Obstacles abound. The Iowa Democratic party is still debating how to implement the goals, which add complexity to an already complex caucus set-up. Rosenfeld explains it like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge is not what will likely draw the early headlines: that Iowa likely will be conducting online voting in 2020\u2019s caucuses. Nor will it concern what online technology, vendor, security and authentication would be used. Instead, the party will have to create a counting process where the votes coming into its 1,679 caucus sites are electronically tabulated in an open and coordinated fashion with each round of voting in the caucus sites\u2014where participants break off into groups for each candidate.<\/p>\n

Under Iowa\u2019s caucus rules, presidential candidates with less than 15 percent of the votes are excluded from subsequent voting rounds. The caucus ends when all of the remaining contenders are above that threshold. In a typical caucus, supporters of the apparently marginal candidates realign with others, literally by moving across the room to join other groups as the voting continues. To keep this event\u2019s spirit alive, which the Iowa party and DNC say is crucial, the participation and tabulation of voting has to be sequential, coordinated, transparent and verifiable.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Got that? Me neither. And then, combining in-person caucusing with potential remote alternatives\u2014such as on-line voting, mail-in voting [with ranked-choice ballots], tele-voting and\/or proxy voting\u2014could be a logistical and technological nightmare. In addition, the party needs to select technology vendors who can make it all work, and educate voters about the new procedures. It should also be noted that the state election authority, the office with the most experience in conducting elections, is not in charge of the caucuses. That\u2019s the job of the state\u2019s political parties, who do not have the same level of expertise or, presumably, credibility.<\/p>\n

I congratulate the Democratic party and Iowa democrats for the impulse to improve the system. But I can\u2019t help thinking that this stubborn insistence on holding caucuses\u2014and being first\u2014and allowing a rural state that doesn\u2019t really represent the majority of Democrats to wield so much power\u2014is the essential flaw in the system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2020 Democratic Iowa caucuses could become more [small-d] democratic, if changes proposed by the state party are approved\u2014and if they work\u2014which is a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3027,1683,1575,1253,573],"tags":[3356,603,3129],"yoast_head":"\n