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We can hope the Iowa caucuses go the way of the Dodo bird
By Kent R. Kroeger (February 9, 2020)
As an Iowa native, the news coverage of the 2020 Iowa caucuses has been excruciatingly painful to digest. Even my favorite checkout clerk at the local Stop & Shop, knowing I’m from Iowa, teased me this weekend as I paid for my daily donut and energy drink.
“You’re from Iowa, right? Do you want me to help you count your money?” she said, amusing herself.
America, we get it. Iowa screwed up and Iowa’s ‘First-in-Nation’ caucus status is probably a dead man walking. But in Iowa’s defense, the voter caucus system is so poorly conceived, it is like trying to herd kittens while wearing roller skates on an ice rink during a tornado warning.
I don’t think any U.S. state could pull it off any better than Iowa did last week. After all, the Iowa Democratic Party had to tabulate votes for 1,681 precincts (or about 17 precincts within each of Iowa’s 99 counties). In previous caucuses, before the infamous Iowa caucus phone app streamlined the process — sort of — not really, 99 county coordinators would phone in the results to the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters — which had a phone bank of maybe a dozen phones. Sure, it wasn’t as efficient as automated voting machines — as will be brutally apparent when New Hampshire kicks out its primary vote…
