The Democratic Iowa caucus was a disaster, and the presidential candidates have a right to be upset — none more than Bernie Sanders.
The final results have not been submitted yet because of the many technical problems that plagued last night’s caucuses. The caucus voting system is already complicated, but the process should have yielded immediate results. Instead, the night ended in chaos and confusion.
The only thing that was clear to most caucusgoers was that Sanders had performed well. Internal results released by the Sanders campaign (and confirmed by Pete Buttigieg’s internal results) showed Sanders in the lead with 29.66% of the vote and 28.62% of the delegates in nearly 40% of all precincts statewide. If these results reflect the statewide totals, then Sanders will be walking away with a narrow victory over Buttigieg.
We won’t know more until the Iowa Democratic Party releases the full results. But right now, it looks as if this was a good night for Sanders. Yet many Sanders supporters were understandably upset with the Democratic Party’s mismanagement. Several Sanders supporters angrily stormed out of one of the caucuses in Des Moines last night, calling the process a “joke” and a “waste of time” after Sanders, who at first had more than double the support of any other candidate in the room, ended up finishing in a five-way tie for delegates because of clever manipulation by other campaigns.
Their frustration is understandable. Many Sanders supporters still believe the Democratic National Committee rigged the 2016 primaries against Sanders, with good reason. Recent reports suggest Democratic establishment operatives are trying to do the same thing this year, and the Democratic Party’s failures and “lack of transparency” last night compounded this fear.
Right now, it looks as if the disaster in Iowa had more to do with incompetence than deliberate deceit. But given the DNC’s manipulative past maneuvering, Sanders has cause for concern. That’s why his campaign released its internal numbers: Sanders wanted to make it clear that his campaign would move forward with or without the Democratic Party’s blessing.
Regardless of whether malpractice contributed to last night’s chaos, the Democratic Party’s delay has hurt the Iowa victor. Monday’s results should have been a spotlight, a celebration, and a moment in which the leading candidate rallies supporters and recruits new ones. Now, that spotlight will be clouded by questions of what went wrong, how it happened, and why the Democratic Party messed things up so badly.
If that victor is Sanders, he will not let the Democratic Party live this down. And who could blame him?
