From Iowa's The Des Moines Register:
Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party
Once again the world is laughing at Iowa. Late-night comedians and social media mavens are having a field day with jokes about missing caucus goers and coin flips.
That’s fine. We can take ribbing over our quirky process. But what we can’t stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error.
What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy.
The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
First of all, the results were too close not to do a complete audit of results. Two-tenths of 1 percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins trigger automatic recounts in other states.
The Democrats always cheat on votes. In 2008 when Obama was elected, there were precincts that returned 100% votes for Obama and some others that returned greater than 100% of voter turnout. The outcry?
* * * crickets * * *
And then, there is this - from Breitbart:
Microsoft’s Iowa Vote-Count A Dry Run for Bigger Corporate Role In U.S. Election Process
The use of Microsoft’s vote-counting technology in Monday’s Iowa Caucus may foreshadow a future in which corporate technology plays a central role in U.S. elections, raising concerns about the possibility of private firms skewing the democratic process.
In a disclosure largely unreported by the news media last year, President Obama’s Special Commission on Election Reform recommended that commercial software and computers, such as iPads, be used to accurately record and count Americans’ votes — even though companies’ financial interests can be helped or hurt by the outcome of those elections.
Following election issues that plagued the Iowa Caucus in the 2012 presidential race, Microsoft partnered with the technology firm InterKnowlogy as well as the Democratic and Republican parties to develop and deploy an electronic reporting system used in the caucus on Monday. But now questions have been raised as to the effectiveness of the Microsoft volunteer effort.
This opens up a whole can of worms. One or two people could skew the data - who holds these corporations accountable?
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