US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2100

On February 09 2020 20:33 Nebuchad wrote:
Luckily the integrity of the process is being ensured.

On February 09 2020 21:34 farvacola wrote:
They’re basically revealing that math isn’t the problem, it’s the use of the math, which provides further support for this debacle being a historical indication of a lack of rigor in Iowa caucuses.

On February 09 2020 21:34 farvacola wrote:
They’re basically revealing that math isn’t the problem, it’s the use of the math, which provides further support for this debacle being a historical indication of a lack of rigor in Iowa caucuses.

Once again the world is laughing at Iowa. Late-night comedians and social media mavens are having a field day with jokes about missing caucusgoers and coin flips.

That’s fine. We can take ribbing over our quirky process. 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.

First of all, the results were too close not to do a complete audit of results. Two-tenths of 1 percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins trigger automatic recounts in other states.

Iowa's nightmare revisited: Was correct winner called?

Second, 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.

“Let’s compare notes. Let’s see if they match,” Batrice said Wednesday.

Dr. Andy McGuire, chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, dug in her heels and said no.

On February 09 2020 21:48 Simberto wrote:
This is amazing. Are people seriously arguing that math is a subjective thing? Is there a link to the complete text? Because that surely cannot be what people are saying. Math is pretty much the least subjective thing in existence. That is the whole point of math.