IOWA’S POLITICAL PRIDE AT STAKE

2020 revealed flaws in Iowa’s delegate allocation process. Many are left wondering how long the state will keep its famed caucuses.

WORDS BY HAYDEN WITTROCK | ILLUSTRATION BY LILA JOHNSON

For nearly 50 years, Iowa has prided itself in being the first stop in the nation for presidential contenders on the path toward the White House.

Rather than a typical primary, similar to ballot-box voting, Iowa holds caucuses, which include more direct and interactive participation. At a caucus, voters arrive at their precinct and publicly sort themselves into groups aligning with their preferred candidate. Participants in the caucus can lobby for their candidate and shift to different candidates in order for that candidate to become viable or have a percentage of participants that meets a certain threshold. This threshold varies on the size of the precinct, but is no less than 15% of all attendees.

A national call for a reform in the primary process following the 1968 election resulted in the formation of the Iowa caucuses. Due to the complexity of the caucus process, Iowa began going first in 1972, ahead of the previously-first state New Hampshire.

The Iowa caucuses began to hold significance to candidates as they gave campaigns a chance to get a head start in their path toward the nomination. Before 2020, the five past Democratic Party nominees were predicted by the Iowa caucuses.

While the adoption of the caucuses in Iowa stemmed from an apparent need for more direct democratic representation, the events of the 2020 Iowa caucuses began to draw more attention to the caucuses’ flaws.

One criticism of the caucuses is that the methods used for systematic processes such as counting and reporting results have become outdated.

In 2020, leaders of the caucus were aiming to modernize some of these methods used for reporting results by implementing more accessibility and technology through a developed app. The “IowaReporterApp” was specifically developed for the purpose of Iowa caucuses. With the app, precinct captains across the state had the option to digitally report their locations’ results, rather than call in their results over the phone.

In the time leading up to the 2020 caucuses, however, problems were already arising with the app as almost no prior training was given to precinct leaders. Additionally, glitches in the app prevented many of those who were working on caucus night from even downloading it or logging in.

Melody Beaulieu, a precinct chair from Woodbury County, described her experience in reporting her precinct results.

“It was pretty nuts,” Beaulieu said. “Everything went smoothly as far as voting and registering voters. The whole night ran really well until it came time to report results.”

As these problems started to become more apparent, then “ serving Polk County Democratic Chair Troy Price, who ended up resigning following the February 3 caucuses, suggested that many precinct captains should EVERYTHING WENT SMOOTHLY AS FAR AS VOTING AND REGISTERING

VOTERS. THE WHOLE call in their results.

NIGHT RAN REALLY WELL And as the caucuses

UNTIL IT CAME TIME TO wrapped up, even more issues came REPORT RESULTS to light as many MELODY BEAULIEU, PRECINCT CHAIR FROM WOODBURY COUNTY precinct leaders were having difficulties even calling in their results. This was perhaps due to the fact the reporting hotlines were understaffed because of the expectations of the app relieving some reporting calls.

Beaulieu explained her experience with the reporting in Woodbury County. She first tried the app to report her precinct’s results, but it continuously crashed. She then resorted to calling in the results to the state party, but she was transferred multiple times and left on hold for over three hours.

“I was nervous because at that point I thought it was just a couple of precincts who were having issues,” Beaulieu said. “I thought maybe I did something wrong, but then I finally checked my phone and saw that it was happening all over. We just dropped the results off at the office that night and hoped everything would work out.”

These miscommunications from caucus leaders led to limited results. All of the confusion left Iowans with little to no official final results of the caucuses in the days following, although candidate Pete Buttigeig did appear to claim victory on caucus night.

Since the 2020 caucuses were held, Iowa’s future position has been called into question. It appears the chaos that unfolded in precincts across the state that night served as a tipping point. The days, weeks, and months that followed brought up many other issues with the caucuses in their totality.

One issue in particular is to question Iowa’s effectiveness at being first in the nation. The state caucus results are expected to set the tone and predict who the top candidates will likely be nationally.

It has become an ever-increasing claim, however, that Iowa is failing to be a truly representative picture of the larger interests of the nation. According to Global News’ examined census data, demographically, 10% of Iowa’s population is composed of racial minorities, while on the national level, racial minorities make up almost 30% of the population.

Leaders across the nation have suggested South Carolina replace Iowa in the schedule since it’s a more diverse state. Tony Andrys, Iowa Johnson County Democrats public relations chair, had an argument to the contrary.

“The last time South Carolina’s electoral votes went to the Democratic presidential nominee was in 1976 when Jimmy Carter carried the state,” Andrys said. “Should a state that hasn’t voted Democratic in over 40 years go first in our nominating process? I don’t think that makes much sense at all.”

What Andrys highlights is Iowa’s history of being considered a swing state.

Tom Roff, who served as a campaign precinct captain, draws on this in more detail in support of the Iowa caucuses.

“Iowa can be a swing state—we’ve seen that by picking Barack Obama to Donald Trump in previous elections,” Roff said.

Roff, who is also an administrator for Pleasantville Schools, further tied Iowa’s swing-state standing to confront criticisms

about Iowa’s representativeness. ““While our demographics may WHILE OUR not fit the national DEMOGRAPHICS MAY profile quite as NOT FIT THE NATIONAL closely, it’s not like PROFILE QUITE AS we are always a red or blue state, and CLOSELY, IT’S NOT LIKE even most elections WE ARE ALWAYS A RED are generally close,” OR BLUE STATE, AND Roff said. “I also think we take great EVEN MOST ELECTIONS pride in selecting ARE GENERALLY CLOSE candidates carefully TOM ROFF, PRECINCT CAMPAIGN PRECINCT CAPTAIN and take that responsibility seriously.”

Despite arguments addressing criticisms and defending Iowa’s dedication to the caucuses, some top Democrats say it is time to end caucuses altogether.

In an Associated Press interview, Tom Perez, the former Democratic National Committee Chair, called for all caucuses to be replaced by primaires by the next election cycle. Similarly, Andrys, who also serves on Iowa’s State Central Committee, acknowledged the inaccessibility that sometimes discourages people from participating in caucuses. “If you can’t attend an hours-long party meeting on a weeknight because of work or family constraints, you can’t vote,” Andrys said.

Andrys did make the argument, however, that the advantages of holding a caucus outweigh the disadvantages. Additionally, he proposed ways to reform the Iowa caucuses moving forward. Andrys sees great value in caucuses, aligning with the reason they were implemented in the first place.

“One of the biggest advantages to caucuses is that they allow political novices an easier path to start getting involved with the party,” Andrys said.

He further described the ease of participation and his experience with becoming a delegate in his first caucus. This allowed him to emerge into political participation in a way that is usually a much more limiting process in other primary states.

To address the widely-acknowledged issues with the Iowa caucuses, Andrys further suggests that Iowa adopt something like the Nevada model of caucuses.

As described by Andrys, the Nevada process offers both absentee voting for those who cannot attend caucus night and inperson precinct caucuses as well. “This solves the biggest problem that caucuses have—the disenfranchisement of those who cannot THIS SOLVES THE BIGGEST PROBLEM THAT CAUCUSES HAVE—THE “ attend in person,” DISENFRANCHISEMENT Andrys said. OF THOSE WHO CANNOT In the current confrontation that ATTEND IN PERSON faces the future of TONY ANDRYS, IOWA JOHNSON COUNTY DEMOCRATS PR CHAIR the Iowa caucuses, Iowans who are politically involved continue to remind people about the seriousness with which Iowans take their first-in-the-nation status. Both Andrys and Roff highlighted this sense of pride and responsibility among Iowa voters. “If you’ve ever canvassed in Iowa, you’ll know that Iowans are generally pretty open to talking about politics, and I think that’s because they’re used to strangers showing up on their front porch to ask them about their political beliefs every four years,” Andrys said. “Iowans understand their responsibility in the nominating process well.” Additionally, Roff pointed out that being the first state in the primary process is not something that should be undervalued. Candidates speak to Iowa first and Iowans are not blind to the weight of that. “Clearly, we get bombarded with advertisements or other nuisances with this responsibility, but I think it fits the Spiderman slogan of, ‘With great power comes great responsibility,’” Roff said. “We have to get the viable candidates right.” 2020 served as a significant test for the Iowa caucuses. In the next three years, it will be interesting to see if top Democratic National Committee leaders take action that will change the primary process or if Iowa will get another chance. If Iowa were to be rid of the caucuses, the political significance of the state would see a consequential decline.

Photo by Ella Field