Yesterday, I wrote an article, Shame on Iowa Democrats and Their Fatally Broken Caucus System; Did Hillary Steal the Election? which said, 'Questions have been raised about some goings on before and during the Iowa Democratic caucuses. The Iowa Democrats should lose their position as first in the nation to influence the presidential elections. The way they handle the caucuses and the result reporting is profoundly flawed and almost designed to be influenced by insiders. Democrats should rise up and insist that Iowa lose its first position or change the way they do things.
Last night, the Des Moines Register published an editorial saying "Something Smells in the Democratic Party", that offers support for my position.
The editorial starts out by saying that Iowa can handle "jokes about missing caucusgoers and coin flips."But then the editorial goes on to say,
"...But what we can't stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error.
What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy.
The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt."
The op-ed then argues that with such a close election there should be a re-count, that in other states, elections that close trigger automatic recounts. The Register op-ed continues,
"...too many questions have been raised. Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems. Too many of us, including members of the Register editorial board who were observing caucuses, saw opportunities for error amid Monday night's chaos.
The Sanders campaign is rechecking results on its own, going precinct by precinct, and is already finding inconsistencies, said Rania Batrice, a Sanders spokeswoman. The campaign seeks the math sheets or other paperwork that precinct chairs filled out and were supposed to return to the state party. They want to compare those documents to the results entered into a Microsoft app and sent to the party."
The Register reports that Dr. Andy McGuire, chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party is stonewalling, refusing any further recounting or checking, which simply increases the Sanders supporters' suspicions.
The article wraps up by saying that Iowa could be doing things better and asks for suggestions on how to improve things. My article offers six suggestions.
A lot of mainstream media anchors have mocked the Sanders campaign for making the very reasonable suggestion that such a close race should be recounted. The Register's op-ed certainly supports the legitimacy of the Sanders campaign's requests. And it is very reasonable that the possibility that perhaps Hillary did not win the Iowa caucus IS on the table. Who knows, if Dr. McGuire decides she believes in Democracy and transparency, she may relent and cooperate with the Sanders campaign's reasonable requests.
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