Getty The Democratic Party was doing "quality control" of Iowa caucus election results.
The release of the results in the Iowa caucuses was delayed because the Democratic Party was doing “quality control,” and that wasn’t sitting well with some people on Twitter, especially Bernie Sanders voters still stinging over how they believe Democratic Party insiders treated their candidate in 2016.
Here’s what the Democratic Party had to say about “quality control” checks, according to NBC News: “We are doing our quality control checks, making sure the numbers are accurate. People are still caucusing, we’re working to report results soon.”
Then came news via a reporter for The Hill that results might not come in on February 3 at all.
Per a Dem source: “We do not expect results tonight.”
Per an official from a Dem campaign re the process:
“The app is clearly not working and the backup phone line is likewise a disaster. All campaigns on briefing momentarily.”
A new Iowa Democratic Party statement then read, “We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results. In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report. This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
New statement from the IDP per @MauraBarrettNBC:
NBC pointed out that 80 percent of the vote was in at the same point in the evening in 2016, which was fueling some of the consternation on Twitter by people concerned the process is “rigged.”
Nate Cohn, who is a political analyst for The New York Times’ Upshot page, wrote on Twitter, “…the Iowa Democratic Party saying ‘quality control’ definitely raises my eyebrows. This year, they’re getting all the results for the first time. And I wonder whether they’re finding out that people just aren’t doing this right a lot more often than they thought.”
Around 9 p.m. central time, he also indicated: “By this time, nearly 80 percent of the total vote was counted in the Iowa Democratic caucus in 2016, at least based on the data we have saved from last time.” Here’s how CNBC put it: “Developing: Iowa State Democratic Party spokesperson tells @NBCNews that it is putting caucus data through quality control procedures out of an abundance of caution and currently has no timetable for when any results would be released.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Security Measures Were in Place to Prevent Hacking in Iowa But the Democratic Party Is Using a New App
Bernie supporters at the Iowa caucuses.
According to the New York Times, for the first time ever in the Iowa caucuses, those attending have to fill out a “presidential preference card” to indicate who they want; the cards, The Times reported, are “individually numbered and have other security features,” so there’s a “paper trail” of results.
The Times added that the Iowa Democratic Party is using a new app that was described as a “fancy calculator,” to help tabulate results, which are then sent to the HQ of the Iowa Democratic Party. Once those results come in, according to the Times, they are reviewed for outliers and anomalies.
Sure enough, Democratic officials told CBS News of the delay in results that “officials are combing through the information coming from the caucuses for any discrepancies that could be related to human error.”
Robby Mook, former Hillary Clinton campaign manager, has been involved in some of the Democratic Party’s security efforts in Iowa, according to USA Today.
Sorry, folks. I did NOT have anythjng to do with building the Iowa caucus app. I dont know anything about it, had no role in it, and dont own a company that makes mobile appa. Please contact @iowademocrats with questions about it.
The ‘Quality Control’ Delay Upset Some Democrats on Twitter & Sparked Jokes From Conservatives
Live look at the Democrat Party doing ‘quality control’
Here’s a sample of the reaction from some on Twitter:
“’Quality control’ is just exactly the phrase you expect a party controlled by corporate elites to use when delaying vote announcements because they’re in total shock at how poorly their favored ‘top-tier’ ‘electable’ candidate did #IowaCaucuses.”
“I’m not ready to cry conspiracy, but the Democratic Party had a credibility problem heading into this and running “quality control” in private with no transparency certainly isn’t helping.”
Iowa Democrats doing “quality control”
“ok so ‘quality control’ is DNC-speak for ‘we’re f*cking Bernie Sanders over’, is that correct?”
READ NEXT: Iowa Caucuses Live Results.