What Did — And Didn’t — Go Down In The Iowa Caucuses

It’s worth noting that there is a chance that the reason we don’t have results yet has to do with an app. This year, precinct chairs were able to use a smartphone app to tally results and send them in to the Iowa Democratic Party. But earlier today, there were reports of chairs having issues with the app, including trouble downloading and confusion about its functionality. There’s a chance that those technical difficulties have led to a slight delay. Luckily, chairs have a backup option, the same old-fashioned technology they’ve used for decades: calling in through a secure hotline.

One reason for the nationalization of politics that Julia mentioned — and I also can’t recommend Dan Hopkins’ book enough (hi, Dan!) — is the ongoing decline of local media. The Des Moines Register, however, clearly benefits from national interest in the caucuses, and its job is made a little easier tonight by the fact that Des Moines-55 caucus is located in their lobby.

Seems like this year’s count is much slower than in years past. We don’t really have any results yet, which is kind of remarkable. In 2008 Obama was declared the winner by 9:30 p.m. Eastern. Could be a result of having multiple votes to keep track of.