It’s time to update the Iowa caucuses

It was not as clearly evident before Feb 1 that Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucus processes have become an incomprehensible mess.

The reports of chaos and mismanagement on Feb. 1 are the result of excessive complexity but also negligence and incompetence by the managers of these events. If the same happened at a for-profit business event those responsible would be immediately fired. But alas, in politics no one is ever fired because they would have to fire themselves!

Here are some reported examples:

On of my student's parents told him that at their precinct everyone was told they had to write their name on a name tag and when the caucus ran out of nametags allegedly people were told they could not participate.

At another caucus there was no one in charge and the group became desperate, chose the last person to walk in to run the event. He had no idea how to do that.

One of my students told me that at their caucus Hillary Clinton supporters were sent to another room and 'undecided” were sent to a room with O'Malley supporters. When people were counted it appears these were counted with O'Malley backers because they were too polite to just leave.

In many caucuses there were not enough voter registration forms so it took forever to accommodate non-registered voters. I heard from several friends of people who gave up and simply went home disenfranchised.

The new caucus data collection and reporting system by Microsoft technologies, supplied by Interknowlogy, was also questioned. First, Bill Gates made large contributions to Bill Clinton's campaigns. With his spouse Hillary running for president, some felt this did not pass the sniff test. Second, some of the sites were down supposedly because of volume. Moreover, we discovered after that at many sites no one had a smartphone with the reporting app. At one site, and I verified this, the person in charge asked, 'what app?” when people wanted to know why she was not using the system. This resulted in some sites having to call in results by phone.

Then there was the coin flipping which most people did not know was buried deep down in the enormous Democratic Party procedures manual, which is more than 50 pages long. If my iPhone, GoPro camera, or Keurig required such a manual I would never buy it.

There is a reason why the Des Moines Register had a Feb. 3 article by Jennifer Jacobs, the excellent political reporter, headlined, 'Iowa nightmare revisited: Was correct winner called on caucus night?” Moreover, many people in Iowa and even national media suspected that some of the Democratic Party of Iowa and the Democratic National Committee, specifically Debbie Wasserman-Schultz were on the side of Hillary Clinton.

Most alarming to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders campaign was the fact that Iowa Democratic Party Chair Dr. Andrea 'Andy” McGuire was co-chair of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign in Iowa. According to Caffeinatedthoughts.com 'McGuire's license plate on her Buick Enclave says 'HRC 2016,” as in 'Hillary Rodham Clinton.” McGuire, a physician, has been mentioned by some insiders as a possible Secretary of Health And Human Services in a Hillary Clinton administration.

Politics requires transparency and credibility. The existing caucus procedures are Byzantine and impede both.

There is a desperate need for clarity and simplicity while still upholding the spirit of the caucuses, which is grass roots participation. The reason is that politics already is the least trusted institution in American society (the military, small business, the police and religion are at the top).

The McGovern-Fraser Commission reforms, which created the Democratic caucus structure and format, occurred in the early 1970s. After 50 years maybe it's time to bring the caucus process into the 21st century and make it clearer, neater, and more transparent.

' Steffen Schmidt is professor of political science at Iowa State University. Comments: steffenschmidt2005@gmail.com