ANKENY, Iowa — For the first time in the history of the Iowa caucuses the state Democratic Party planned to release the raw vote totals for each of the presidential contenders — in addition to the final delegate count that traditionally is reported — all in the name of transparency.
Instead, they reported nothing, leaving everyone in the dark for more than 12 hours after the caucuses began.
The mess here in Iowa is more runoff from the brutal 2016 primary race between Sen. Bernard Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that has since polluted Democratic politics.
The changes to the reporting system were largely made in response to post-caucus complaints from supporters of Mr. Sanders who believed he could have gotten a bigger bounce from his near victory here in 2016 if the raw vote totals from caucus voting had been made public.
The first test of the new reporting system failed in epic fashion on Monday as precinct chairs found themselves unable to share their final tabulations to the state party.
The debacle has left Democrats wondering whether the criticism aimed at Iowa’s lead-off role in presidential nomination races has been justified, and whether it is time to pull the plug on the fabled caucuses altogether.
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It also has raised questions about the sort of impact the final results will have on the race.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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