Iowa caucuses are on the brink of fiasco. Technical problems and tight results cause an unprecedented delay in announcing the results.
Is this a bad omen for the Democrats who aspire to oust Donald Trump from the White House on November 3? The Iowa caucuses, which opened the presidential primary season on Monday, turned into a fiasco with the impossibility of communicating the results within the deadlines and an avalanche of criticism from the main candidates addressed to the local party officials.
Donald Trump’s campaign team was quick to poke fun at “a derailment” like never before in history. “And these are the people who want to manage our health care system,” said his press release. “It would be natural for the population to doubt the impartiality of the process,” it still reads. Before the heck, where it is treacherously specified that after the republican caucuses, “well organized” meanwhile, Donald Trump signed “an unparalleled performance” with a record turnout for a President who represents himself .
Technical messes
Democratic counting officials have reported technical problems with transmitting the results, both with the specially designed mobile app and with the emergency hotline. These setbacks are reminiscent of others who, since the memorable muddle of the 2000 presidential election in Florida, have projected electoral operations in the United States an image that does not exactly correspond to that of a great power at the cutting edge of technology . They are likely to rekindle doubts about the integrity of the process when some fear new interference from foreign powers, including Russia.
Part of the problem also appears to be due to apparently tight results. Bernie Sanders, lead in the latest polls, and Pete Buttigieg, who previously led the race, both claimed victory. “This day marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” said the 78-year-old Vermont senator, congratulating himself on his “very, very good success.” “Tonight, an unlikely hope has become an undeniable reality,” said the 38-year-old ex-mayor of South Bend, who said that Iowa “surprised the nation”.
Joe Biden’s rout?
If estimates, partial results and extrapolations make Tuesday morning Sanders and Buttigieg the likely winners in Iowa, with Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, 70 years, in third position, their main lesson would be, at this stage, the sinking of the former vice president Joe Biden, 77, who would finish far fourth. It would be risky to deduce that the one who has always been the favorite in the national polls, no longer has unlikely to win. However, in the recent history of Iowa caucuses, a candidate who came in fourth only managed to remove his party’s nomination once. And it was among the Republicans.
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