You never, ever use new software in a production setting unless it has been stress tested for at least 6 months and the end users have been trained and participate in the final stage of testing. That said, they used paper ballots, so no data was lost. The big ‘problem’ is that there was no instant answer after the caucuses had all ended.

The caucus system is a bad idea that gives a flawed result. Just hold a primary and find out who the voters really prefer. Not everybody can make it to the meeting place on a Monday night – some would need babysitters, some are working, some don’t have transportation, etc. There is nothing democratic about a process that excludes a significant number of voters in the state.

The problem of the Iowa Democratic Party staging an archaic process, in a small rural state that only has 6 of the 535 votes in the Electoral College, is hardly indicative of problems of any Presidential campaign. It does highlight the problem of front loading the candidate selection system with small rural states.

This morning the leaders are on the Yukon River more than 300 miles from the start and the rear of the field is 100 miles back at Circle (50 miles south of the Arctic Circle).

Chase Tingle (14) received an hour penalty for replacing broken pieces on his sled at Mile 101 in violation of Rule 11. The Quest is very strict on its ‘one sled’ policy.

Jason Campeau (3) and Denis Tremblay (5) have scratched at Circle in the best interests of their teams and the leaders are at Trout Creek at 4PM CST.

At 8PM CST the leaders are about 20 miles from Eagle and Olivia is about 12 miles from Slaven’s.

The Current Standings at 8:00PM CST ( 5:00PM AKST):

Beyond Circle
1 Michelle Phillips (11)
2 Brent Sass (15)
3 Allen Moore (4)
4 Cody Strathe (2)
5 Torsten Kohnert (9)
6 Ryne Olson (8)
7 Nora Själin (6)^R
8 Pat Noddin (13)^R
9 Chase Tingle (14)
10 Rob Cooke (12)
11 Richie Beattie (1)
12 Dave Dalton (10)
13 Olivia Webster (7)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by clicking on the sled dog or selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.