Your next 2020 Democratic presidential primary thread: Now we're serious

Discharged to greener pastures.

good morning chumps

mornin’ brad

feeling seen rn

real chump hours over here

I'm confused about the claim that the app got overwhelmed by so much unanticipated activity. Supposedly, turnout was down compared to 2016?

lol NPR called it weeks ago: https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/795906732/despite-election-security-fears-iowa-caucuses-will-use-new-smartphone-app

Was it “discrepancies” in recording or an app malfunction? They said the former before, which seems like passing the blame onto local polling place volunteers.

Is the word that bernie won or pete?

i'm picturing basically the butterfly ballot of app design - something where it's not technically malfunctioning, but where it's easy to click the wrong thing, or submit without filling in all the fields, or if you click through to the next screen and then do the wrong thing, your input from the previous screens isn't recorded because it's assuming you're trying to start over, etc. etc. so that could look like both malfunction and polling volunteer "error."

Is the word that bernie won or pete?

Bernie says they have accurate stats with 40% reporting putting Bernie decently ahead of Pete, but they acknowledge it's not a substitute for official results. So, basically, who the fuck knows

*Bernie's camp, I should say, not the man himself lol

Lol. And pete declared himself winner right?

o shit i think this guy's onto something

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EP7stpsVUAASDa4?format=jpg&name=large

Not exactly AFAICT? He used a lot of triumphant language but it's not clear to me he ever said "we won Iowa" or whatever xp

Ah ok. Sorry pete. I am still just riding rumor mills.

today would be a good day for everyone to quit twitter until this is over

or just like forever! (can endorse)

Didn't Pete say they were 'victorious'? I mean, there's a bit of wiggle room there, but...

He did, but impossible to say at the moment if he was just (not very tactfully) projecting confidence for the road to NH or if he actually knows something.

Oh, I'm pretty sure he is full of shit either way :)

So the mayor on msnbc just now admitted his victory claim was kinda BS. He meant it was a “victory” for his longshot campaign to have made it this far. He has no evidence that he won Iowa. https://t.co/glXTbBFBjQ

— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) February 4, 2020

Does the Pete campaign have a number I can call?

At least when a senator or congressperson sucks I can call and yell at someone

my last update for a while:
my friend who went in to help came home around 1am. they were apparently calling district chairs around the state to get the numbers that were not get in, and the chairs stopped answering. probably went to bed.

there was an attached conspiracy theory but it came from said friend’s husband and I will only pass it on later if things continue to go south

Everyone has heard the conspiracy theories- is it a novel and new one? Dems look terrible atm - the central org is grossly incompetent and the idiot rank and filers turn to conspiracy theories the moment they can think one up

Does the Pete campaign have a number I can call?

https://www.cia.gov/cgi-bin/comment_form.cgi

I would just like to say I was OTM with this tweet https://t.co/59OriEutK8

— DJP (@djperry1973) February 4, 2020

FWIW I’m all for continued examples of “democracy through SOFTWARE” shitting the bed until people finally get the hint

watch this to die instantly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQlwARreXc&feature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQlwARreXc

see what happens when you don't vote for Joe? malarkey.

FWIW I’m all for continued examples of “democracy through SOFTWARE” shitting the bed until people finally get the hint

cosign

Just in: Our first official statement from the Iowa Democratic Party.

The big news here is TURNOUT. They say it's on pace for 2016, which is LOW. 172,000 turned out in then, down from the record-high of 240,000 in 2008. pic.twitter.com/MXGBKO64gc

— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 4, 2020

voters are really excited for this election huh

i would just like to say djp was otm with that tweet

Bring on the Butlerian Jihad!

xp Oh dear. I got to “the point is, he’s a human being, like you and me” and bailed the fuck out of that mess. there’s no way any contemplations re the assignation of moral and legal rights would satisfy my hopes. i want to live. i want to live!

I'm just gonna post this whole thing that a lawyer friend of mine wrote on FB:

"Conspiracy theorizing plays into Trump's hands, and I don't want to see any of it here.

No, the DNC did not rig the Iowa caucuses. The caucuses are organized and overseen by the state party, not the national party. Which groups don't have enough money to run proper phone hotlines? State parties for sure!

No, Robby Mook had nothing to do with developing the state party's failed app. We can critique the caucus system in 2020 without reaching for targets from 2016 to prove a pre-chosen point.

No, the app wasn't programmed to fail on purpose. I'm sure it was buggy, but also, the entire Iowa caucus is run by old white volunteers. Occam's razor: were they in on the conspiracy, or did they have trouble learning the new tech and deploying it live, for the first time ever, under stress?

Alongside my deep frustration with all the lazy thinking and parroting I'm seeing on here and on Twitter, I'm glad for the chaos in my own way, for three main reasons:

(1) It shows us how our candidates and their campaigns will perform under stress and in the face of other threats to election integrity — and, in that vein, check out Elizabeth Warren's steady, feisty, optimistic turn last night!

(2) It may finally give the death blow to the caucus system. Unlike primaries, which are, you know, elections, caucuses don't feature individual, trackable, recountable ballots; they don't provide secrecy to protect minority or controversial views; and they have unnecessarily high barriers to participating, especially by people under financial strain or with disabilities. There are only three states still having caucuses in 2020. In 2024, let's make that none.

(3) It underlines, dramatically, that the way to count votes in an election is with pen and paper. The thoughtless addition of technological layers, often for reasons of profit for private vendors rather than any true election-related need, can obscure and impede the real purpose and most important mechanics of an election. Oregon's vote-by-mail, paper-ballot system is the gold standard nationally. All states could and should adopt it."

“old white volunteers”

If it’s the state party’s fault and not the national then fine, but pinning it on polling station volunteers is ridiculous.

The low turnout is ominous to be honest

I'm just wondering at this point precisely what material the dems will use for the pillow upon which they hand the election to the incumbent. Satin seems a little ostentatious but why not go for broke?

I'm confused about the claim that the app got overwhelmed by so much unanticipated activity. Supposedly, turnout was down compared to 2016?

They should have prepared for every caucus location to submit results.

In my view. Just a wild thought.

yeah maybe instead of an app they could've used a phone bank. or maybe a place you could email the results to.

I want to scream

maybe we could get these campaigns down to 6 months instead of 3.5 years

oh wait that would mean taking the money out of it, and money is speech. never mind.

That woman's smirky, condescending face in the video bizarro posted just makes me want to leave America forever and light it on fire behind me.

Hope this is forgotten by the time the general rolls around. It makes democrats look incompetent. It will especially hurt trust in the party’s ability to carry out sweeping changes, to health care, education and energy—changes i strongly support and believe are actually necessary for the survival of the republic/planet