The first election of the 2020 presidential campaign descended into a farce on Monday, as widespread reports indicated that the smartphone app for reporting the results of Iowa’s caucuses had become non-functional and calls to the Democratic Party’s backup telephone hotline was swamped with delays.
As a result, nearly four hours after caucuses began, just 2% of precincts had reported results. The debacle prompted Daily Kos to cancel its election-night liveblog, the first time in the site’s 18-year history it has ever done such a thing.
Election watchers will have to wait until Tuesday morning to learn more, but whether Iowa can still produce accurate and reliable results at this point is an open question. At a minimum, this debacle should bring a permanent end to all caucuses.