Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Ahem, It Turns Out There Was a Computer "Glitch" in Iowa

Here's an interesting report from National Journal and the real-time coverage from CNN at that point. It doesn't in itself prove chicanery, perhaps the opposite. But, here is what is known for the record, though perhaps a little more about this computer "glitch" and how extensive it was needs to be researched and how many other precinct numbers were just "called in" because of the "glitch".
As Iowa caucus watchers entered the wee hours, waiting to see whether Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney would win, the woman with the answers was fast asleep. Edith Pfeffer, the Republican chairwoman in Clinton County, held the crucial votes from the 2nd Ward's second precinct that would ultimately determine the winner.

But at 1:30 a.m., Pfeffer had retired to sleep in a room without a phone. She couldn’t hear the calls from the Romney campaign, CNN, or her friend Carolyn Tallett, who soon came to ring her doorbell and pound on her windows. 
Pfeffer said she reported the numbers at 11:20 p.m. to a Romney worker in Clinton County, who told her that there had been a computer glitch in getting the numbers to Des Moines. But the state party headquarters needed a second confirmation--after Pfeffer had gone to bed.

“You cringe a little bit,” Pfeffer told NPR in speaking of how she awoke. “And the next thing I knew, someone was pounding on the windows and I thought, ‘What is going on?’ And I got up to see Carolyn running in my front yard.” 
Pfeffer and Tallett then called state party headquarters to confirm the precinct’s votes and spoke by phone to CNN's John King as he tallied the votes live. King told the two women that their numbers did not match what the state was reporting, an indication that they held the missing piece that ultimately determined Romney the winner.
Watch Pfeffer's and Tallett's call with CNN:



It may have just been a glitch, since Ron Paul observers were supposedly posted at all precincts, but that's 1774 precincts. Still interesting.

7 comments:

  1. Wait? How the hell can you just "go to bed" holding votes?

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  2. Mexico 1988.
    se cayĆ³ el sistema = "the system crashed"

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  3. JFF, she went to bed knowing that she had delivered the votes, only to discover that the "glitch" had lost the votes, and she needed to submit them again. That is how I understood it.

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  4. Obviously the establishment rigged the voting.
    Wouldn't you?

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  5. I know for a fact that the story is correct. All votes for the state are called in to an automated system with a passcode that records the vote. Those votes were called in shortly before 8pm CST. Everyone went home and went to bed because they thought the votes were sent in. No one figured out earlier that the votes for that precinct hadn't been recorded.

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  6. @Anonymous Obviously not. The Iowa GOP has made sure to supply paper ballots and hand-count them at its caucus events -- but of course, for the rest of us it's Diebold.

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  7. The Romney win was a setup - it's obvious.

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