DNC ‘Confident’ Ahead Of Nevada Caucuses. Campaigns, Volunteers Remain Worried: Impending ‘Disaster’

Democratic presidential campaigns and Nevada election volunteers have been anonymously expressing fears about the upcoming Nevada caucuses, leaving many Democrats wondering whether the state party can overcome the shadow cast by the Iowa fiasco earlier this month. 

According to the Washington Post, as the Nevada Democratic party has decided to buck two apps developed by the tech company responsible for the Iowa app, campaigns have been in the dark about how certain aspects of the caucuses will function — only days before the caucuses are set to begin. 

“It feels like the [state party is] making it up as they go along,” said one Democratic campaign aide, reports the news agency. “That’s not how we need to be running an election.”

“If the party had this process well defined and had confidence in it, I think that we’d know a lot more about it,” said another aide, echoing the sentiments that other campaign staffers expressed to the news agency. Another aide said that their respective campaign has “been learning more about this process from the media than the state party or the DNC.”

In a statement to the Post, DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said that the “Nevada State Democratic Party and the DNC are in regular communication with campaigns and will continue to answer questions about the process in the state and the nominating process.” 

Hinojosa also declared that the party remains “confident that they are doing everything they can to implement lessons learned in Iowa, and we have deployed staff to help across the board, including tech support and volunteer recruitment,” reports the news agency.

According to Politico, volunteers for the Nevada caucuses have also been expressing concern about the upcoming election, saying that it could result in a disaster. 

Some volunteers have told the news agency that the state Democratic party hasn’t trained them how to use the iPads the party bought specifically for tallying caucus results. Another volunteer has since predicted that the caucuses will be a “complete disaster,” and another senior volunteer told the news agency that early voting, which began Saturday, was “disastrous” due to the lack of iPad training. 

Politico has also discovered “conflicting information” in the manuals the party has given to precinct chairs: 

According to screenshots of manuals provided to precinct chairs, the guidelines do not make clear that a candidate who falls short of the 15 percent viability threshold can get there on the second alignment. They can do so by courting supporters of other candidates who fail to make it in the first round.

The manual provides conflicting information: In one instance, it states that supporters of “non-viable” candidates can “join or form” a viable candidate. But in another instance, the manual implies that supporters of non-viable candidates can only switch to a viable candidate.

“Allow up to 15 minutes for non-viable preference group members to align with their second choice,” the manual reads. “People in non-viable groups can choose not to realign, however they will not be awarded any delegates.”

In response to the Washington Post allegation that one campaign aide “feels like [the state party is] making it up as they go along,” Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV) told Fox News that although the state party had “to make some changes,” they had “learned from Iowa” and didn’t foresee any serious problems.