Reporting results again a caucus woe
DES MOINES, Iowa — The phone rang at 1 a.m. on Tuesday at the home of Gary Gelner, the Democratic chairman of Iowa’s Hancock County, 100 miles north of the state capital.
For one location, the state party simply-wanted to confirm the outcome; a razorthin margin separated rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and a correct count was crucial. But in the second, they had not received any results at all.
Turns out, no one had showed up.
“I had to make a phone call at 1 o’clock and report the results of 0-0-0” back to the state party, Gelner said Tuesday.
Once again, the Iowa caucuses were marred by reporting problems, but unlike four years ago, the Democrats were the party struggling Monday. Party leaders were unable to track down tallies in several precincts, meaning they could not officially name Clinton the winner until just before noon Tuesday.
Such problems are baked into the caucus process, political experts say, in a system that relies on volunteers to carry out a complicated ritual in nearly 1,700 schools, homes and church halls across the state.
“It’s normal that we have to track down some of the volunteers,” said Norm Sterzenbach, a former executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party.
Larger problems plagued the GOP four years ago, resulting in Mitt Romney being wrongly labeled the victor on caucus night.
In Iowa this year, the enduring image may be the “game of chance,” when a coin toss is used to break ties to award county delegates, which are worth such a small fraction of support that they would not have changed the results, according to several state party officials and Democratic strategists.