Monday night was a disaster for Iowa's Democratic Party. But the Iowa Republican Party wasn't celebrating the embarrassing delays in the Democrats' caucus reporting.
The Iowa Democratic Party debuted a new system that was supposed to increase transparency by reporting how candidates fared in the first round of caucusing, where they ended up after realignment, and how many delegates each candidate won. Instead, the party got ire from frustrated candidates and cable news shows, mockery by President Trump's campaign, and conspiracy theories.
Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, told everyone to calm down. "Look, if there is something nefarious, then everybody is gonna be able to see that, everybody's gonna see that by checking the results here," he said on KDSM-TV. "As long as we've got a paper trail, as long as it's a (transparent) process, everybody's gonna be able to follow through and make sure we understand what is going on here."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Even Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a hardline conservative with a conspiratorial bent, counseled the Iowa Democrats to slow down and get this right so the "Iowa Caucuses can remain first in the nation." Iowa Republicans, like Iowa Democrats, zealously guard their first-in-the-nation caucus, and that special status was already under attack before Monday's debacle.
The Iowa caucuses survived a Republican fiasco eight years ago, and this too shall pass, maybe.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.