “Rigged” Against Bernie
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Tue, 02/04/2020
Update (0945ET): We’re not huge fans of Nate Silver, but the 538 data guru delivered a memorable rant about how the Dems found themselves in this situation.
It’s damn hard to calculate 15% of a number. That’s the threshold for determining if a candidate won any delegates.
It’s so hard to calculate 15% that the Democrats needed to develop an app to do the calculation.
The app was too hard to use. And bear in mind, one does have to punch in numbers correctly.
It’s hard to punch in the numbers correctly when the results are scattered all over the room.
Of course there is another key issue. People have to know how to use a phone.
Using a phone requires a mobile app and a backup telephone system. Now that might sound easy, but I can tell you from the results, that it isn’t.
We’d love to see some data on the median age of Iowa’s caucus volunteers.
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Update (0915ET): The official results from last night’s Iowa caucus are now 12 hours late. Offering a terse update, the Iowa Democratic organization said Tuesday morning that their new app-based reporting system, which was never tested before caucus-day, had a “coding issue” but that the results would still be reliable.
The problem, they explained, was that the smartphone app only reported partial data. Somehow, the Dems managed to completely botch an app that was only ever meant to be used by 1,700 people helping to oversee the caucus results.
Of course, this wasn’t the only ‘technical glitch’ to impact the caucus: Over the weekend, the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll that was set to be released Saturday was instead scrapped because of complaints from the Buttigieg campaign about its methodology. Sources said the issue was attributed to an issue with the ‘font size’, as one of the pollsters enlarged the text, bumping Buttigieg’s name off the list of options.
An app fails. A poll caller changes the font size on a monitor. And the Des Moines Register and Iowa Democratic Party implode.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 4, 2020
Sources also said that poll would’ve confirmed earlier polls showing Bernie Sanders widening his lead. Once again, Buttigieg (who was the first to declare victory last night, effectively making him the ‘winner’ by default) was behind this snafu.
A conference call with the various campaigns has been scheduled for 11 AM local time.
Below are excerpts from a statement to the press from the IDP, courtesy of the Hill.
“Precinct level results are still being reported to the IDP. While 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,” the party said in a statement.
“As part of our investigation, we 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. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the 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.”
“Because of the required paper documentation, we have been able to verify that the data recorded in the app and used to calculate State Delegate Equivalents is valid and accurate.”
“We are reading confirmed reports of Shadow’s work with the Iowa Democratic Party on Twitter and we, like everyone else, are eagerly awaiting more information from the Iowa Democratic Party about what happened,” spokesman Kyle Tharp said.
But remember folks…don’t believe the conspiracy theories…god forbid anybody suspects that this extremely shady and suspicious string of events and coincidences is anything other than that. And enough with #MayorCheat – that’s not going to help anyone beat Trump in November, right?
Don’t get roped into Iowa conspiracy theories. It was human error. When Trump spouts this stuff, remember, he’s doing it to get you to lose confidence, give up & not vote. Don’t let him keep you from voting. The one way to be sure your vote won’t count is if you don’t cast it. https://t.co/cAgDOLnwSS
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 4, 2020
Iowa Democrats are now saying the coding issue has been ‘fixed’.
Great: At least it’ll be ready for 2024. The Iowa Dems said they should have the results ‘some time’ Tuesday.
Betting odds are currently favoring a release right in the middle of President Trump’s State of the Union.
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