DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 Iowa political experts and observers are worried their state\u2019s first-in-the-nation status in presidential nominating contests is in jeopardy after technical issues marred Democratic caucuses on Monday.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s disastrous meltdown was the third consecutive presidential election cycle during which\u00a0there have been problems with the Iowa caucuses, raising anew serious questions about their results and integrity.<\/p>\n
The quadrennial calls for a shakeup in the presidential nominating calendar are now louder than at any time since the modern system began in 1972.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see how Iowa keeps this after last night,\u201d David Yepsen, the longtime Iowa political observer who hosts a Sunday public affairs show, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The state Democratic Party eventually released early and incomplete results from the caucuses late on Tuesday afternoon. They showed former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete ButtigiegPete ButtigiegScaled-back Pride Month poses challenges for fundraising, outreach Biden hopes to pick VP by Aug. 1 It’s as if a Trump operative infiltrated the Democratic primary process MORE and Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters \u2014 who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.) leading with 62 percent of the state’s precincts reporting.<\/p>\n
Earlier, frustration had mounted even among the state\u2019s most ardent defenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to get the numbers right. It\u2019s more important than kicking something out too soon,\u201d said Jeff Link, a longtime Democratic strategist who\u00a0is unaligned in the presidential race. \u201cThe clock is ticking, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic political leaders, some of whom have previously questioned whether a more diverse state should host the cycle\u2019s first presidential contest, were also criticizing the caucuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Democratic caucus in Iowa is a quirky, quaint tradition which should come to an end,\u201d Senate Minority Whip Dick DurbinRichard (Dick) Joseph DurbinOVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names Tim Scott to introduce GOP police reform bill next week MORE (D-Ill.) said Tuesday on MSNBC\u2019s “Morning Joe.” \u201cAs we try to make voting easier for people across America, the Iowa caucus is the most painful situation we currently face in voting.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Even before Monday\u2019s meltdown, calls to reform the presidential nominating calendar had echoed more loudly.<\/p>\n
Supporters of presidential candidates like Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisRand Paul introduces bill to end no-knock warrants The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook McEnany says Juneteenth is a very ‘meaningful’ day to Trump MORE (D-Calif.), Sen. Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerRand Paul introduces bill to end no-knock warrants Black lawmakers unveil bill to remove Confederate statues from Capitol Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk MORE (D-N.J.) and former\u00a0Housing and Urban Development\u00a0Secretary Juli\u00e1n Castro questioned why a state that is overwhelmingly white deserved such outsize influence in the nominating process of a Democratic Party that is increasingly reliant on black and brown faces that make up a growing share of the electorate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIowa and New Hampshire are wonderful states with wonderful people,\u201d Castro said in November. \u201cBut they\u2019re also not reflective of the diversity of our country, and certainly not reflective of the diversity of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iowa\u2019s prominence in the Democratic contest came into place after the party ushered in reforms\u00a0following\u00a0the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the riots that shook the streets of Chicago.<\/p>\n
The Iowa caucuses have their defenders, chief among them the state\u2019s top political leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see [the conversation about removing Iowa] every four years, and when they start trying to figure out how you break this up and create something different, they go, ‘Well maybe this isn\u2019t too bad a system after all,\u201d’ former Iowa Gov. Tom VilsackThomas James VilsackUSDA: Farm-to-school programs help schools serve healthier meals OVERNIGHT MONEY: House poised to pass debt-ceiling bill MORE (D), who served as secretary of Agriculture under President Obama, told The Hill on Monday, before the caucuses kicked off.<\/p>\n
Party leaders in other states have tried for years to loosen the grip Iowa \u2014 and New Hampshire \u2014 have held over the early nominating process. But none of the alternative solutions have proved workable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about the Iowa caucuses, and New Hampshire for that matter, for years now. What\u2019s the answer? No one has that,\u201d said Doug Heye, who worked as a consultant to the Iowa Republican Party in 2012. \u201cIf the rest of the states go through a smooth process, it\u2019s hard for [Iowa] to make the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this year is different. At a pre-caucus event held earlier Monday, one veteran reporter who has covered politics for more than 50 years chuckled when he said he and the other scribes present were covering the final Iowa caucuses of any consequence.<\/p>\n
Iowa\u2019s status gives the state an outsized political power on the national scene and the ability to bend senators and governors to its will far beyond its relatively small size. It makes kings of county party officials and ordinary activists, many of whom collect presidential candidates\u2019 personal cellphone numbers. And it brings millions of dollars in economic benefits as candidates, campaigns and media flex their expense accounts around the state.<\/p>\n
But in recent years the caucuses have been marred by controversy, and both Democrats and Republicans have found themselves on the wrong side of errors that have cost them the reputation for integrity they have so carefully built up.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Iowa Republicans declared Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyMilley discussed resigning from post after Trump photo-op: report Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names Attorney says 75-year-old man shoved by Buffalo police suffered brain injury MORE the winner of its party\u2019s caucuses, in an unexpectedly tight battle with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Days later, the party reversed course and declared Santorum the winner \u2014 by just 34 votes. But even after the correction, the final results remain unknown, as half a dozen precincts went uncounted.<\/p>\n
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Four years later, former Secretary of State Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House\u00a0accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters \u2014 who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE held off a stronger-than-expected challenge from Sanders to win the Democratic caucuses by just two-tenths of a percentage point. Slow counts and several precincts that awarded Clinton delegates after ties were broken by coin flip enraged Sanders backers, who claimed their candidate had been robbed.<\/p>\n
Anxious to maintain their position on the calendar, and under pressure from both Sanders supporters and the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2020 caucuses, Iowa Democrats agreed to a series of reforms meant to ease voting, improve transparency and encourage participation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reforms included measures to create a paper trail that would record voter preferences for the first time and pledges to release results from voters\u2019 initial preferences, their second preferences after minor candidates dropped away and the delegate equivalents that will eventually lead to a winner being declared.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter what happened in 2016 and the challenges we had in 2016, a lot of that happened because of the close result, and that close result really shined a lot of light on the shortcomings of our system,\u201d Iowa Democratic Party\u00a0Chairman Troy Price told The Hill in November. \u201cWe are very focused on making sure our caucuses go off without a hitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
But those hitches came and overwhelmed a system that critics say was bound to fail. The party relied on an app that precinct officials were supposed to use to communicate results to a central hub in Des Moines. As a backup, precinct captains were told to call results into a hotline in a war room at the state Democratic Party headquarters.<\/p>\n
As caucuses wrapped up around the state, some precinct officials scrapped the app altogether, opting for the old-fashioned method of just calling in results.<\/p>\n
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One precinct captain was hung up on while giving a live interview on CNN. Peter Leo, chairman of the Carroll County Democratic Party, said most of his precinct captains waited on hold between 35 minutes and 45 minutes to report results.<\/p>\n
At party headquarters, an apparent coding error meant the app delivered incomplete data on the back end.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis doesn\u2019t help our case\u201d for keeping the caucuses, Link said on KCCI-TV as a panel of political experts tried to find something to talk about after hours of no results.<\/p>\n
Ironically, it appeared that the very reforms that Sanders had insisted upon \u2014 the multiple results and the paper trail \u2014 may have conspired to cost him a jubilant victory celebration. With no data to point to, Sanders reiterated much of his stump speech before boarding a plane.<\/p>\n
For hours, the state Democratic Party said it was making \u201cquality control\u201d checks on data that came in via the app. The party then went silent, before organizing a hasty conference call with top campaign officials that almost instantly turned contentious. After midnight, Price arranged a conference call with the media, in which he read a statement for just over a minute and did not take questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a total mess. I respect the people of Iowa, they\u2019ve been great \u2014 but it\u2019s become very clear that our democracy has been misserved by a broken system,\u201d Castro, now backing Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names MORE (D-Mass.), said on Twitter late Monday.<\/p>\n
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By Tuesday, the full results of the caucuses\u00a0themselves\u00a0remained unknown. But the result of a third consecutive high-profile debacle is in far less doubt: A major push to reform the presidential nominating calendar, and to strip Iowa of its coveted role at the head of the pack, seems almost inevitable.<\/p>\n
Late Monday, Yepsen captured the anxious feelings of many activists and strategists: \u201cRIP caucuses,\u201d he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n