Page 4 - aruba-today-20190831

A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 31 auguSt 2019
DNC chairman effectively

kills plans for virtual caucuses

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE, MI- to the plan the party had Blanco said plans for the
CHELLE L. PRICE and BILL originally put in place. tele-caucus involved cre-
BARROW "We're going to take the ating new technology that
Associated Press time we need to explore doesn't yet exist. The states
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — the options available to us, had hoped to work with
Democrats' plans for virtual recognizing we still have the DNC to develop the
presidential caucuses in five months till the caucus- telephone-based voting
Iowa and Nevada are ef- es," he said. system but questions about
In this June 27, 2019 file photo, DNC Chair Tom Perez speaks fectively dead as the na- Price also expressed confi- how secure the system
before the start of a Democratic primary debate hosted by NBC tional party chairman said dence that Iowa would not could be were raised back
News at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, in
Miami. Friday the results would be have to scrap the caucus- in a June DNC meeting.
Associated Press vulnerable to hacking and es overall, or lose its status She said she's hopeful that
abuse. as the first state in the na- Democrats will work to cre-
Tom Perez, chairman of tion to express a presiden- ate it by 2024.
the Democratic National tial preference. "I'm disappointed that
Committee, declared his It's unclear how exactly we're not going to try to
opposition to plans for tele- the elimination of the tele- build this system this year.
phone voting submitted by caucus option will affect The unfortunate thing is
the key early voting states candidate strategy. Con- we're less than six months
of Iowa and Nevada, en- versations with campaign out," Blanco said. "We at-
visioned as part of the na- aides in Iowa and Nevada tempted to do this process
tional party's efforts to in- suggested most cam- to allow for others to partic-
crease participation in the paigns hadn't done much ipate and I'm hopeful that
2020 nominating fight. planning around the vir- the DNC will work with the
"We concur with the ad- tual caucus yet because states to develop the tech-
vice of the DNC's security the exact processes hadn't nology."
experts that there is no tele- yet been approved by The dynamics highlight
caucus system available the DNC. But at least one competing priorities for
that meets our standard of candidate, former Hous- Democrats. A high-profile
security and liability," Perez ing Secretary Julian Castro, party commission formed
said in a statement joined called the DNC's decision after the bitter primary fight
by the co-chairs of the par- to scrap the virtual caucus in 2016 between Hillary
ty's Rules and Bylaws Com- an "affront to the principles Clinton and Bernie Sand-
mittee. of our democracy." ers recommended that the
The Iowa and Nevada par- William McCurdy II, the Ne- party find ways to increase
ties had planned to allow vada Democratic Party voter participation in the
some voters to cast caucus chairman, expressed disap- nominating process. Cau-
votes over the telephone pointment in the outcome cus states historically have
in February 2020 instead of but noted that his state still very low turnout for events
showing up at traditional will have early caucus vot- that require in-person
caucus meetings. ing "to provide Nevada voting at local meetings
The powerful rules commit- Democrats additional op- around the state.
tee, which must approve portunities to participate in But Perez also has made it
all states' primary and cau- an important process that clear that Democrats must
cus plans, still must meet in will have lasting effects on have a nominating pro-
the coming weeks to make our country." cess that doesn't leave the
the final decision, but Fri- Nevada's plan to offer eventual nominee saddled
day's statement makes early, in-person caucusing with questions of legitima-
clear that will be a formal- is expected to meet the cy, as Clinton faced in 2016
ity. The decision removes a DNC's requirement that from Sanders supporters
potential cause of a flawed states offer some alternate convinced that the nation-
count on caucus night that means of participating in al party had weighted the
could undermine the integ- traditional neighborhood process in her favor.
rity of a process that has meetings. Democrats with knowl-
been criticized even in its The party has planned to edge of the deliberations
traditional form. offer four early nights where said DNC's findings on the
The decision leaves the voters may show up at a virtual caucuses came af-
Iowa and Nevada state location and fill out forms ter a test of the planned
parties in limbo, without listing their preferred can- systems revealed vulnera-
clarity on how they'll meet didate and at least one bility to hacking. The party
the national party's require- alternate. The DNC has already is sensitive to hack-
ments to expand access to not given final approval to ing after Russian operatives
the caucuses. that plan, but Artie Blanco, infiltrated DNC servers dur-
Iowa Democratic Party a DNC rules and bylaws ing the 2016 election cam-
Chair Troy Price said he committee member from paign, and Democrats say
would comply with the Nevada, said Friday that they could not abide hav-
DNC's decision, but that she had not heard any se- ing the Iowa and Nevada
he wouldn't speculate on curity concerns about the results delegitimized after
any potential alternatives early caucusing plan. the fact.q