3. Everything went wrong in Iowa
Everything that could've gone wrong during the Iowa caucus over the past week went wrong.
Why it matters: From app crashes to polling failures and rampant misinformation, what happened in Iowa could be just a glimpse of the types of technological risks the American electorate can expect during 2020.
Driving the news: The conclusive results on the Iowa Democratic caucuses have been delayed, after the Democratic state party said that its new app had run into technical problems.
- The app fiasco delayed the results of the caucus, which is designed to set off a calendar of other election events.
- "This is not the situation that any of us expected," MSNBC host Chris Hayes told viewers at the top of his show at 1:00 a.m. "At this hour, we don't have anything really, data-wise, results-wise to report to you."
Between the lines: Misinformation and conspiracy theories were already spreading online before the fiasco, according to the The New York Times.
- On Monday, "Iowa's Republican secretary of State disputed a viral, "debunked report that alleges eight Iowa counties have total registration rates larger than their eligible voting population."
- The Washington Post reported that Twitter wouldn't require Trump officials to delete tweets with the misinformation.
Prior to the app issues, the Des Moines Register and CNN said Sunday that they would scrap the final results of its long-standing Iowa Poll before Monday's caucuses because of fears it was tainted, reportedly by an interviewer mistake.
Be smart: Major media networks have spent considerably less time covering the caucus on television this year, CNN reports.
- While NPR, NBC News and a few others had called attention to the flaws of the app in the weeks leading up to the election, there may have been more pressure on party officials to be transparent about the app's risk, had more media pressure been put on party officials.
Our thought bubble: With many more months to go in the 2020 election, the best thing newsrooms can do to cover these types of malfunctions is to invest even more in technology and misinformation reporting.