It seems evident that a lot could go wrong if a presidential caucus is conducted by phone, but that was the potential plan for Iowa and Nevada. The Associated Press says, “The state parties had planned to allow some voters to cast caucus votes over the telephone in February 2020 instead of showing up at traditional caucus meetings.” Now it looks like the Democratic National Committee is trying to put a stop to this plan. The AP writes:
The final choice whether to allow virtual caucuses in Iowa and Nevada is up to the party’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee. But opposition from DNC’s executive and staff leadership makes it highly unlikely the committee would keep the virtual caucuses, leaving two key early voting states and the national party a short time to fashion an alternative before the February caucuses.
The proposed virtual system is telephone-based voting, designed to allow Democrats to phone in absentee votes, rating their presidential preferences in a ranked choice style. In Iowa, the virtual caucuses were to take place over six days, which was meant to accommodate a new requirement by the DNC allowing fuller access to the voting.
DNC members raised concerns about the ability of hackers to disrupt the virtual process.
Watch more from CBS News above.
