https://desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/…
The decision by The Associated Press and other major media outlets to call the Iowa Caucuses a victory for Donald Trump before everyone had cast ballots has angered both Iowans and candidates.
Fox News, CNN and MSNBC also called the race early, about the same time as AP, about 31 minutes after caucuses began at 7 p.m. (The USA TODAY Network relies on the AP to call races.)
Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann lambasted the media for the early call, issuing a statement after the AP declared at 10:20 p.m. that Gov. Ron DeSantis took second place.
"Media outlets calling the results of the 2024 first-in-the-nation caucus less than half an hour after precinct caucuses had been called to order — before the overwhelming majority of Iowans had even cast their ballot — was highly disappointing and concerning," Kaufmann said in a statement. "One of the key differences between the Iowa Caucus and a standard primary election is that Iowans have the chance to listen to presidential candidates or their surrogates and deliberate to make an informed decision. "There was no need to rush one of the most transparent, grassroots democratic processes in the country."
Was it not “highly disappointing and concerning” when fox did it in Arizona during the elections?
@G3rrymanderFishRepublican4mos4MO
People were upset about that, but polls were closed and the state had finished voting. This stems from 2000 when media called Florida for Gore before the panhandle finished voting. They all put rules in place to prevent that from happening again, until now.
@StorkSophieRepublican4mos4MO
Shrug. They knew at 7:01 PM who had won based on entrance polling and were actually very patient before announcing that fact. CNN waited until 8:30PM. Caucusing takes forever in some counties and nobody wants to wait until midnight.
Not great that the networks called the race while there was still voting going on at many caucus sites.
Also part of a longstanding back and forth where the networks veer between overcaution and overzealousness.
But it doesn't show a lot of concern for the democratic process.
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