For I long time I have proposed removing Iowa’s favored status in Presidential candidate selection. They have all the candidates crisscrossing the states for several months. My state, Oregon, virtually never sees a candidate before the convention, because our primary is in the last weeks of the season, and the nominee is virtually always decided before that. Now, beyond any shadow of a doubt, Iowa has demonstrated that they do not deserve to be first all the time.
…The first goal — and, really, the only goal — of election officials in any race is to ensure that the voters and the candidates believe in the fairness and the accuracy of the result even if it’s not what they had hoped for. Is there any way that any of the candidates will feel that way when the Iowa Democratic Party announces the results from Monday night?…
…It’s simply hard to imagine, given what we all witnessed play out on national TV Monday night, that some campaigns won’t try to cast doubt upon the numbers in a way they would not have been able to if the reporting of the tally had been seamless…
That’s obviously problematic for the candidates who appeared to be be overperforming and potentially headed to a victory. But it’s an even bigger problem for faith in our democratic institutions — for us to be able to trust that when we vote, that vote will be accurately counted and reported.
When you consider that Trump suggested with zero proof that 3 to 5 million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election — an election he won! — you can see where a broad erosion in our elections could have disastrous consequences moving forward in 2020. [emphasis added]
Inserted From <CNN>
I just heard that there will be a conference call between the Femocratic Party of Iowa and the various campaigns at 11:00 AM PDT and that they hope to release the results later today.
Here are three video clips from three different sources.
State Party Hung Up On Campaigns During Conference Call
Who can blame the campaigns for being upset. Hanging up on them is unconscionable!
Cuomo scolds Iowa Democratic Party: You had one job
We need to differentiate between party workers and party brass. Kudos to the workers! Screw the brass!
The answer should be No. Iowa has proven that they don’t deserve special status in the primaries.
Here is the solution I propose:
First, scrap the caucus system. It excludes far too many voters. Have primaries in all states.
Sided the states into four groups, each with approximately the same number of delegates to apportion. NE, SE, NW and SW would be one possibility.
Schedule primaries for each group on the same day. Schedule groups one month apart.
Rotate the groups every four years so evert group gets equal turns to be first, second, third, and last.
That system is both fair and efficient.
RESIST!!
9 Responses to “Removing Iowa’s Favored Status is Long Past Due”
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I am not familiar with how this works.
I’ve never heard of this either.
A great learning lesson for me, and obviously, for Iowa.
Thanks, Tom for the update on what’s going on.
(I didn’t change “Femocratic” because it is so beautiful.)
There’s a myth that Iowa is a good representation of the US in microcosm. Someone at DU said that’s like saying Barstow is a good representation of California in microcosm (and if you’ve never heard of Barstow,that’s part of the point.) If you look at the representation in Congress, it could – one quarter blue, half purple but leaning blue, one quarter stuck in Trumpville, with two red Senators. Hmmm. I suppose te fact they have not figured out that NO new system EVER works as well as you expected is also typically American.
The COnstitution leaves the details of running elections to the individual states. I suspect that was not the best idea even in 1789, and now, the splits at the seams are starting to show embarrassingly. It might be smart to come up with legislation not requiring a Constitutional amendment which yet requires that each state’s electoral system must neet certain standards. Of course that’s going to take a while to draft. That’s OK. No point introducing it while it can’t pass both houses.
Why shoudl ANYONE go first? Election Day is standard across the nation. Why couldn’t Primary Day be also? Especially if ranked choice voting can be applied to primaries.
Update – Someone has found an up side – actually several up sides – to this debacle:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/4/1916484/-Are-you-kidding-me-The-Iowa-caucus-issues-are-the-best-thing-that-could-have-happened
Good article and most informative.
I like the idea of taking dT off the page or any page, for that matter, if only for awhile.
It’s refreshing to me. Thank the Lord we have paper ballots here. That’s good too.
Thanks, Joanne for sharing the link.
(and yes, Wilbur…”it’s a big positive.”)
It was Femocratic, because the party leaders that screwed it all up were female.
(I think it’s time for me to go hide, now!
)
I left your “Femocratic” too.
Thre’s nothing left for me to say but
Great compilation of Face-Palms!
I’m like Pat, was not familiar with what the Iowa Caucus was about.
After hearing first thing this morning that was a major glitch with their app, I was wondering what why it really mattered? It was only one state.
With the link to the article Joanne listed, I could go for taking the idiot tRump off of the page too.
I honest feel that they need to keep it safe and stay with paper ballots.
Thanks and Hump Day Hugs to all!