Transcripts For KCAU This Week In Iowa 20160207

And like some others in iowa, hes questioning the way final Democratic Caucus results are posted. Patrick our precinct went for sanders. Otos precinct, the paper work was filled out showing that they went for sanders. And yet, s sehow, the democraticic partys reporting it for clinton. Tim Keane Schwartz served as captain for that oto precinct, precinct 43. He was the only voter to participate and aligned with Bernie Sanders. But the state party results show the precinct being won by Hillary Clinton. Keane and im the only one on a sheet of paper, very clearly filled out for this candidate, with no opposition and it gets, you become a hillary delegate. Tim precinct 40 and 43 are 2 of 6 held at river valley high school. Schwartz, west and fellow precinct cocaptain steven eitzen all say caucus night was a night of disorganization. Steven there wasnt a lot of discussion. There was, i mean at the end there was. But during the process, we were just sitting there. Patrick we went in there, it lots of tables, no direction, just have a seat where ever you want. Tim but afterwards, eitzen mentioned, mass confusion concerning a potential 99 tie between clinton and sanders. The men say ththprecincts lone omalley supuprter offered to switch support to clinton, forcing a deadlock. But that person left the caucus prematurely. Patrick you cant have votes that way. Its just not reasonable. I wanted her to have her opinion, i wanted her to have her vote. But if shes already left the building, and we cant confirm it . It cant be counted. Steven never was there an announcement that some candidates were unviable. And there was a realignment period, that they could d align to other groups. Im in the end, the captains signed off on a 98 win for sanders. But the state democratic tally shows woodbury county, precinct awarded to clinton by that same total. Monday marked all 3 mens first caucus experience. Changes in the iowa system, but plan to participate again. Keane there needs to be more people that need to step forward and question and make those numbers more available. Patrick it fit at a time when it was just a bunch of old men smoking cigarsrsdrinking whiskey and arguininall night. It doesnt fit with modern lifestyles at all. Amanda alright, we are joined now by sam lau, Communications Director with the Iowa Democratic party. Sam, first of all, thanks for being here. Sam thank you for having me. Amanda now tim, the reporter who did this story did request to see documents related to these precincts reporting. And heres the statement that we got from your chairwoman, dr. Andy mcguire. She said quote, the iow Democatic Party has released our final results. Any concerns we will look in to at the local level and with the parties involved. Reporting sheets are internal party documents. Again sam, i know this has been, maybe a busier than expected week for you. First of all, lets talk about this. Is there anything you can elaborate on . Are you guys aware of these discrepancies that are out there . Them and as our chair said, we are looking in to these on a case by case basis. There have been a very small number of concerns flagged to us by the Sanders Campaign. But also by the Clinton Campaign. Amanda mmhmm. Sam and so, right now, were in the process. Were going to look at them on a case by case basis. Talk to our Party Leaders on the ground. Amanda ok, and when you guys are analyzing the data that you get from your research and these investigations, i guess, that youre doing. Can you share this information publicly . Will the results that you find be made known . Sam i mean, if we see that there was a data reporting error, of course. We want the correct county Convention Delegates to go to our county conventions. The precinct caucuses are really just the first step in our county, in our caucus to convention process. So our county Convention Delegates will then have a caucus where they will then select district and state Convention Delegates. And eventually, thats who gets to elect national conventon delegates to go to philadelphia. Amanda yeah, its not exactly the easiest process for a lot of people to understand. But there is a process in place, none the less. Sam there is. Amanda now, chairwoman andy in the Des Moines Register about this. Sam mmhmm. Amanda saying people who are asking for a recount out there dont exactly understand the process, at least on the democratic side. So can you explain to the people who are saying we want a recount, why it is that you cant really do that . Sam yeah and actually chair mcguire was here in these studios and i know she worked with one of you colleagues, sabrina. You had Army Soldiers out here and we were moving them around. And thats because on caucus night, people move to a corner of the room for their candidate and then often times they have to realign. If they didnt get enough support. Amanda mmhmm. Sam and then youre, this is happening in a very dynamic atmosphere. People are having conversations with each other, deciding where or not to stand in the room. We had more than 171,000 democrats come out on caucus night in nearly 1,700 locations. To do a recount, you cant recreate exactly what happened on caucus night. Amanda exactly, so lets talk about some of the precinct locations. Weve heard that maybe they were understaffed or that the volunteers who were supposed to be running those precincts maybe didnt know exactly what they were supposed to be doing. Sam well look, caucuses are volunteer run. We have nearly 1,700 locations and we conducted extensive trainings all across the state. In fact, cspan filmed one of them, its about 2 and a half hours long. If you want to watch the full thing. Amanda oh riveting, im sure. laughter sam yeah, so, you know, we are always looking at what happened. What can we do better next time . Its in that same process that this year, we launched 2 of our expansion efforts. The satellite caucuses and the telephone caucuses, which allowed people like members of the military who werent in iowa. Amanda mmhmm. Sam as well as people who couldnt get to the caucuses, such as seniors in nursing homes. The ability to caucus for the first time, where they wouldnt be able to in the past. So, we are always looking at what went right, what went wrong and looking to see how we can continue to make the caucuses better while perserving what makes them unique and special. Amanda and i know you used the Microsoft App this year sam absolutely, yeah. Amanda to get to the results. Sam mmhmm. Amanda you have other precincts who are calling in with their results. Is this, i want to talk about transparency for a second. Are these things that can be made public . That people can actually call up say i want to see the results from this precin . Sam well amanda and the paperwork that was also filed . Sam i mean, our results from every single precinct are on our website right now. And you can see that, and you know the Microsoft App was great this year. It worked incredibly well and i hope we continue advancing on that typ technology. Because it worked really smoothly. Amanda mmhmm. Sam so, our results are on our website and in fact, i mean, you were there. You saw them coming live as they were announced on caucus night. Amanda right. Sam so, you know, our results are out there and weve put them on our website. And were really excited. Amanda i talked to some one with the Bernie Sanders campaign, their iowa Communications Director. And she said they want to actually take the paperwork that was filed at precincts, report it to, and compare that to the results that were actually filed. So, as far as the paperwork is concerned, is that internal only or is that some thing that we have access to . Sam were working with the Sanders Campaign, as well as the Clinton Campaign on their concerns on a case by case basis. And that involves reaching out to the Party Leaders who are on the ground. Reaching out to the chairs who sure that we do have the results cause like i said, we want the correct county Convention Delegates going on. But you know, we have been working with the campaigns on that on a case by case basis. Amanda ok, so as far as the transparency is concerned, do you let the public in on the process thats taking place . If you are working with the Sanders Campaign, for example, on any sort of comparison with precincts . Between results and the those precincts . Sam well, you see there is, people filed their results via the app. They called in via phone and then there were worksheets that they worked on there. Amanda right. Sam and so, were working with the Sanders Campaign on concerns that they have. And you know, if for example, there is a change that needs to be made, of course. We want to correct county delegates to go to their convention. But once again, county Convention Delegates are worth fractions. Fractions of state delegate equivalents and so were of course working with all of the campaigns, if they have concerns. And were working with our Party Leaders to help resolve those. Amanda and all of this, of course, stems from the great turn out and because of how close this race was. Sam mmhmm. Worse, is maybe bringing a lot of these issues to light. So let me ask you if you think the process needs to change . Because iowa is certainly going to be a target of criticism. Sam well, youre right. It was a historicly close caucus between incredible candidates. I think it shows how fired up democrats were and how great our candidates were that we had so many people come out for both of those candidates. You know, like i said, we are always looking at ways to improve and its through that same process, from critisms that weve heard in the past. That we got to the telecaucus this year and the satellite caucus and the microsoft reporting app. So that process is going to take place, it was always gonna take place. And so, we will look at, like i said, some things that we thought went really well. Some things maybe we can improve on and make those changes as we see fit. Amanda well of course, being first in the nation is very important to a lot of people in this state. Do you think this will jeopardize that status at all . Sam you know, i think that we had a historically close election. That was preceded by a historically close election. Amanda yeah, true. Sam i think in some ways, i because you know, there were heavy favorites in both of those times and you want to know what . Iowans made the final call. To talk to them one on one, they had to travel all across our state. I think it was democracy in action and so, you know, lightning apparently does strike twice with close elections here in iowa. laughter sam but i dont think thats something against iowa, i think thats something for iowa. Amanda right, right. Sam, thank you so much for being here today. I know its been an incredibly busy week and youre exhausted. So, i appreciate your time. Sam thank you for having me, amanda. Amanda alright, coming up next on our show here music amanda our conversation continues with the Des Moines Registers opinion editor, lynn hicks. What he has to say about what music amanda welcome back. The Des Moines Register opinion team is blasting the democrats in an editorial out this week entitled something smells in the democrcric party. And heres an excerpt, quote, once again the world is laughing at iowa. We can take ribbing over our quirky process, but what we cant stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error. What happened monday night at the Democratic Caucuses waa democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure, but the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy. Joining us now is lynn hicks, hes the opinion editor for the Des Moines Register and it was that team of people who wrote this editorial. Lynn, thanks for being here. Lynn thank you. Amanda first of all, why did you think that issues from monday night on the democratic side rose to such a level of concern that it was worth writing this editorial . Lynn well, your own program contained some of those questions. And we felt that all the reports that we were hearing. Things that i observed, other members of the Editorial Board observed, our reporters observed, um, all called for a deeper look at what happpped. Amanda mmhmm. L ln and we felt that the results were so close and there were so many questions out there that why not sit down with and as possible. To discuss and go over the results and audit the results. Amanda now you guys are actually calling for a complete audit of the results. You heard what sam had to say from the Iowa Democratic party, who was just on our show and what andy mcguire has had to say. That may be impossible to do, so is that an acceptable answer . Lynn well, we never used the word recount a a i realize that do what some consider a full recount would be impossible. To try to get people back in a room. Amanda right. Lynn but t fact is, there are supposed to be documents out there that exist. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn now, we dont know where those are and we dont have access to them. But we know there are documents that exist that show, that the precinct chairs write down the number of people for each candidate. And then do their calculations to determine the delegates. And that is one thininthat the Sanders Campaign has asked for. Weve asked for r formation like that. Weve asked for information regarding the coin flips. Part of our editorial. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn and the coin flips have been over blown, as far as their effect on the results. But its the totality of all of these concerns and why we feel that there needs to be more information to check the results. Amanda let me ask you, in your opinion, or maybe the opinion of your board and other people on your staff. What went wrong on caucus night . L ln well, what appeararto us is that t t party was unprepared and we, you know, saw the long lines of people. We saw lots of confusion about where people were supposed to go. I was at a location where you had republicans from one precinct, democrats from 2 precincts all in the same area, next door. People were getting in line in the wrong place. They had only a couple of volunteers who could help people. There wewe a lot of new registrants, t ty were having to go off to the side. Editorial Board Members attended, they ran out of registration forms. They were just using random sheets of paper. And then, in my caucus location, they got started 50 minutes late. And so, there were so many and there were so many other cases that youve heard out there. That it just feels like they were unprepared. Now were not criticising the volunteers, a lot of people stepped up. They worked hard, they did what they could. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn but it didnt feel like and what would have e ppened if it was 2008 and 240,000 people would have shown up . This was 171,000 and so it did not look, in our eyes, that the party was prepared for this. Amanda mmhmm. Im gonna have you sit tight, because we want to move on to the republican race and talk to you about that a little bit. Which was also not with out some criticism from your Editorial Board this week. On friday, an editorial came out critical of the way ted cruz campaigned in the final days before the caucuses. Calling him out for a misleading mailer that was sent to voters suppororrs about a ben carsoso departure from t race. When carson, in fact, did not drop out. So, what is your take on these candidates attempts to do these things in the final hours leading up to the caucuses . Lynn you know, we nt to see this as part of the Iowa Caucuses and we felt like, that those tactics and they werent just, you know, we could say that people coming in to iowa and iowa values. But there were some iowans who were part of that. Amanda yeah. Lynn including our former secretary of state and steve kingngid not help things by retweeting and suggesting that carson was dropping out of the race. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn so, people know better and thats what we were saying. Amanda alright lynn, thanks so much for your time. Lynn thank you. Amanda appreciate you being here. music amanda coming up next music ted god bless the great state of iowa. cheering amanda our local 5 analyst Steffen Schmidt joins us to talk about the republican race and who has the momentum now heading in to New Hampshire. Its all coming up when we come music amanda welcome back everyone to this week in iowa. Im amanda krenz. We spent the first part of the show talking about the democrats in large part. Now, we do wananto talk more about the republicans. We heard lynn hicks from the register talk about issues that he had with ted cruzs campaign tactics. Well, other candidates apparently feel that same way. Donald trump took to twitter to accuse cruz of fraud by implying ben carson was dropping out to get more evangelical support. Cruz fired back, saying trump is just being a sore loser. Ted the American People are not interested in this circus sideshow of insults. You know, my girls are 5 and 7 and i gotta tell you caroline and catherine are better behaved than a president ial candidate who responds by insulting everyone every day when he loses. Amanda alright, heres dr. Steffen schmidt with us now. What do you think . Does that hurt cruz . Just so much back and forth, is he being a sore loser . Sffen i think it hurts both. I think were tired of whiners. Everybody is whining about everything and everything being done badly. And i think the American Public would like these candidates to talk more about issueses and so, i think this will go away now. Amanda mmhmm. Steffen it was not a good thing to do that to ben carson, but now we have to move on. You know, this is gonna be a big huge race and New Hampshire is fabulous and well see what comes out of there. But then its gonna go on and on through South Carolina. And so, stop talking like this, you know . laughter steffen talk about the issues. Amanda i know and i doant to talk to you about kind of your expectations, maybe predictions for New Hampshire and South Carolina . laughter amanda first though, were you surprised at all by the cruz win in iowa . Steffen no, i really wasnt. I mean, you know, he was really connecting with evangelicals and we saw he got a huge percentage. I mean 63 percent of the people who went to the republican caucuses were evangelicals. Thats enormous. Amanda yeah. Steffen and he was best positioned for that, so trump did ok as well. You know, he came in second. Nobody thought last september race still. Amanda right. Would you say arguably, maybe the biggest headline would be rubios finish . Steffen well i think it was because he came up so much, beat ctations and the republicans were looking for some one in that group of sort of more establishment rereblicans. And i think rubio did himself a lot of good. Amanda ok and i want to get your opinion real quick on New Hampshire moving forward. Which is kind of your neck of the woods, youre very familiar with that part of the country. How do you think theyre gonna receive this line up of candidates . Steffen well, it looks like Bernie Sanders is gonna win. I mean, hes a neighbor there and hes way ahead in the polls. And on the republican side, its a real slug fest. I mean, donald trump is very much ahead and then the question is whos gonna come in second . Amanda mmhmm. Steffen and it looks like rubios got a good chance of coming in second. And that would be an enormous second big victory for him. Amanda we had such a good turn out on caucus night here in iowa. And i want to talk about that a little bit, too. I talked to the Communications Director for the Republican Party of iowa. Heres a little bit about what he had to say about caucus night. Were you guys of making sure you got it right this time charlie mmhmm. Amanda because of what happened last time . Charlie you know, we learned a lot in 2012. The fact is that in 2012, the system worked as it was supposed to. There were just some mistakes with sort of what we reported and how we reported it. So we leard a few really important lessons of what we needed to do this time. We needed a more accccate way to get caucus results on caucus ninit. And then we needed a faster, more efficient verification process. So that if there was a really close vote, we were able to verify and announce results within 48 hours. So what we did is we partnered with microsoft and the democrats on a new reporting app to make caucus night reporting more accurate. And then we cut down our verification process from 2 weeks in 2012 down to 2 days in 2016. It was a big change and it took a lot of training and a lot of planning to make it t rk, but it couldnt have worked better. Amanda were there any hiccups for you guys . Charlie you know, the one hiccup, if you want to call it that, was the turn out. We had 53 percent more people turn out for this caucus tha did in the last one. 187,000 in 2016. So what happened actually, its funny, is that the app was designed to flag results that seemed out of the norm. You know, something that seemed excessively high and because the turn out was so high, a lot of results came back flagged. Saying hey, you know, like theres too many people in this precinct. But it wasasll legitimate, therere was juststwe had 50 percent higher turn out. It was somomhing that we couldnt have planned for. But were so excited because it means republicans are ready to fight in 2016 and were ready to take back the white house. Amanda there was so much talk about this Microsoft App and how sleek it was and how fast it was in reporting results. Interesting there that he said, if you want to call it hiccup, it was just that it flagged some of the precincts that had high turn out. Because those numbers, the app was designed to flag things that seemed, i guess, out of the norm. So, what do you make of this huge turn out on caucus night . Steffen well, it was wonderful to have it again. It wasnt as big as weve had in the past, i mean the democrats especially. Amanda yeah. Steffen but it was still historic and i think it shows how excited iowans are about politics. Although a lot of people didnt seem to have the right phones, so they had to call in. Often on just regular phones, so, plus you can make mistakes by punching in numbers and thats one of the big questions. The app itself is just a piece of hardware. Amanda right. Steffen and software and its the operator that punches in the numbers thats gotta get that right. Amanda right, human error steffen yeah. Amanda can definitelyy happen. So, donald trump seems to be laying c cim to getting new people involved in the process. Do you think thats true, that he accomplished that . Steffen you know, we didnt see that many people registering at the beginning. But on caucus night, they did. Amanda mmhmm. Steffen very large numbers of people. They ran out of the registration forms and so on and i think he is bringing new people in. I think thats also true in New Hampshire and thats always good. Get new people involved and thats what democracy is about, voting. Amanda i think on the deomcratic side, the biggest headline of the night was how close it was between s sders and inton. Were y y, did that surprise you . Steffen absolutely, you know, because Hillary Clinton ahead and the fact that it was so close was shocking frankly. And i think its still reverberating in the discussion of Hillary Clintons campaign. Amanda yeah. Steffen and so, if iowa carries on to now, the question of, is she gonna catch up with Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire . Amanda what do you think it was in the final moments leading up to caucus night, when people went to their precincts that made Bernie Sanders come out with such a strong finish . Stronger than expected . Steffen well a lot of people were wrong. They said that Bernie Sanders had young voters who supported him. They wouldnt vote. Amanda mmhmm. Steffen boy, the youth vote just absolutely just stunned everyone. They came, they voted, they supported him with great enthusiasm. And frankly, right now, Hillary Clinton is worried that she is not getting a sufficient percentage of the youth vote. Amanda mmhmm. Steffen this is a big problem for her. Amanda her strength would be what demographic then . Steffen well, it was older voters. Amanda right. Steffen voters who had caucused before and voted in elections before. And they turned out for her, but she cannot lose the youth vote Going Forward and the Democratic Party needs to keep those in there. There. Amanda so, before i let you go, finally here, what are the demographics like in New Hampshire . Its a much different state than iowa. Steffen almost no evangelical voters, independents can vote. Thats the biggest thing. They can just walk in to any caucus and vote and they do. And in iowa, independents generally dont. So thats a big difference, well see which candidate attracts those, cause there are a lot em. Amanda young voters, old voters . Steffen young voters, New Hampshire is a growing state. A lot of people moving there and they get excited because, you know, its like iowa. A first in the nation primary laughter amanda right, just as exciting for them as it is for us. music steffen, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it and thank you for joining us on this week in iowa. We hope to see you again next sunday. Have a great week. music music music b hello and welcome to ag phd. Im brian hefty. D and im darren hefty. Thanks for joining us today. 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