Feb 4, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Iowa Democrats hang up on precinct chair while he's live on CNN

The Iowa Democratic Party was heard live on CNN hanging up on a precinct chair after an hour on hold to report an issue with a new caucus reporting app.

Why it matters: The viral moment showcases Iowa's struggles to deliver its caucus results Monday night because of organizational and technical problems.

  • The Iowa State Democratic Party has responded to the delay, stating: "The integrity of the results is paramount. We have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the Iowa Democratic Party is reporting out three data sets for the first time."

In a subsequent statement by Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Mandy McClure:

  • "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 intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results."
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