#iowademocrats

[thevintagemerchant]

#jdscholten #storycountydemocrats #hwy69 and #broadstreet #storycity #voteblue #iowademocrats https://www.instagram.com/p/CGaW3dcAnFf/?igshid=o82afa9hsfih

[stopandimagineloveforever]

Hand in hand, 2020 Dem candidate Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten Buttigieg march to the @iowademocrats Liberty and Justice Forum with an army of supporters. Over 2,300, according to the camapign. People in the crowd called this moment #historic! It truly was!

(via Andres Del Aguila on Twitter)

November 1, 2019

[rimshaker]

Don’t forget to vote!! #vote #bluewave #iowademocrats (at Cedar Falls, Iowa)

[stillwithhernothim]

Seriously #Iowa... We'd like to believe you, we really would, but #SteveKing was just reelected for his 8th term this past November. Eighth!!! Oh, also, he won this election by 61.2% (226,719 votes) In a word.... #WTF? If he doesn't represent you, WHY DOES HE KEEP GETTING ELECTED! Silver lining... you can stop him and the #Republicants in #2018 !!! Become active NOW!! Stop letting men like this win and govern us!!!! #resist! #iowablue #iowademocrats #iowademocrat #desmoines #iowacity #cedarrapids #ames #davenport #dubuque #westdesmoines #councilbluffs #ankeny #siouxcityiowa #siouxacity #Repost @raygunshirts ・・・ Steve king, an elected rep from Iowa who says things that literally NO Iowans we know say. #raygun #SteveKing

[makaris]

Hoooly shit. It never fucking ends.

Read Manufacturing Consent.

[kayjay63]

Iowa Caucuses Kick Off Democratic Nominating Contest DES MOINES, IowaDemocrats began on Monday their quest to find a challenger to President Trump in Novembers presidential election, formally opening a primary campaign that showed no signs of wrapping up quickly.The party has been debating whether to back someo… Read More

[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: ‘Both Parties Dragged Their Feet’: Disability Advocates Push to Make the Iowa Caucuses More Accessible

When Joel Campbell and roughly 30 other Iowa voters with disabilities gathered in a church auditorium in Ames, Iowa a couple weeks ago, they were prepared to caucus. But instead of debating the best presidential candidate, they were advocating for their favorite breakfast cereal.

“I went with Cinnamon Life because I thought it was a good sense of texture,” says Campbell, 22, who has cerebral palsy and autism. He says he appreciated the experience of mock caucusing. “It’s very important to know how to stand up for our rights,” he explains.

The breakfast cereal-themed training session may seem lighthearted, but it’s part of a serious new effort to help people with disabilities prepare for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. Chapters of The Arc, a national disability organization, which has long offered voter registration and education programs, launched a series of mock caucuses for the first time in January. (The Ames event was co-hosted by The Arc and the League of Women Voters.)

“If we can put in a little extra thought and a little extra planning to help take away the barriers in order to get [people with disabilities] involved in the voting process,” says Tricia Crain, executive director of The Arc of Story County, “that makes them feel more important in deciding what’s taking place in our community and in our country.”

People with disabilities have garnered significantly more attention this cycle than in previous years. Nearly all of the top Democratic presidential candidates have released specific plans addressing disability issues and moderators asked a question on the topic at the December debate. Both major political parties have said that they intend to make the Iowa caucuses accessible to the roughly 300,000 voting-aged Iowans with disabilities, and both have posted accommodation pages on their websites, where people can request services such as sign language interpretation, preferred seating or assistance with written forms.

On Jan. 14, the Iowa Democratic Party announced its new accommodation process on Twitter.

As we get closer to caucus night, we're excited to announce that for the first time ever, we're offering a Request for Accommodation process!

Learn more about the process and submit a request here: https://t.co/ZGNDjpVEoL#CripTheVote #IACaucus

— Iowa Democrats (@iowademocrats) January 14, 2020

But despite the uptick in outreach, some disability advocates say that party efforts have been delayed and disorganized. “We tried to work with both parties for over a year to get them to develop a reasonable accommodation process and a request form on their websites,” Jane Hudson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa, told TIME. “Both parties dragged their feet.”

Both Democrats and Republicans in Iowa waited until mid January to post accommodation forms on their websites, for example. And while the Iowa Democratic Party received funds in the fall to hire a team to make the caucuses accessible, its new accessibility director, Amanda Koski, did not start work until Jan. 13. (The Iowa Republican Party does not have a staffer dedicated to accessibility issues at all.)

“Because the IDP made such big promises about this being the most accessible caucus ever, we were really hopeful about the process and that’s why we contacted them so early and we wanted to work with them,” says Annie Matte, voting outreach coordinator for Disability Rights Iowa. “But it’s making claims about accessibility and not actually following through, which is disappointing.”

Some of the problems facing people with disabilities are endemic to the process of caucusing. Unlike voting, where people can cast their ballot anytime polls are open on Election Day, or vote absentee in most places, Iowans intent on caucusing are required to be present at a caucus site a specific time, and be prepared to stay sometimes for hours. Caucusing also requires participants to move around physically, as candidates without enough support are eliminated and people move to join their next choices.

Caucuses are often held in schools, churches and community centers, not all of which have accessible entrances, and the rooms can often get overcrowded, cacophonous and chaotic. All of this can be overwhelming for people with a variety of disabilities, including those who are blind, have hearing loss, or cannot stand for long periods of time, as well as those with sensory processing disorders, and those with PTSD or other mental health conditions.

Kyle Spading, who uses a power wheelchair after being paralyzed in a car accident in 2011, isn’t sure what barriers he faces to caucus this year. In 2016, he almost couldn’t make it into the caucus room at all near his home in Fairfax. “I thought they were going to have to take out a couple of walls just to get me to the main area,” he says. Other caucus-goers helped him navigate the narrow doorways and a family member helped him register once he made it inside.

Still, Iowa Democrats’ communications director Mandy McClure says the party has made a series of “historic changes” this year. Democrats will offer early check-in for precinct caucus sites, in an effort to help people avoid long registration lines, limit caucusing to two rounds to shorten the evening, and introduce a system of so-called satellite caucuses, which can be hosted outside of regular precincts. Any Iowa Democrat could apply to host a satellite caucus and each site will have a trained captain to manage the room, just like at regular precincts. On Feb. 3, Iowa Democrats will oversee 92 satellite caucuses, including one in American Sign Language.

Advocates say it’s unclear whether all of the Democrats’ regular and satellite caucus sites will be accessible to people with disabilities. Some also said that much of the work to organize the satellite caucuses has fallen on those who need them. (The Iowa Republican Party is not holding satellite caucuses at all.)

“I do congratulate [the Iowa Democratic Party] on at least trying to do something, but I think there’s still more that can be done,” says Brooke Lovelace, executive director of the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council, about the addition of the satellite caucuses. “We’ve been, and we will continue to be, a resource for both parties,” she adds. “I think they need to reach out to us instead of us reaching out to them.”

After many Iowans faced barriers to accessibility during the 2016 caucuses, Democrats suggested allowing people to participate by phone, but the DNC rejected that plan last fall, citing security concerns.

Catherine Crist, who chairs the state party’s disability caucus, has been working closely with Koski, the new Democratic accessibility director, and says she’s proud of the work her party has done. “Iowa is leading the nation by example on accessibility,” she says, adding, “While our work is far from finished, our years-long effort to shift the culture and expand access for people with disabilities has borne historic progress.”

Matte of Disability Rights Iowa says she hopes both political parties will be more proactive in their preparations going forward. Her organization plans to conduct a survey to get feedback from disabled Iowans who caucused this year so the group can provide more insight to the political parties before 2024. “A big part of the disability community and activities like this is ‘nothing about us without us,’” Matte said, referencing a slogan often used in disability advocacy to emphasize the desire for those affected by policies to be involved in creating them.

Meanwhile, back in Ames, Campbell failed to convince his fellow cereal caucus-goers to support Cinnamon Life, and Lucky Charms ultimately prevailed. But getting that experience, he says, helped prepare him for the real thing next week. And that’s crucial for democratic representation: “People with disabilities,” he says simply, “have a right to vote for which candidate they like best.”

By Abigail Abrams on January 28, 2020 at 12:46PM

[nitestar]

RT @ryangrim: The @iowademocrats have been informed by the New York Times of multiple discrepancies and just...don’t care? http://bit.ly/2H4YPeI

The @iowademocrats have been informed by the New York Times of multiple discrepancies and just...don’t care? https://t.co/STruo1BBH6

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) February 7, 2020

via Twitter https://twitter.com/NiteStar February 07, 2020 at 09:21AM

[fullspectrum-cbd-oil]

DNC Chair Calls on the Iowa Democratic Party to ‘Immediately Begin a Recanvass’

Three days after the Democratic Iowa Caucuses, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Tom Perez called on Iowa’s state Democratic party to begin a recanvass of the results.

“Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass,” Perez wrote on Twitter.

“A recanvass is a review of the worksheets from each caucus site to ensure accuracy. The IDP will continue to report results,” he added in a follow-up tweet. 

A recanvass is a review of the worksheets from each caucus site to ensure accuracy. The IDP will continue to report results.

— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) February 6, 2020

The accuracy of the results has been called into question after they were initially delayed on the night of caucuses and further beset by errors when they were released.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that the results being released by the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) contained errors and other inconsistencies. 

According to the Times, results from 100 precincts were either inconsistent with vote tallies or “not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses.” However, the Times notes that the mistakes did not appear to be intentional.

Additionally, an analysis of the results found that most of the errors didn’t have a bearing on the outcome, but “not all of the errors are minor,” as the Times reports.

On Wednesday, the IDP announced it would make a “minor correction” after the results it had released appeared to show inflated support for Tom Steyer and Deval Patrick. 

Perez’s comments come as the latest results show former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) maintaining a slim 26.2% to 26.1% lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the state delegate equivalent metric.

The results which have been released show Sanders received the largest share of the popular vote. In a press conference on Thursday, Sanders touted his popular vote lead, calling it a “very strong victory.”

Sanders in NH: "That screw up has been extremely unfair to the people of Iowa, it has been unfair to the candidate, all of the candidates, and all of their supporters. So what I want to do today, 3days late, is to thank the people of IA for the very strong victory they gave us"

— Emma Kinery (@EmmaKinery) February 6, 2020

NEWS: Bernie Sanders declares a “very strong victory” in Iowa at an NH press conference. Says when 6,000 more people turn out for you than any other candidate, “we here in Northern England” call that a win. Says SDEs have “greatly diminished importance, and they should.” pic.twitter.com/WISdAcRfPp

— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 6, 2020

The initial delay was due to an issue with the app used by the IDP to tabulate results, where it was reporting “only partial data.”

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price responded to Perez’s call for a recanvass, “I fully acknowledge that the reporting circumstances on Monday night were unacceptable.”

“Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP is prepared,” Price added.

New statement from the @iowademocrats responding to @TomPerez. It seems to be pushing back on the idea that Perez can even request the recanvass. "Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP is prepared." pic.twitter.com/jVDlQXs5oJ

— Brianne Pfannenstiel (@brianneDMR) February 6, 2020

The presidential candidates have until noon on Friday to request a recanvass.

from IJR https://ift.tt/38h3mq8 via IFTTT

[tribunamag]

Tweeted

I think he’s been standing there since last night cc ⁦@iowademocrats⁩ pic.twitter.com/LdxHRvq02s

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 4, 2020

[attraper-un-poisson-chat]

@notbatmanyet: RT @NowPoliticsCA: BREAKING: EARLY RESULTS FROM IOWA RELEASED BY @iowademocrats #IowaCaucas #IowaResults https://t.co/7cdSzTjZFh

from http://twitter.com/notbatmanyet via IFTTT

[txstaffer]

Tweeted

.@iowademocrats have you tried turning it off and back on again?

— Matt Posey (@Posey_ATX) February 4, 2020

[pdougmc]

Jennifer Granholm on Twitter

Editorial >> Trump's rhetoric jeopardizes Iowa agriculture http://dmreg.co/2sNK8GN  @iowademocrats @IowaGOP @realDonaldTrump @FarmBureau @gop

https://twitter.com/JenGranholm/status/877536163921149953

[kayjay63]

New Hampshire Union Leader endorses Klobuchar’s White House bid | TheHill The New Hampshire Union Leader endorsed Sen. Amy KlobucharAmy Jean KlobucharPoll: Sanders leads Biden by 9 points in IowaDemocrats step up pressure over witnesses after Bolton bombshellThe Memo: Impeachment dominates final Iowa sprintMORE (D-Minn.) Sunday in … Read More