Iowa Caucus Tonight: Predictions?

As someone with firsthand knowledge of last night's caucus, I have to say that most of the reporting and discussion on what happened is completely indicative of what's wrong with this country.

First off, the Democrats can do simple math. In their infinite "wisdom", some brainiac at the Iowa Democratic Party decided creating and using a mobile app for reporting the results would be the way to go, totally disregarding the fact that the majority of people who participate at this level are older and less comfortable with new technology. The app didn't fail, people simply had trouble using it (training Fail) and tried calling in the results which jammed the phone lines. Our precinct chair was on hold for over an hour.

For the first time ever, rather than simply raising hands and noting who had the most, participants had to fill out a card with the name of their first choice, and then once the first alignment was done and the candidates who weren't viable (too few supporters) were figured out, we then wrote down our second choice. They were trying to gather all of that data at once, rather than just the final tallies. The important point to note here is that every person in the room had to sign in, there was a room count done after that which had to match the sign-in sheet number, and then everyone had to write down and sign a nominee card. There's a verifiable paper trail, which is more than we can say for how most of the rest of the nation is planning on conducting the election.

The people in this country need to stop with the urge for instant gratification. It's better to get it done right and take more time, than to be first and do it wrong (just look at TMZ reporting Kobe Bryant and fellow passengers' deaths before the police and Victim's Advocates even had time to contact the families - it's WRONG and needs to end).

As for our little precinct last night: Buttigieg and Klobuchar had just over double the supporters of Biden and Warren after the first alignment. Sanders (less than 10% of the particpants), Steyer, and Yang were behind them, and no one showed up for Gabbard, Bennett, or Bloomberg. We ended up with two delegates, one for Buttigieg (with almost half the room after re-alignment) and one for Klobuchar (with most of the rest). Friends at another larger precinct reported that they ended up with 11 delegates split unevenly among Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar.

We don't know yet who won the Iowa caucuses. But here's what we do know.
Des Moines Register, February 4, 2020