This is a developing story… Check back for possible updates.
The final results of the Democratic Party caucus in Iowa held Monday night… are not yet available.
As the clock edged past 10:30pm local time, Democratic candidates—including Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders—began to take to the podium to address supporters at their respective headquarters. Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, and other candidates were expected to do the same. With no results, no candidate was able to either concede defeat or declare victory.
In a statement, Mandy McClure, communications director of the Iowa Democratic Party, said, “We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results. In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report.”
McClure continued by saying, “This is simply a reporting issue. The app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
Turnout for the day, according to an earlier statement from the Iowa Democratic Party, was on par with 2016 but technical issues caused problems in terms of getting the results in a timely and efficient manner. According to the Des Moines Register:
Campaigns workers for Democrats reported significant glitches with the new reporting app they were supposed to use to report caucus results Monday night.
[McClure…] acknowledged delays, saying they were due to quality checks and the fact the party was reporting three sets of data for the first time.
“The integrity of the results is paramount,” McClure said at around 9:30 p.m. “What we know right now is that around 25 percent of precincts have reported, and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016.”
While national media outlets and cable channels appeared perplexed by the delay in reporting of the final results, CNN quoted an Iowa state official who said the reason was because of efforts to assure “quality control.”
At this point on caucus night four years ago, returns were in from 85% of Iowa precincts. (We currently have final alignment results from ~2% of precincts, and delegate equivalent results from none.) https://t.co/Wmc2v8kxmw
— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) February 4, 2020
MSNBC‘s Steve Kornacki admitted his team was “baffled” by the delay of the results and said it was “highly unusual.”
According to the CNN correspondent David Chalian, “They’re trying to make certain that what they report out as official results is accurate.”
With party officials and individual precinct captains relying on using a new app to report results, it was reported by Bloomberg News earlier in the day that some precinct chairs were having trouble with the new technology.