Democracy is now left to chance, at least as far as democrats are concerned.
Hillary Clinton was declared the winner of the Iowa caucuses in very tight race. She received 49.8% to Bernie Sanders’ 49.6%.
After a coin toss. Actually, after six coin tosses.
It seems Iowa prefers chance to the regular voting thing:
In a case where two or more preference groups are tied for the loss of a delegate, a coin shall be tossed to determine who loses the delegate.
That occurs when people don’t show up:
A total of 484 eligible caucus attendees were initially recorded at the site. But when each candidate’s preference group was counted, Clinton had 240 supporters, Sanders had 179 and Martin O’Malley had five (causing him to be declared non-viable).
Those figures add up to just 424 participants, leaving 60 apparently missing. When those numbers were plugged into the formula that determines delegate allocations, Clinton received four delegates and Sanders received three — leaving one delegate unassigned.
Unable to account for that numerical discrepancy and the orphan delegate it produced, the Sanders campaign challenged the results and precinct leaders called a Democratic Party hot line set up to advise on such situations.
Party officials recommended they settle the dispute with a coin toss.
This happened in six precincts, so six times a coin was flipped and Clinton won all six. The odds of that happening are one in sixty four, or 1.7%. You can see some of them here.
I guess it depends on your definition of the word “luck.” Iowa isn’t alone. Thirty five states allow coin tosses or tied elections. That’s utterly absurd.
That’s odd enough, but something else catches one’s attention. Hillary declared victory even before all the votes were tallied.
DES MOINES — Hillary Clinton’s campaign declared victory Tuesday over her late-surging rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders even as the final tally was being counted in Iowa’s Democratic caucuses, setting up what is likely to become a prolonged nominating contest.
Clinton and Sanders effectively battled to a draw, splitting the vote in the first presidential selection contest of 2016. The outcome, stunning after Clinton’s onetime dominance over a challenger who entered the race a virtual unknown, means the two Democrats are likely to claim roughly the same number of delegates so far.
It’s like she knew.
To paraphrase Stalin, it’s not who tosses the coin, it’s who brings the coin.
With normal people one might be able to dismiss such a mathematical improbability but these are the Clinton’s.
What were the odds Clinton would make millions while Secretary of State? (Remember, the money Bill made speaking went into her pocket too) What were the odds of all those favors being granted to donors to the Clinton Foundation? What were the odds of Bill always getting speaking fees from those who needed something from Uncle Sam?
Why have votes? Why have primaries? Why not just hand out some Clinton coins?
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.