The fictional narrative of a "winner" has become even more fictional than normal.
I mention this because of the nonsense of elections cybersecurity, where it's possibly not even among the top 10 issues that impact elections. Yes, it's important to get right, but it's like writing down measurements to 4 decimals places using a hand-held ruler accurate to only 1
To start with, "primaries" aren't even "elections". They are part, only a part, of the system each party uses to choose candidates for the actual election.
How political parties choose their candidates and leaders vary widely around the world and across the United States. Some processes are similar to elections, others are simply the party bosses picking their desired candidates.
Even if each state did a straight popular vote in a primary for candidates, that still doesn't solve problems. To start with is the problem that we stagger these primaries over months, leading to far different outcomes than if we did everything on a single day.
Candidates with otherwise great national appeal will nonetheless have to abandon their campaigns after Iowa and New Hampshire if, for some reason, they don't appeal to those states.
Ethanol subsidies are so stupid that even environmentalists oppose them -- yet almost every presidential candidate (including Sanders and Buttigieg) support them because that's what you need to do in order to win Iowa, which produces a third of the nation's fuel Ethanol.
If, instead, you voted on a single day for all primaries, then we would no longer have ethanol subsidies.
Nobody wins "Iowa" because it's not some sort of "winner take all" contest. Instead, each candidate gets a certain number of delegates sent to the eventual national convention. If you won any delegates in the Iowa contest, then you were among the winners.
Both Sanders and Buttigieg got about 25% (one quarter) of the vote. Whether one got 25.1% and the other got 25.2% is only important to die-hard supporters who are looking for ways to argue a "narrative" that supports their candidate.
75% of the people in Iowa opposed Sanders. That's the narrative you need to take away from this, not #BernieWonIowa
Yea I was wrong. I mean, 75% preferred a different candidate over Bernie. Or really, roll the numbers into your own favorite narrative, they are all equally valid.
One reason the Iowa caucuses are so messed up is because the state Party does it's best to maintain some control. That's consistent everywhere, but in places you might not expect.
In cybersecurity, we fight for verifiable paper ballots. However, as far as I can tell, there's no provision for what happens if verification fails. It's punted to the courts or legislature to decide, which is great if you are the party in power and decide the vote in your favor.
