MSNBC Democratic Debate: Live Coverage

The inevitable Iowa caucuses question! Sanders said he loves the Iowa caucuses, but he thinks “we need improvements in the process [of the] way results are determined.” That’s something both the Iowa Republican and Democratic parties agree with — which is why they tried modernizing the process in a partnership with Microsoft to develop a results-reporting app. But no matter what developments are made, the Iowa caucus count will never be perfect.

Bernie just mentioned that Democrats win when young voters are excited. Indeed, winning young voters is really important for Democratic candidates. In her opening statement, Clinton listed several social justice issues — topics, according to Pew Research, that are especially important to young voters, who are racially and ethnically more diverse and secular than older voters. According to Pew, 18- to 29-year-old voters leaned Democratic in 2004, 2006 and 2008. They did so again in 2012. And Sanders won a big majority of 17- to 44-year-olds in Iowa this week.

Here’s the Des Moines Register editorial both candidates essentially agreed with. It called for an audit of this year’s caucuses, improvement to the caucus system but not, necessarily, an end to it.