US election 2020

[Wokko]

It's smelling like a fix already, but then we all knew it was coming.

[stui magpie]

Interesting commentary on the whole Caucus system, sounds like a dogs breakfast

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/04/politics/future-of-iowa-caucuses/index.html

[Wokko]

It's very, very weird. People stand in their designated corners and yell at each other to move.

Bernie and Buttigieg are both claiming victory based on internal counting.

[Wokko]

Rundown:
>Iowa caucus begins
>results start coming in very slowly
>turns out results were not actually coming in, lots of reports that something is wrong and it shouldn't be taking so long
>suddenly reports that there is some weird new app that the Dems are using for the caucus
>suddenly it isn't working properly
>reports say if the screen on the phone shuts off, the entire app resets
>the app was also reporting counts wrong, to the wrong districts, to the wrong people
>turn out Pete Buttigieg funded this app partially
>the DNC pulls the plug, removes all results, says it will take time to tally the votes
>Biden, Warren, and Bernie all make speeches saying that they expect good results
>Pete Buttigieg comes straight out and says that he actually won the caucus
>digging into the app more reveals that it was created by Hillary staffers from 2016
>Bernie campaign dropped their internal numbers, which is only 40% of the vote
>put this out without the DNC consent, which means if there is discrepancies between reported and his report, there will be MASSIVE seething

Posted from 4chan, edited for the sensibilities of Nick's

[Jezza]

The DNC are a basketcase

[think positive]

so trump 2020!!!

[David]

[David]

Provisional results finally released: Sanders is slightly ahead on the second vote count, but Buttigieg is leading by 1–2% on the key indicator, state delegate equivalents (basically the 2016 election all over again with the discrepancy between popular vote and electoral college, just on a much smaller scale). Only 63% counted, though, so still a long way to go.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/iowa_democratic_caucus_results.html

[stui magpie]

Trump's state of the union speech got some mixed reviews but generally appears to have aced it.

Watching The Project tonight, their US correspondent said it was the opening speech of the next election and take out 3 or 3 small bits it could've been delivered by Bernie Sanders. I nearly choked.

Pelosi sat there for the whole thing with an expression on her face like her arse was sucking a lemon, then made a big show of tearing up her printed version as soon as it was finished and making sure the media knew. All class.

[pietillidie]

^Nothing too embarrassing along with the efforts to turn national damage and decline into greatness?

[Wokko]

[Jezza]

Latest Results (Iowa) - 96% counted:

Initial Alignment:
- Bernie Sanders (24.4%) = 41,628
- Pete Buttigieg (21.4%) = 36,929
- Elizabeth Warren (18.7%) = 31,894
- Joe Biden (14.9%) = 25,391
- Amy Klobuchar (12.7%) = 21,773
- Andrew Yang (5.1%) = 8,628
- Tom Steyer (1.8%) = 2,990
- Uncommitted (0.6%) = 951
- Tulsi Gabbard (0.2%) = 326
- Michael Bloomberg (0.1%) = 213
- Other (0.1%) = 158
- Michael Bennet (0.1%) = 145
- Deval Patrick (0.0%) = 49
- John Delaney (0.0%) = 9

Final Alignment:
- Bernie Sanders (26.2%) = 43,674
- Pete Buttigieg (25.3%) = 42,175
- Elizabeth Warren (20.5%) = 34,220
- Joe Biden (13.6%) = 22,759
- Amy Klobuchar (12.2%) = 20,398
- Andrew Yang (1.0%) = 1,739
- Uncommitted (0.8%) = 1,402
- Tom Steyer (0.2%) = 401
- Other (0.1%) = 204
- Michael Bloomberg (0.0%) = 20
- Tulsi Gabbard (0.0%) = 15
- Michael Bennet (0.0%) = 1

State Delegate Equivalents:
- Pete Buttigieg = 549 (26.4%)
- Bernie Sanders = 533 (25.7%)
- Elizabeth Warren = 380 (18.3%)
- Joe Biden = 328 (15.8%)
- Amy Klobacher = 254 (12.2%)
- Andrew Yang = 21 (1.0%)
- Tom Steyer = 7 (0.3%)
- Uncommitted = 4 (0.2%)
- Other = 1 (0.0%)

National Pledged Delegates:
- Pete Buttigieg = 11
- Bernie Sanders = 11
- Elizabeth Warren = 5
(27 of 41)

[David]

This State Delegate Equivalent thing is messing with my head. It's basically like the electoral college vs popular vote all over again, except that, in this case, the SDEs don't actually count for anything except for as a formality used to determine national delegates (on which Sanders and Buttigieg are currently tying, and will presumably remain so). And yet SDEs are the one metric the media has decided to go with to determine the winner (again, despite the fact that Iowa is just about the only state that actually does this – most others declare winners based on popular vote, which looks like it'll be won by Sanders here).

Anyway, it's not like it's a conspiracy – they've always done this, and it was announced well in advance that this was how the winner would be determined – just another example of how weird and illogical the US electoral system can be.

[Jezza]

Agree. It's very confusing.

I thought it was best to just put all the data out there, and people can decipher it the best as they can.

[David]

Thanks Jezza! Good to be able to keep up with it.