As voters prepare for the Nevada Democratic presidential caucus, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez warned that the results might not be available the same day.
In recent days, DNC officials have tried to assure voters that the Nevada caucuses — which take place on February 22 — will not be plagued by issues like the Iowa caucuses were.
The results from the Iowa caucuses were delayed for days after an error occurred in the app used to tabulate and transmit the results. After days of chaos and issues with the results that were reported, the Iowa Democratic Party conducted a recanvass of the results to ensure their accuracy.
While officials try to assuage concerns that there will be a repeat of the chaos that followed the Iowa caucus, Perez said that it’s possible that the results will not be available the day of the Nevada caucuses.
“We’re going to do our best to release results as soon as possible, but our North Star, again, is accuracy.”
Before the Iowa caucuses, the Nevada Democratic Party originally planned to use an app developed by a company named Shadow — the same company that developed the app for the Iowa caucuses — but changed course after the mess that ensued in Iowa.
Instead, the party will use iPads and a Google form to tabulate and transmit the results from precincts to the state party.
While some volunteers sounded confident about the system designed for the Nevada caucuses, earlier reports indicated that there was some confusion about the new system and concerns that the caucuses would be a “disaster.”
However, if the technology is not functioning correctly or if volunteers want to, they can record votes on paper instead of using the iPads. Once the results are calculated, the precinct chairs will call the state party to report the results.
Despite confidence about the caucuses by the DNC, there were signs that the caucuses could be off to a rough start. On Thursday, The Nevada Independent reported that around 1,000 early voting ballots were voided by the state party. The Independent reports that most of the ballots were voided because of a lack of a signature on them. Sixty were voided because voters did not make three choices on the ballot.
The party said that it will be up to the campaigns to reach out to supporters that their ballots had been voided initially. However, they have since started reaching out to those who had their ballots voided.
The Nevada Democratic Party allowed voters four days to cast their votes early for those who did not want to go through the caucus process, or could not attend the caucuses. One state Democratic party chair noted that voters who had their ballots voided will likely be “very upset.”
News of the voided ballots could raise concerns about the caucuses and raises fears of another debacle. Despite the concerns surrounding the Nevada caucuses, DNC spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said she is confident that the Nevada Democratic Party is “doing everything they can to implement lessons learned from Iowa.”
