Can you even count?
Americans want things quick and easy. It’s why we go to quick service locations instead of making food at home, and why we always have to have the latest advancement in technology. If it makes our lives easier we want it. So, why did the Iowa Democratic Party choose the longest possible way to release election results?
In 2008, the Iowa Caucuses in the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton by 10:00PM had reported nearly 90% of their results. In fact, in the nine o’clock hour Barack Obama was projected the winner. In 2016, 90% of the Iowa Caucus results were in by 11:00PM when Hillary Clinton fought against Bernie Sanders.
In 2020, the amount reporting was a mere 1% by midnight.
As a political junkie, sitting waiting for results to come in gives me anxiety. I want to not watch them, but I always can’t help myself. Refreshing the page constantly waiting for the first results to come in while my heart beats faster than ever is one of the most stressful activities I do.
But when no results were in after hours and hours, I was livid. Not at the volunteers who run the caucuses, the old and young people who come together to count ballots and votes. Not at the voters, not at the news organizations who give us the results. I was livid at the officials who have a duty to grant permission for the results to be seen.
The Iowa Democratic party failed the country on Monday night. Waiting days for election results to even report lead to conspiracies to fly, doubts to rise, and confidence to crash. It makes people question election results, which is dangerous in a country where the electoral system is one of our most sacred institutions.
At a time when faith in institutions is failing, the Iowa Democratic Party delivered another massive blow to them.
Most importantly, the Iowa Democratic Party failed Iowans, who wanted to know the results of the act they just participated in. How did their vote matter, did their candidate win, who were the people that lost? The responses to these questions for Iowans took days to come.
In tight elections, counting takes time. In high turnout elections, counting takes time. And if the Iowa Democratic Party took their time counting and released results steadily, there would be no story here except for the fact that a state took a long time to count votes.
Instead, by withholding vote totals for nearly 24 hours, Iowa Democrats inflicted permanent damage to the electoral system, and started the 2020 nominating process off on a dreadful note.
