The Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary

On February 3rd, the long-awaited Iowa Caucus for the Democratic party took place. After a prolonged struggle with the new voting technology, the American public got the results on the 6th of February. Pete Buttigieg led with 13 delegates, Bernie  Sanders came in second with 12 delegates, Elizabeth Warren with 8, Joe Biden with 6 and Amy Klobuchar with 1. To the shock of forecasters, the tight race saw Sanders and Buttigieg neck and neck. 

 

The technology problems only compounded the tension after this recent caucus. Volunteers who needed to log into the voting system found that the only way to get the log-in code was on their smartphone, which they were told not to bring. Desperation hit, and soon images of papers were sent to unchecked email boxes. From there, supervisors struggled to use Google sheets and the situation worsened further. The breakdown also resulted in an increased loss of faith in the election system. Now the results are coming into question, as more information is revealed about the technology issues.

 

On the other side, the New Hampshire Primary seemed to go off without a hitch. On February 12th, the results were released without the hassle that the Iowa Caucus had. Bernie Sanders topped the primary, receiving 9 delegates and 25.7% of the vote. Coming up in second, Pete Buttigieg received 9 delegates as well, and 24.4% of the vote. And, surprisingly, Amy Klobuchar came in third with 6 delegates and 19.8% of the vote. Warren came in 4th with 9.2% and Biden came in 5th with 8.4%.  Following the primary, Andrew Yang announced he would be dropping out of the race, followed with many Fs in the chat at his departure. Along with Andrew, both Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick ended their presidential bids on Tuesday.

 

With both the failure of the Iowa Caucus and the success of the New Hampshire primary, it is evident that America has an action-packed 6 months coming up ahead.

 

[1] http://nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/politics/iowa-democratic-caucuses.html

[2] http://npr.org/2020/02/13/804491974/iowa-caucus-meltdown-proved-transparency-is-essential-election-watchers-say

[3] http://usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/02/12/new-hampshire-primary-three-candidates-drop-out-democratic-race/4737454002/