‘Just trolling at this point’: New York Times mocked for bringing back ‘election needle’ for Iowa caucuses

For the Iowa caucuses being held on Monday night, the New York Times dusted off its election prediction needle, and three others, to cover the caucus results as they unfold live. In an explanation about the quartet of needles, the New York Times said it would need four needles to track the various rounds of the caucus.

The first needle will track which candidate is projected to win the most delegates throughout the state. Although multiple candidates could receive delegates to go to the nominating convention later this year, this needle only tracks who will win the most delegates.

The second needle will predict the first vote held before any realignments. In the Iowa caucuses, multiple rounds of voting are held, and the supporters of any candidate who does not earn 15% of a precinct’s vote will choose a new candidate in the second round. The third needle will track the expected final alignment — when all of the low-turnout candidates are dropped.

The final needle will track the state delegate equivalents, or the predicted number of delegates each candidate will get to send to the Democratic National Convention set for mid-July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In the explanation, the report acknowledged the failed predictions of 2016 but claimed that the needle helped America “realize fairly early” on election night that Trump might win.

The abundance of election tracking needles was mocked by several Twitter users who found it humorous that the New York Times not only brought back the election needle but introduced three more as well.

The New York Times has used the needle a few times since the 2016 election, including during the Alabama Senate race in 2017 and the midterm elections in 2018.