One person - One vote - Paper ballots

[tecelote]

Fair and verifiable.

The media loses it's circus but we gain accountability and the faith that our vote really does count.

[sagesnow]

1. Definitely yes.

We need a paper trail no matter how long it takes to count it.

[jayschool2013]

16. For the record

We had paper "ballots" last night (preference cards).

Loved the discussion, hated that if you had to work, take care of the elderly, etc., you couldn't participate.

Townhalls: YES! Caucuses: No. Primaries: Yes.

[whathehell]

17. For the record..

What about the "app" everyone is blaming for the screw up?

As for "having to work, take care of the elderly, etc", people use the same excuses for not voting.

[grantcart]

22. The app was for reporting caucus totals of votes.

Ironically they turned to the app because the DNC insisted they report 3 sets of numbers, including first vote, second etc because of reporting problems last time.

[sweetloukillbot]

26. Sanders insisted

The DNC made the changes at Sanders' insistence.

[grantcart]

31. But in this one instance he was right.

If you are going to have 2nd level voting based on levels of viability then each stage should be more transparent.

Could have been handled with organized phone call centers

[jayschool2013]

33. Here's how it worked

We stood around in our groups for about an hour (Warren for me), and each group took a preliminary head count to see if a group was viable (15 percent of the total, which was more than 500 in my precinct). At that point Warren had well over 170, Bernie had about 125, while Klobuchar and Pete were close to viability. Biden wasn't close, and neither were Yang or Steyer.

Next, the close-to-viable groups started to try to persuade the rest of us to help them reach viability.

Once that was over, we were handed preferences cards: one one side, we printed our names and addresses, specified our FIRST preference, and signed it. On the back, we wrote nothing, but if our candidate wasn't viable, we later would be asked to fill out the back side with our SECOND preference and sign it.

My candidate was viable (she led with 180 "votes&quot , so I signed my card and turned it in, as did everyone at that point.

The precinct chairs for the party and for each of the candidates then went in a private room to count the cards.

The totals came back with only two viable candidates:
Warren 180
Sanders 130

Supporters of Warren and Sanders did not get their cards back and were free to leave if they wanted.

The rest were:
Klobuchar 71
Buttigieg 65
Biden 36
Steyer 8
Yang 6
Booker 1

Supporters of the rest got their cards back and started the negotiating process to get their candidates to 78 votes, or "viability." If they were able to encourage enough of the others to support their candidate (Amy needed just 7, Pete just 13), then they turned in their cards again without a second choice. The people who switched to another candidate (likely Biden supporters switching to Pete or Amy), then filled out the back of their card to indicate their second choice.

Those who were in the Warren and Sanders camps could leave unless they wanted to hang around and persuade any of the others to join their group. I left to get a beer and came home to hear cable news people whining about not getting instant gratification.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to us regular caucus-goers, the party leaders were supposed to report their results via the flawed app. Some did. Many didn't. So here we are.

We have lots of paper "ballots" out there, all counted, just waiting for people to wake up and report them to the state party. Give it time. It's still before 8 a.m. out here in the sticks.

[mac2766]

34. A Huge Thank You!!

Thanks for explaining the process to us, and thanks for letting us in on what actually happened last night.

And again, thank you.

[jayschool2013]

35. YW

And FWIW, the Bernie people and the Liz people got along swimmingly, but they put the Amy people between us just to make sure!

Peace!

[True Blue American]

2. Yes!

[texasfiddler]

3. Yes - Hand marked paper ballots

I have only participated in one caucus and I hated it.

[dualboy24]

4. Should use a ranked ballot system

That way they would still have the viability option, and ranked ballots are great for letting people have their ideology represented.

[tecelote]

5. I agree.

[grantcart]

23. Yes

[mitch96]

30. It's used in San Fran and I'm curious how it's been working out there?????

It makes a lot of sense to me..
https://www.commoncause.org/democracy-wire/ranked-choice-voting-how-does-it-work/

m

[gab13by13]

6. One person - One vote

no more super delegates.

[Magoo48]

9. Yep

[Jason1961]

25. Superdelegates

Superdelegates are the only way minorities get a guaranteed way to voice their concerns adequately

[ancianita]

7. The media will never lose its circus. And honest use of any system is what makes it work.

Paper ballots can be handled well or poorly, too. There is no silver bullet to vote counting but honesty.

We have to have monitors from start to finish, from vote precincts to electronic machinery to servers to state voting commissions.

[katmondoo]

8. Lots of money spent in the State of Iowa with nothing to show for it.

Go back to paper ballots.

[brooklynite]

10. Actually there are paper ballots...and a paper trail.

Neither deal with a bad reporting mechanism.

[maddiemom]

14. And the those paper ballots are counted by Machine.

[brooklynite]

15. No, they're not.

The Caucus ballots are counted by hand (with everyone in the room watching) and then are supposed to be reported to the IDP office. That's where the breakdown occurred.

[Bettie]

18. And last time, the phone in worked fine

this time, I suspect that they had an unexpected technology breakdown and then the phone lines were overwhelmed as everyone had to call in. We'd have had to call in anyway, since my husband ran two precincts, but small town and everyone was friendly and nice to each other. There was even a cheer from everyone when he (the husband) said that any of the candidates would make a fine president.

But, caucusing takes WAY more time and energy than going to a place and filling out a ballot. We didn't get to bed until after 1 am (two hours on hold waiting for our turn).

[maddiemom]

19. I meant the ballots in the General Election, of course. Sorry not to be clear.

In Pennsylvania, at least, the ballots are like the standardized test answer sheets that everyone knows from school. Fill in the bubble. Those paper answer sheets are then counted by machine scanning.

[safeinOhio]

11. No taxation without representation

If not allowed to vote or your vote is not counted, you will be exempt from all taxes both federal, state and local for the next four years.

seems fair to me.

[KPN]

12. I don't have a problem with how the people of any

State choose to conduct their primary so long as it isn’t intended to suppress participation by any particular categories of people. If there are people in the State who feel that the current system does suppress despite it not being intentional, they should be heard and made whole. If those standards are in place, I don’t care how a State does it or when I get the results.

I also think there is important community tradition and community building value and benefits implicit in the caucus system. Let Iowa decide how Iowa wants to decide. That’s what happened as a result of 2016 and I’m sure will happen as a result of 2020.

[LittleGirl]

13. Yes eom

[Vivienne235729]

20. Since 2000, I always vote early bc I want the paper ballot.

[Aussie105]

21. Paper ballots.

Have every primary school open it's gym space for voting.

Do it on a weekend, extended hours, say 6 am to 8 pm.

Look at voter's ID, mark off on voter rolls for your district.

Count the ballots on the spot. Phone in the results.

Seal the voting boxes and marked voter rolls, and transport to a central location for your state.

Repeat the count. Cross check with phoned in results. Chase up any discrepancies.

Cross tabulate voter rolls for people who voted multiple times. Heavy penalties apply.

Yes, it takes a while. That is not important, accuracy of the final results is.

(Anyone with the surname PUTIN does NOT get to vote! And get rid of that electoral college! And make voting compulsory!)

[SayItLoud]

27. I can see it now....either or;

Due to the uncertainty of the reliability of our election system;

1. I am postponing the 2020 elections until we have very strong, perfect, genius, ability to verify the results, and I am the only stable genius to make this happen...just look at the wall I built.

or

2. I did not loose, the election process was broken and (fill in the Dem candidate name) had foreign influence in rigging this election. Therefore I am proclaiming that we will do a mulligan, I mean a re do of the election. The date will be 2030 or when I can tell my base that everything is fixed, I mean repaired and .....

donOLD tRUMP

---------
Buckle up....it's coming!

[usaf-vet]

28. Yes paper ballots.

No one died last night in Iowa because the results weren't ready for prime time.

Americans can wait to be sure who got elected.

[Act_of_Reparation]

29. The caucus system is an absolute clusterfuck.

An anachronistic relic of a bygone era. Fucking get rid of it already.

[Demsrule86]

32. I agree...