Iowa caucuses turn into nightmare for the Democrats

As darkness fell on the city of Des Moines, queues began to form in the corridors of Morris Elementary School.

Local residents had braced the cold February evening to participate in one of America's most idiosyncratic electoral systems – the Iowa caucuses.

Here in Polk County’s 80th precinct, representatives of each Democratic candidate held signs aloft as caucus-goers entered the school gym, hoping to coax supporters to their corner of the room.

As the clock approached 7pm, a quick head count showed that Bernie Sanders’s group was in the lead. Joe Biden’s corner also had a critical mass, as did Pete Buttigieg’s.

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Tom Steyer’s campaign manager was hopeful but realistic. “They’ve told me that there are about 30 supporters outside. I’m not so sure,” he shrugged, as he gestured to the half dozen people gathered beside him. Already, Sanders’s “precinct captain” was circling, in a good-natured attempt to sway the Steyer people to the Bernie camp if their first choice was eliminated.

After distributing the presidential cards, the party official announced a “viability threshold” of 36 votes – 15 per cent of the attendees.

Only three candidates were deemed viable – Sanders, Biden and Buttigieg. Then the horse-trading began as those aligned with non-viable candidates joined other groups. The Buttigieg camp, dressed in unmissable canary yellow campaign colours, erupted in cheers as three Elizabeth Warren supporters made their way towards the group. In the end, Sanders received 110 votes, Buttigieg 66 and Biden 48.

Nightmare

But this exercise in communal democracy, a throwback to another era, may now be on borrowed time, as Iowa’s voting system gradually turned into a public relations nightmare for the Democrats.

By 9.30pm it was evident that something was amiss.

Over at the Airport Holiday Inn where Sanders was due to address supporters, volunteers looked on anxiously at the huge screens beaming CNN coverage. There was an unexplained delay with the results, the news anchors announced, visibly irritated.

A statement from the Iowa Democratic Party citing "quality control" issues sparked a flurry of speculation and conflicting messages. Journalists began sitting on the ground, surrounded by a sea of millennials sipping beer and swapping caucus stories, settling in for what was expected to be a long night.

As Amy Klobuchar became the first candidate to make a speech to her supporters across town, Biden and Warren followed. At approximately 10.30pm Sanders, his wife Jane and family took to the stage to ecstatic supporters waving "Bernie 2020" signs. The Vermont senator spoke briefly, saying only that he expected to do "very very well".

Though the candidates left Iowa and headed straight to New Hampshire, the drama in Des Moines was only beginning. A second statement from the Iowa Democratic Party said that "irregularities" in the reporting of voting had led to delays.

Caucus precinct captains from across the state took to the airwaves to describe a system in meltdown, with many struggling to contact party headquarters in Des Moines. Shortly after 1am the party said the results were expected to be called at some time on Tuesday.

The voting debacle has raised major questions about the future of the Iowa caucus, which had already faced criticism for playing an outsized role in the US presidential election. In an overwhelmingly white and rural state, the first-in-the-nation caucus is hardly representative of the United States, or of the increasingly diverse Democratic Party.

Complex process

The caucus process is complex and time-consuming, with the result that many eligible voters do not participate. Only 200,000 people in a state of 3.2 million took part in the Democratic caucus in 2016.

Despite the introduction of new rules and reporting requirements this year following complaints by Bernie Sanders last time around – which likely exacerbated Monday night's reporting difficulties – the allocation of delegates is still not an exact science.

Some races were decided by a flip of a coin on Monday night. Proponents of the system argue that the Iowa caucuses allow a rare opportunity for face-to-face canvassing in the US political system, and have helped relative political outsiders who lack deep pockets to shine, including Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.

But the failures of the caucus system this time may mark the beginning of its demise. At a time when electoral interference and misinformation is a critical issue in American politics, the Iowa caucus debacle has thrown the integrity of the election system into doubt.

The candidates with most to lose from the fiasco are those who won or finished second in the race, with indications that Sanders and Buttigieg had a strong night. They will now lose some of the inevitable bounce that comes with winning the Iowa caucus, as focus turns to New Hampshire.

Ultimately on Monday night there was one winner – Donald Trump. "The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster,"he declared on Twitter. "Nothing works, just like they ran the Country."

The president would be forgiven for having a spring in his step as he prepared to address the nation in his annual state of the union address on Tuesday night.