{"id":2144016,"date":"2024-01-09T04:20:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T09:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-iowa-caucuses-storied-history-of-voting-glitches-and-problems\/"},"modified":"2024-01-09T04:26:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T09:26:49","slug":"the-iowa-caucuses-storied-history-of-voting-glitches-and-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-iowa-caucuses-storied-history-of-voting-glitches-and-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iowa caucuses have a long history of voting glitches and issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-iowa-caucuses-storied-history-of-voting-glitches-and-problems%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2144016&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>A History of Glitches \u2063and Problems Haunts the Iowa Caucuses<\/h2>\n<p>A long history of glitches \u200band problems will haunt the Iowa caucuses when they open on Jan. 15, for the state has made a mess of them in several recent election cycles.<\/p>\n<p>For at least three straight presidential races \u2014 2012, 2016, and 2020 \u2014 there was confusion over who had won the first-in-the-nation \u200bcaucuses.<\/p>\n<p>Former President Donald \u200bTrump even claimed there was fraud\u200d when he\u2064 lost the caucuses in\u2064 2016 to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during his\u2063 first White \u2063House bid.<\/p>\n<p>In his third presidential run, \u2064there will be much pressure for the Iowa Republican Party \u2063to declare a definitive winner between Trump, Gov. \u2062Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy or risk not just \u200cthe ire of the former president but the delegitimizing of the entire Iowa caucuses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Democrats have already stripped \u200cIowa of its first-place status.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Before Monday\u2019s contests, the Washington Examiner took a look \u2063at\u200b past times things went \u2062awry.<\/h3>\n<p>The 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses were a disaster<\/p>\n<p>The most\u200b recent debacle for the Iowa caucuses\u2062 came during the 2020 presidential \u2062cycle. The Iowa Democratic Party results were delayed due to technological inconsistencies.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2063 app that the party used to tally results didn\u2019t work, or users couldn\u2019t even download the app. When caucus chairs attempted to call the backup hotline\u2063 number to report results, the line was overloaded.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe\u2063 process broke down; systematically and individually in many precincts, both people and technology failed,\u201d wrote Joe \u200bRospars,\u2063 the chief strategist for then-presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), on X, the platform formerly known as \u200dTwitter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>No winner was declared on Feb. 3, \u200d2020, the day of the caucuses.<\/p>\n<p>The aftermath featured finger-pointing among the state\u2019s Democratic Party leaders and growing calls to strip the state of its first-place status in the primary schedule. Troy Price, the state chairman for Democrats, eventually \u200dstepped down from his role.<\/p>\n<p>And in the 2024 cycle, Democrats did replace Iowa in the nominating\u200d schedule with South Carolina at the behest of President Joe Biden and \u200bthe \u200bDemocratic National Committee. Republicans will hold\u200b their Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15, \u200bwhile \u2062Democrats will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-5-things-to-know-about-presidential-caucuses\/\" title=\"5 Key Facts About Presidential Caucuses\">conduct party business<\/a> and decide on their presidential candidate by mail but won\u2019t release results until \u2062Super Tuesday on March 5.<\/p>\n<p>Bernie\u200d Sanders declares victory even \u2062though he didn\u2019t win<\/p>\n<p>Three days after the Feb. \u20623, 2020, Iowa Democratic caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) declared he had won despite the DNC\u2019s then-chairman,\u2064 Tom Perez,\u200c calling for a \u201crecanvass\u201d in the wake of inconclusive results.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders was leading presidential candidate \u2062Pete \u2062Buttigieg with about\u200d 97% of the precincts reporting, but \u200cno winner had\u2064 been declared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur campaign is winning the popular initial vote by some 6,000 votes,\u201d Sanders bragged at a press conference in Manchester, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n<p>But on Feb. 27, 2020, when a partial recount was finished, Buttigieg still led Sanders by the\u2064 equivalent \u2062of \u2062one state delegate. The Associated Press said it wouldn\u2019t declare a winner after the recount until\u200b the \u2064results were certified.<\/p>\n<p>The Iowa Democratic Party certified the results on Feb. 29,\u2064 2020, awarding Buttigieg 14 delegates, Sanders 12 delegates, \u200cand Warren 8 delegates.<\/p>\n<p>The 2016 \u2062Iowa Democratic caucuses cause confusion<\/p>\n<p>Adding insult to the 2020 injury was that the previous election in\u2063 2016 also saw Democratic chaos during the Iowa caucuses. Once again, technological problems\u2062 led to confusion in understanding just who won the caucuses.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers\u2063 were untrained and \u200cunable to handle the more than 171,000 Democratic \u2063voters who participated in the caucuses. Results weren\u2019t announced on Feb. 1, 2016, caucus night, with both presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Sanders complaining about the reporting process. Then-Democratic state\u200c Chairman Andy McGuire called \u2062the results \u201cthe closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Clinton was\u200b declared the winner \u200bon Feb. 2, one day after the caucuses,\u2064 when she narrowly defeated \u2062Sanders.<\/p>\n<p>Roughly a week after the caucuses, the state Democratic \u200bParty revised the results due to reporting errors \u200bin some precincts. Clinton won 49.84% of the vote and 23 delegates, while Sanders won\u2064 49.59% and 21 delegates.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, Republicans name the wrong winner<\/p>\n<p>Initial\u200b results of the Jan. 3, 2012, Iowa GOP\u2062 caucuses showed then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney defeating\u2063 former Pennsylvania Republican Sen.\u200d Rick Santorum by eight votes, although eight precincts hadn\u2019t certified their votes.<\/p>\n<p>Romney went on to win the next nominating \u2064contest: the New Hampshire primary. Then came the unwelcome news eight days after winning in the Granite State.<\/p>\n<p>Romney \u2063hadn\u2019t\u2063 actually \u200bwon the Iowa caucuses; Santorum had won by 34 votes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results \u200dreleased January 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Sen. Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus,\u201d the state GOP said in a statement one day after it had said it wouldn\u2019t \u2063declare a winner due to incomplete precinct reporting.<\/p>\n<p>It was an awkward \u2063and embarrassing situation for the party.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Santorum campaign was jubilant. \u201cWe feel very, very \u2062good that\u200d we not\u2062 only won but that \u2064we \u2026. pulled off a huge\u2062 upset,\u201d the former Pennsylvania senator said on CNN\u2019s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.<\/p>\n<p>With the \u2064delayed victory, Santorum\u2062 didn\u2019t benefit from the winner\u2019s momentum out of Iowa and was unable to defeat Romney for the presidential nomination.<\/p>\n<p>Iowa\u200c caucus winners don\u2019t always win their party nomination<\/p>\n<p>If the past is any indication, \u2062just because a candidate \u200bwins the Iowa\u200d caucuses doesn\u2019t make them a shoo-in for the nomination.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz defeated former President Donald Trump to win Iowa in 2016, but Trump would still receive the nomination. Romney lost Iowa \u200cin 2012 but\u200c still became the standard-bearer \u2062for the GOP.<\/p>\n<p>Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee \u2062won the 2008 GOP Iowa caucuses, only to lose \u2064the nomination to the late \u200bSen. John McCain of Arizona. Former President George\u2063 H.W. Bush won the Iowa caucuses in 1980 \u200bonly to end\u200b up as President Ronald \u200cReagan\u2019s running mate that year. In 1988, then-Vice President Bush lost the Iowa\u2063 caucuses to then Arkansas Sen. Bob Dole and television evangelist Pat Robertson but would eventually become the GOP presidential\u2062 nominee.<\/p>\n<p>On the Democratic side, Biden\u2019s 2020 campaign was saved\u2063 during the South Carolina primary after he \u200blost both the Iowa caucuses and the New\u2064 Hampshire\u200c primary. Former\u2064 President Bill Clinton lost the Iowa caucuses in 1992 to Tom Harkin, a former Iowa senator, only to end up serving two\u2063 terms in office. In 1988, Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis lost\u200c in Iowa to\u200d Missouri Rep. Dick\u200c Gephardt.<\/p>\n<p>Still, \u200bat least one political expert claims \u2064that Iowa \u200dshould remain at the top of\u200b the nominating schedule despite its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/flashback-bidens-fed-reserve-nom-wont-say-if-shes-a-capitalist-or-socialist\/\" title=\"Flashback: Biden\u2019s Fed Reserve Nom Won\u2019t Say If She\u2019s a Capitalist or Socialist\">spotty track record<\/a> and claims that \u2062it is unrepresentative\u2062 of the American public.<\/p>\n<p>Timothy Hagle, a political scientist \u200cat the University of Iowa\u200d and author \u2062of Riding the Caucus Rollercoaster 2020: The \u200cDemocrats\u2019 Race to Win the Iowa Caucuses, claims that \u200cIowa\u2019s uniqueness comes from its ability to enable lesser-known candidates such as former Illinois\u2063 Sen. Barack Obama or former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter to catapult into the White House.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can be a little-known governor or senator or something of \u2063that nature and basically just show up in people\u2019s\u200c living rooms and make your pitch. And then try to grow your campaign\u200c from there,\u201d Hagle said. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re in a big state like California or Texas or New York, you got \u2064to have a lot \u200bof money and a lot\u2062 of name recognition to have any kind of a chance at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> What impact do the Iowa caucuses have on candidates&#8217; chances of securing the nomination?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  16, but Trump went on to secure the Republican nomination and eventually win the presidency. \u200cSimilarly, Santorum won the Iowa caucuses in 2012, but he was unable to secure the nomination. These examples show that\u2062 Iowa caucus winners do not always translate their success into a \u200dsuccessful nomination bid.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these glitches and problems, the Iowa caucuses remain an\u2064 important event in the presidential election cycle. They provide a crucial test\u200b for candidates, allowing them to gauge their support and momentum early on. The caucuses also offer voters in\u2064 Iowa a unique opportunity to interact directly with candidates and engage in the democratic process.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts have been made to address the issues that have plagued the Iowa caucuses. Following\u200b the 2020 debacle, \u200cthe Iowa Democratic\u200b Party made changes to their processes and vowed to avoid similar problems in the\u200d future. The use of new technology and improved training for volunteers are among the\u2064 measures taken\u200c to prevent future errors.<\/p>\n<p>While the Iowa caucuses may \u2062continue to \u2062face criticisms and challenges, they remain an important and\u2064 influential\u200c part of the presidential election\u2062 process. Despite their flaws, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/live-4-pm-et-hudson-institutes-presidential-speech-series-mike-pence-on-foreign-policy\/\" title=\"LIVE NOW: Hudson Institute's Presidential Speech Series featuring Mike Pence on Foreign Policy at 4 PM ET.\">offer valuable insights<\/a> into the preferences and attitudes of voters in a key\u2064 early state. As the 2024 caucuses approach, it remains to be seen whether\u200c the glitches and \u2062problems of the past will be resolved, or if new\u200d issues will arise. Either way, the history of the\u2063 Iowa caucuses is a reminder of the imperfections and challenges of our democratic system, and the importance of constantly striving for improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Iowa caucuses, opening on Jan. 15, will be overshadowed by a troubled past. In the last three presidential races (2012, 2016, and 2020), confusion marred the first-in-the-nation caucuses, leaving uncertainty about the rightful winners. Glitches and problems have plagued Iowa&#8217;s electoral process, casting a shadow on its credibility<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2658,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2144016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2144016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}