Iowa Paper that Endorsed Clinton Now Calling for Audit of Caucus Results

Two-tenths of 1 percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

“The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt”, the editorial board wrote. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign has begun a review of the caucus results, as the Des Moines Register editorial noted.

The editorial board discusses the much derided decision to use coin flips to determine the victor of some county delegates, observing that the raw vote totals have not been released and the precise number of coin flips and their results remain unverified.

The piece titled “Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party”, starts out: “Once again the world is laughing at Iowa”. The Des Moines Register claims that the party’s chair, Andy McGuire, “dug in her heels”. “Provide a list of each precinct coin flip and its outcome, as well as other information sought by the Register”, adding, “Be transparent”.

The Register editorial comes after Sanders raised questions about the head counts in some Iowa precincts. Break silly party tradition and release the raw vote totals. Its suggestion of a “blue-ribbon commission” to improve caucus operations (the Iowa Republicans did something like that in 2012 after the state party put a big thumb on the scales of media coverage by erroneously calling Mitt Romney the victor on caucus night) makes sense. On top of that, Ron Paul’s supporters ended up with most of the delegates anyway, after they organized through the caucuses to take control of the state convention. The current system is described as “just as antiquated and opaque as the smoke-filled rooms of yore”. That’s why we worked to develop the new reporting app. That’s why we hired our largest caucus team ever who conducted the most widespread trainings in our party’s history. Most of the time, they get dominated by “establishment” forces, and occasionally by small but well-organized activist movements; Ron Paul’s group is a ideal example of the latter, both in Iowa and Minnesota, as well as a few other caucus states. Does it become more like a straw poll or primary? And that’s why we listened to the criticisms we have heard in the past on barriers to participation and pro-actively responded this year by launching our first-ever tele-caucus and satellite caucuses.