The Iowa Democratic Party says it will release results of Monday night’s caucuses on Tuesday, blaming inconsistencies in reporting for the delay. Many of the candidates have already gone to New Hampshire, which holds its primaries in a week.
[When results come in, we’ll have them here.]
The candidates who were actively competing in Iowa included Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); former vice president Joe Biden; former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); entrepreneur Andrew Yang; and investor Tom Steyer.
●With eyes of the world on Iowa, another hiccup in American democracy.
●An epic breakdown in Iowa casts a spotlight on the caucus system.
●Undecided New Hampshire prepares for key first primary role after Iowa caucuses.
7:40 AM: Biden aide stresses no ‘official data’ has been released
Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, said during a television interview Tuesday that her team has “real concerns about the integrity of the process” and stressed that “no official data” has been released on the caucuses’ results.
Her comments came shortly after the Buttigieg campaign sent a memo to reporters detailing its precinct-level data from Monday night in Iowa.
“There’s no official data that has been presented yet,” Bedingfield said during an appearance on CNN, cautioning that partial data doesn’t “paint a full picture.”
She said that “we feel great about our performance last night,” but declined to answer a question about where the campaign thinks Biden finished in the caucuses.
By: John Wagner
7:35 AM: Biden releases new endorsements in ‘a sign of strength’ after Iowa
The Biden campaign on Tuesday unveiled seven endorsements from officials in early voting, Super Tuesday and battleground states, claiming they were “a sign of strength” following the Iowa caucuses.
The Democratic officials include California Secretary of State Alex Padilla; Roanoke, Va., Mayor Sherman Lea; Talladega, Ala., Mayor Timothy Ragland; former senator Mark Pryor (Ark.); former senator David Pryor (Ark.); former South Carolina governor Jim Hodges; former South Carolina first lady Rachel Hodges.
By: John Wagner
7:00 AM: Buttigieg lands in New Hampshire, releases memo on Iowa performance
CONCORD, N.H. — Buttigieg’s plane landed in Concord shortly before 4 a.m. Tuesday. By 7 a.m., his campaign had not only announced a fresh Granite State endorsement (Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess), but it had also issued a memo to reporters detailing its precinct-level data from Monday night in Iowa.
According to that data, Buttigieg accumulated 25 percent support overall on second alignment, numbers the campaign believes mean Buttigieg won the night.
Buttigieg’s campaign began releasing its own results to reporters, then via its Iowa spokesman Ben Halle, fairly early Monday evening. Reports from field organizers and precinct leaders had been largely positive, and when the campaign accumulated its own data, the numbers supported the point.
A campaign aide said that with 77 percent of precinct captains having reported results from their caucuses, the campaign could say that it beat its internal projections. Prior to Monday, those projections showed the race in “a virtual tie” on stage delegates, so beating the campaign’s projections meant an outright delegate win.
Buttigieg himself felt confident enough in those projections to declare victory in his speech to supporters at Drake University late Monday.
“Tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality,” Buttigieg said. “We don’t know all the results, but we know by the time it’s all said and done, Iowa, you’ve shocked the nation. By all indications, we are going to New Hampshire victorious.”
At the time, no results had been released, but a night that his campaign began with stoic confidence went better than it said it had hoped.
Buttigieg will campaign with Donchess, his latest endorser, on Tuesday morning as part of an eight-stop day in New Hampshire.
By: Chelsea Janes
6:35 AM: Trump calls Democratic caucuses ‘an unmitigated disaster’
President Trump weighed in on the delayed results in Iowa on Tuesday morning, calling the Democratic caucuses “an unmitigated disaster.”
“Nothing works, just like they ran the Country,” he said in a tweet that was critical of the cost of the launch of the website offering insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.
“The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is ‘Trump,’ ” Trump wrote.
He easily prevailed in the Republican caucuses, winning about 97 percent support against former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld and former congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois.
By: John Wagner
4:10 AM: Warren arrives in Manchester, says Iowa results remain ‘too close to call’
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Warren declared that the Iowa results are “too close to call” early Tuesday morning after arriving here on her plane from Des Moines.
She projected confidence that regardless of the ultimate results from Iowa, her campaign will continue. “This is an organization that is built for the long haul,” Warren said, standing on the tarmac at the private terminal for Manchester International Airport.
She added that her Iowa organizers are already fanning out around the rest of the country.
When Warren left Iowa, the state party had said it planned to release results from the first-in-the-nation caucuses later Tuesday. And by the time she landed, she said she knew little new information.
She left from the rear of her plane and gave a brief comment to photographers and reporters who traveled with her from Iowa. Her plane left Des Moines around 1 a.m. Central time and landed around 4 a.m. Eastern time in Manchester.
She will be appearing in Keene, N.H., later Tuesday for a town hall meeting.
Warren’s top aides indicated via posts on social media that they are upset with the disorganization in Iowa, but they were more restrained than some of the other campaigns, reflecting a push to position her as a unity candidate capable of bringing the party together.
“The process broke down; systematically and individually in many precincts, both people and technology failed,” said chief strategist Joe Rospars on Twitter.
He directed his ire at other campaigns that have been suggesting that they won the state, rather than at the Iowa Democratic Party. “Any campaign saying they won or putting out incomplete numbers is contributing to the chaos and misinformation,” Rospars said.
Still, he described the results as “a very close race” among Warren, Sanders and Buttigieg. “Biden came a distant fourth,” Rospars wrote.
The Warren campaign staff is describing the results based on precinct-by-precinct data gathered by their organization in most places in the state, Roger Lau, Warren’s campaign manager, said in a briefing in Des Moines. “We were competitive everywhere,” Lau said. “We have high confidence that it’s close.”
By: Annie Linskey
4:00 AM: Klobuchar expresses confidence in Iowa Democratic Party
Klobuchar expressed confidence in the ability of the Iowa Democratic Party to tabulate the results of the caucuses as she arrived in New Hampshire early Tuesday.
“I think they’ll be able to count them by hand, just like they used to,” Klobuchar told CNN. “They can get it done. I’m sure they can get it done. . . . I’m sure they’re working hard. It must have been devastating to them.”
During the interview, Klobuchar also made a pitch for making her the party’s nominee, arguing that she could appeal both to a “fired-up base” and independent voters.
By: John Wagner
2:28 AM: Call on release of results got tense
State party officials held a second call with officials from the campaigns early Tuesday. The party officials told the campaigns that they planned to release caucus results later on Tuesday and that they are hand-checking results, according to a person on the call.
A second person on the call said Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver got into a tense exchange with Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price.
By: Sean Sullivan and Matt Viser
2:26 AM: Local officials warned state party of issues with app last week, Polk County Democratic chair says
Sean Bagniewski, chair of the Polk County Democratic Party, said that local officials were aware of problems with the app since last Thursday and that they had requested state officials resolve the problems — to no avail.
“We knew the app was a problem last Thursday,” Bagniewski said.
When local party officials asked the state party about issues they had with the app, they were referred to a “dedicated staffer” who was not able to solve the problems, he said.
“We had had so many complaints about the app that we started telling our chairs that if they were having problems with the app then you should call in the results,” Bagniewski said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/iowa-caucus-secretary-struggles-to-report-results/2020/02/04/8cf268c6-2e21-4f36-b05a-d83529c4af1b_video.html
The state party did not provide any training on how to use the app, he said, adding that while the caucus trainings are done at the county level, the app itself came from the state level.
Local officials had trouble downloading the app, getting a PIN to log in, and activating it even when they had a PIN, Bagniewski said.
Then, when precinct chairmen tried to call the results in via the hotline, they were placed on hold for as long as two hours, he said.
“When our chairs are calling, it’s a wait time of an hour and a half or two hours. In some cases they have dropped the call,” he said. “I swear my chairs are coming in and saying it was the best caucus ever. So it is really really bittersweet. ... It is really really hard to wrap our heads around it.”
By: Michael Scherer
2:20 AM: It was confusing in 2016, too
In 2016, the Iowa Democratic Party didn’t release its final results until just before 1 p.m. the day after the caucuses, after hours of dueling narratives about the outcome.
Around 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 2, 2016, the day after the caucuses, the party noted in an email sent to reporters that Hillary Clinton was leading Bernie Sanders by just over four state delegate equivalents, with just one final precinct in Des Moines outstanding.
In those early hours after the caucuses, Sanders campaign officials were still saying they would contest the results and the Associated Press was refusing to formally call the closest Iowa caucus in history.
The state Democratic party would later release the final results just before 1 p.m. confirming that Clinton was the first woman ever to win the Iowa caucuses by just under 4 state delegate equivalents.
Sanders’s team lasting frustration with the process help spur many of the changes that were implemented this year, including the decision to release raw vote totals for the first time ever instead of solely relying on the complicated formula that yields state delegate equivalents. Reporting suggests that the decision to release multiple numbers has led to some of the delay in releasing results in 2020.
By: Brent Griffiths
2:12 AM: Iowa Democratic Party just says results will come later today
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price said Tuesday morning that party officials expect to report results from the caucuses “later” Tuesday. Price said party officials are validating data against paper records and verifying all precinct results, a process that is “taking longer than expected.”
Reading a statement on a call with reporters, Price said the delay was not a result of a hack or an intrusion. Price did not take any questions from reporters, and his statement lasted less than one minute.
By: Michelle Ye Hee Lee
2:10 AM: Campaigns release their own numbers
The campaigns decided not to wait for official results, instead releasing some of their own. Both the Sanders and Buttigieg campaigns put out some numbers from precincts, saying that while they’re not complete, the campaigns believe they’re indicative.
The Buttigieg campaign reported that it was doing better than projections and believed it was on the way to victory. The campaign statement said it performed stronger in rural parts of the state than expected.
His campaign said he reached viability in 83 percent of the caucuses that they got results for and that turnout was around 2016 levels – lower than records hit in 2008.
The Sanders campaign said its results represented nearly 40 percent of precincts.
“We recognize that this does not replace the full data from the Iowa Democratic Party, but we believe firmly that our supporters worked too hard for too long to have the results of that work delayed,” senior adviser Jeff Weaver said.
According to the Sanders campaign results, Sanders performed best in the precincts they had, with about 29 percent of state delegate equivalents, followed by Buttigieg with 26 percent, Warren with 18 percent, Biden with 15 percent and Klobuchar with 11 percent.
Warren strategist Joe Rospars criticized the release of numbers.
He also called the race “very close” between Warren, Sanders and Buttigieg and said Biden was “a distant fourth.”
By: Chelsea Janes and Sean Sullivan
1:49 AM: Polk County Democratic officials said they tried to deliver results in person but were turned away
Polk County Democratic officials said they tried to deliver their results to the state party in person, after encountering problems with the new app they were supposed to use — but were turned away.
Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Democrats, said they initially decided the county’s 177 precinct chairs would call in results to the state party after encountering “issues” with a new reporting app.
However, the state party hotline wasn’t working properly either, according to Bagniewski. Polk County Democratic officials then asked all of its precinct chairs to take pictures of their final reporting sheets.
Judy Downs, executive director of the Polk County Democrats, then compiled pictures of all the reporting sheets on her phone and drove over to the headquarters of the Iowa Democratic Party to try to submit them in person.
“They didn’t take it,” Downs said.
Downs said she was dismayed the delays had overshadowed the work of her county volunteers. Polk County, which includes Des Moines and is the most populous county in Iowa, has 177 precincts, and all had concluded caucusing before 9 p.m. Monday, Downs said — something that was “unheard of.”
“I’m disappointed that our volunteers aren’t necessarily getting the national spotlight that they should be right now because they ran some smooth caucuses throughout the county,” Downs said. “I’m really proud of everyone.”
When asked if the state party was handling the situation poorly, Bagniewski demurred.
“No comment,” he said
By: Jacqueline Alemany and Amy B Wang
1:29 AM: In need of cash, candidates raise money off Iowa caucuses’ uncertainty
As the results of the Iowa caucuses hung in the balance, candidates moved on to New Hampshire -- and continued to raise money from supporters amid the confusion.
“It’s a tight contest. We won’t know the final outcome for a while — maybe not even until tomorrow,” read a Warren campaign email Monday night.
“The energy in Iowa is looking good — and we’ll be back with more updates from tonight’s caucuses,” the email read. “But Iowa is just the beginning, and our campaign is built for the long haul. And right now, Elizabeth needs your help to continue our momentum into New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and all the 57 other states and territories across the country.”
In an email to supporters Monday night, Yang wrote: “We’re still waiting on the results in Iowa. But we know what’s next. We’re going to keep defying expectations. ... Now, before I get on a plane to New Hampshire tonight, I have to make a personal ask of you. Will you give $10 tonight so we show everyone we will continue defying expectations all the way to the nomination?”
Klobuchar, Biden and Buttigieg sent similar fundraising appeals asking for online donations to their campaigns as the candidates headed to New Hampshire.
Candidates are in dire need of a quick infusion of cash after Iowa, where they invested heavily over the final months of 2019. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the candidates burned through their money and entered January with much less money on hand than earlier in the year, betting that spending heavily on organizing and advertising in Iowa would pay off.
The early contests are costly, and the election is expected to become more expensive as it nears Super Tuesday on March 3, when 14 states have Democratic presidential nominating contests. And those who make it to Super Tuesday would face a rival with virtually unlimited funds: multibillionaire Mike Bloomberg.
By: Michelle Ye Hee Lee
12:56 AM: Caucuses are risky, Minnesota official says
The Iowa Democratic Party’s new system of releasing multiple vote counts grew out of a years-long effort to change party rules, one in which most caucus states simply scrapped that system in favor of primaries.
Ed Martin, the chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said caucuses by their nature risked chaos.
“One of the reasons we moved to a primary is that in 2016, we saw such a huge crush of people coming out, so much energy and excitement, and the party was not equipped to handle that, to administer an election,” Martin said. “We had to recruit 15,000 volunteers that had to put on an election in two hours. It was a really negative experience.”
Minnesota was one of multiple states that moved from a caucus to a primary after the 2016 election. One reason Iowa hasn’t moved to a primary from a caucus: New Hampshire has a law that states it must have the first-in-the-nation primary. If Iowa moved to a primary system, it wouldn’t be able to go first anymore.
By: David Weigel
12:47 AM: Other campaigns say Biden didn’t perform well
Roger Lau, Warren’s campaign manager, said their campaign believed Biden had underperformed, based on data collected from polling sites.
“What we know is that it was a tight top three. Warren, Bernie, Pete, and Biden was a distant fourth,” Lau told reporters.
Others also fueled speculation that Biden performed poorly.
Democratic strategist Rebecca Katz bemoaned how the cancellation of the Des Moines Register poll, which was rumored to show Warren ticking up, snuffed out a potentially positive news cycle.
“We all know that Biden had a terrible poll on Saturday, and it didn’t come out, so for three days he was able to skate by, with people saying he was in the lead,” Katz said. The former vice president “was told in precinct after precinct that he was not viable. Instead of that being the story, it’s about the party.”
“The story could have been that it was a strong night for the progressive candidates and Biden’s campaign on life support,” said Adam Jentleson, a Warren ally who had traveled to the state to support her. “It looked like it was going to be a close finish between Warren and Sanders. She was beating him on college campuses!”
https://twitter.com/jbuoen/status/1224567141468340228">Klobuchar’s campaign manager also indicated on Twitter that their campaign saw a poor Biden showing in the state.
By: Annie Linskey
12:27 AM: With no results, Buttigieg declares victory
Though the results from the Iowa caucus have not yet been released, Buttigieg claimed victory Monday night at a post-caucus rally with supporters.
“What a night!” Buttigieg exclaimed when he took the stage. “Because tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.”
There is no indication when the results will be released from the Iowa caucuses. Still, Buttigieg claimed his Iowa supporters “proved” his “skeptics wrong.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/buttigieg-in-iowa-we-are-going-on-to-new-hampshire-victorious/2020/02/04/19f75d33-4726-4415-a87d-dbbd49d20fb9_video.html
“We don’t know all the results, but we know by the time it’s all said and done, Iowa, you have shocked the nation,” Buttigieg said. “By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.”
Buttigieg thanked his family, encouraged supporters to donate to his campaign and attacked President Trump.
“We take our message onward to New Hampshire ... to Nevada, to South Carolina and beyond, to every corner of America,” he said.
By: Michelle Ye Hee Lee
12:23 AM: Democratic caucus organizer said he waited hours to report results
They just wanted to submit the results of their caucus.
Instead, Johnson County caucus organizers struggled for hours to reach state officials. Volunteer John Deeth, who helped organize the caucus at Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City, said local officials were unable to submit the results electronically, using the caucus app.
More than four hours after the caucuses started, Deeth said volunteers were still on hold with party officials, waiting to report the results over the phone.
“He couldn’t get the app downloaded on his phone,” Deeth said about the caucus leader responsible for reporting the results. Deeth said he was certain they would be eventually able to report the correct results.
But there were other confusions during the caucus process, including a group of 85 voters who left early because they appeared confused about how the process worked, he said. Some voters also started writing their second choices on caucus cards before realignment.
By: Michael Scherer
12:23 AM: Warren thanks Iowa supporters, saying ‘we are one step closer to winning the fight’
DES MOINES — Nearly four hours after Iowans began caucusing, Warren addressed supporters at her Des Moines headquarters, thanking volunteers and telling them they were “one step closer to winning the fight for an America we imagine is possible.”
Both Warren and her supporters looked and sounded upbeat, despite the fact that the Iowa Democratic Party had not yet reported any official numbers from the precincts. However, throughout the evening, news reports from several precincts showed promising results for Warren.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/warren-in-iowa-americans-have-a-deep-hunger-for-big-structural-change/2020/02/04/72473f37-0b15-4b28-989c-7708c0966556_video.html
“Americans do big things! That’s who we are!” Warren told the crowd. “We don’t settle, we don’t back down, we meet big problems with even bigger solutions.”
Warren focused heavily on Trump, rather than her primary opponents, criticizing him as “the most corrupt president in American history.”
At one point, Warren appeared to choke up as she thanked her organizers and volunteers in Iowa, including those who had “braved the blistering cold to knock on doors.”
“Tonight, you showed that when you imagine an America that lives up to its ideals, you can set in motion the process of making it a reality. All it takes is some hard work and better connections,” she said.
Warren’s speech was interrupted several times as the room broke out into various chants, including “CFPB! CFPB!” — a nod to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she helped create — and “Warren! Warren!” Around the room, people waved liberty-green placards that read “Hope Over Fear” and “Courage Over Cynicism.”
She cautioned that there was still a long road ahead, one that included 57 states and territories.
“The road won’t be easy,” Warren said. “But we are built for the long haul.”
Warren lingered in the room to take photos with her supporters before leaving to fly to New Hampshire, where she had a campaign event planned for Tuesday morning, her campaign said.
By: Amy B Wang and Annie Linskey
12:20 AM: Twitter says it won’t ban Trump and his allies from calling the Iowa caucuses ‘rigged’
Twitter will not require President Trump’s top political allies to delete tweets claiming that the Democratic caucus in Iowa is “rigged,” the tech company confirmed, raising fresh questions about its policies around voting.
With official results delayed due to apparent technical troubles, Trump’s top supporters shared a series of tweets late Monday questioning the integrity of the voting process itself. Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, and Eric Trump, the president’s son, both questioned whether there had been some manipulation of the first-in-the-nation vote, without citing specific evidence for their claims.
“Quality control = rigged?” tweeted Parscale, citing Democrats’ earlier justification for the delay. His tweet already has roughly 3,000 retweets.
Twitter said the comment — and others like it — did not violate its policy against voter suppression, a category some experts say should include social-media content that casts doubt on the legitimacy of an election. Earlier Monday, Twitter also declined to take down tweets from right-leaning users that suggested a different kind of electoral fraud.
“The tweet is not in violation of our election integrity policy as it does not suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when, where, or how to vote,” said Twitter spokesman Brandon Borrman about the initial claims Iowa had been “rigged.”
Along with its tech peers, Twitter doesn’t take action against outright falsehoods with only limited exceptions, including a category of content it calls voter suppression. On the site, users can’t mislead others about the date and time of an election, or the means by which they can vote, or Twitter will lock a person’s account until they delete the offending tweet.
The policy also covers instances in which users share false or misleading information “relating to voters not being counted,” for example, as well as “misleading claims about voting procedures or techniques which could dissuade voters from participating.”
By: Tony Romm
12:14 AM: Biden campaign raises concerns about ‘considerable flaws’ in caucus reporting system
The Biden campaign on Monday night emailed Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price and Executive Director Kevin Geiken raising concerns about “considerable flaws” in the caucus’s reporting system tonight.
“The app that was intended to relay Caucus results to the Party failed; the Party’s back-up telephonic reporting system likewise has failed,” the campaign wrote in an email, obtained by The Washington Post. “Now, we understand that Caucus Chairs are attempting to — and, in many cases, failing to — report results telephonically to the Party. These acute failures are occurring statewide.”
The Biden campaign requested state party leaders provide “full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond, before any official results are released.”
Meanwhile, Biden rallied his supporters with an anti-Trump speech amid the delay in results Monday night, telling the crowd that “character is on the ballot,” and that Democrats must bring “compassion over cruelty” and “truth over lies.”
“Folks, each and every one of us knows that deep in our bones that everything this nation stands for is at stake,” Biden said, speaking from the Biden campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife Jill alongside him.
Bruce Koeppl, a Biden volunteer and a precinct captain for Biden at the Knapp Center said he was frustrated by the results.
“As an Iowa Democrat, it’s very disappointing,” he said. “I think there will be questions about our status. More questions, there really are questions about [our place] already … This looks very bad. They’ve had a long time to prepare for this.”
By: Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
12:01 AM: In call with campaigns, Iowa state party officials struggle to explain why results are delayed
In a call with the campaigns Monday evening, the Iowa Democratic Party struggled to explain why caucus results have not been released. According to several sources on the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly, the party would not say why it was not providing any information.
Party officials also struggled to explain what caused the considerable delay in release.
According to sources, the party said that 35 percent of precincts had successfully reported their numbers to the state party.
Officials also said they are working to confirm precinct results with back-up data, but could not say whether even one precinct’s results had been verified.
“It’s just a total mess and no timeline for when it becomes clearer,” a source affiliated with one campaign said.
Another source from a campaign described the conversation as explosive. “Someone said the explanation was unbelievable and the party screamed into the phone, ‘who is this, who is this is,’” they said.
On the call, when campaign aides pressed for a release time on the results, the IDP hung up.
By: Jacqueline Alemany, Matt Viser and Sean Sullivan
12:01 AM: Sanders says he’s confident results will be released ‘at some point’
DES MOINES — Sanders took the stage at his watch party and sounded a confident note, though he stopped short of declaring victory.
“I have a feeling that at some point, the results will be announced,” he said. And when they are, Sanders said, he had a “a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well.”
Sanders, known for long speeches, delivered a brief 10-minute address before hustling offstage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/sanders-in-iowa-change-is-coming/2020/02/04/db7e901f-483e-41a8-a2d7-313c67787485_video.html
Nina Turner, a national campaign co-chair who usually introduces Sanders, spoke after him. She told the crowd that if the results were known, Sanders would come back and speak.
Some in crowd were getting angsty.
“What’s going on with these results?” said one man to his companion and he sipped a beer. Others also expressed confusion.
The campaign appeared intent on keeping the audience amped up with a parade of speakers. After Turner took the stage, another co-chair, Rep. Ro Khanna, started speaking. Giant projector screens behind him showed a live stream of CNN, as he voiced confident notes.
By: Sean Sullivan
12:01 AM: ‘Inconsistencies’ in reporting leading to delay, Iowa Democrats say
“Inconsistencies” in reporting three sets of results has led to a lack of official numbers from the Iowa Democratic party, more than three hours after Iowans started caucusing, officials said.
Party leaders were supposed to report three sets of results from precincts Monday night: the original number of people who had aligned for a candidate, the numbers for each candidate upon realignment and the number of delegates awarded to each candidate.
“We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” Iowa Democratic party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said in a statement. “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 also tried to tamp down fears that a new app used to report results had been hacked.
“This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion,” McClure said. “The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
However, that was at odds with some reports that officials were having trouble reporting official numbers through the app.
“The app just straight up wasn’t working,” Shawn Sebastian, the caucus secretary for Story County Precinct 1-1, told The Washington Post. He later spent more than an hour on hold trying to report his precinct results.
Originally published at 11:34 p.m.
By: Amy B Wang
12:01 AM: Klobuchar addresses delays with supporters
Klobuchar addressed her supporters at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown, telling them that she’d earned her place in the next primaries even though she didn’t yet know the results of the Iowa caucus.
“We know there’s delays, but we know one thing — we are punching above our weight,” said Klobuchar, who was trailing the top four Democratic candidates but had moved up in the race’s final weeks. “Somehow, someway, I’m going to get on a plane to New Hampshire.”
Klobuchar noted that she’s been “bolted” to her desk during the “well-deserved impeachment” trial of the president, and pitched herself as a unifying candidate who wouldn’t try to “out-divide the divider in chief,” on the way to beating him.
“Donald Trump’s worst nightmare is that our fired up Democrats alongside a coalition of independents and fed up Republicans,” Klobuchar said. “I have a playbook that’s three words: Unite and lead.”
Klobuchar’s supporters, many wearing new shirts that read “Amy Klobuchar Will Defeat Donald Trump,” swapped stories about caucuses where they’d help the senator earn viability. But there was plenty of frustration about what had happened to the vote count.
“Iowa is the Broward County of caucuses,” joked Max Steele, a Klobuchar spokesman who’d previously worked for the Florida Democratic Party.
Originally published at 11:28 p.m.
By: David Weigel
12:01 AM: Campaigns also await results
DES MOINES — Warren volunteers, staff and friends gathered here, eagerly waiting for results while munching on turkey wraps and tomato toast with melted cheese at her caucus night party.
“I cried all day today,” said Mary Horsman, 59, a Warren supporter who hosted an event for the campaign earlier at her Des Moines home. Her voice cracked as she explained how she’s going to miss the Warren campaign staff who’ve been camped out.
“Of course I want my girl to win,” she said. “It’s about getting together. We’re rebuilding a party.”
Another supporter came in fresh from a caucus site in West Des Moines filled with enthusiasm. “I feel like we’re doing good,” said Elizabeth Lindquist, who has been coming to Iowa from her home in Illinois to knock doors for Warren. She said she was “shocked” that Biden was not viable at her caucus site – and pleased that 10 Iowans moved from his corner to Warren’s.
Attendees at Buttigieg’s watch party had only just begun to fill the room when news of the delay began emerging on the projection screen set up there. No one seemed too preoccupied, seemingly focused more on ensuring their voices were heard on television when CNN cameras flipped to their site.
As everyone waited for results, a Buttigieg aide suggested reasons for optimism: The campaign’s precinct leaders had reported viability in an overwhelming majority of rural counties and in Obama/Trump precincts.
But the delay had more implications for the Buttigieg campaign than just prolonging its suspense: Buttigieg has seven stops planned in New Hampshire on Tuesday, including one at 7 a.m. Eastern.
Originally published at 11:19 p.m.
By: Annie Linskey and Chelsea Janes
12:01 AM: Some precincts seemed to be having issues reporting their results
In Dubuque, results for one precinct were delayed for more than an hour because caucus officials were having trouble reporting official numbers through the app they were supposed to use. The problems began with the first alignment, when they kept getting an error while trying to send numbers.
Shawn Sebastian, the caucus secretary for Story County Precinct 1-1, tweeted late Monday that he had been on hold for over an hour trying to report results from his precinct to the party hotline. “The app just straight up wasn’t working,” Sebastian told The Washington Post.
Originally published at 11:14 p.m.
By: Holly Bailey and Amy B Wang
12:01 AM: Trump officials suggest, without evidence, the results delay is a sign the vote is ‘rigged’ against Sanders
As word spread that caucus results were being delayed due to “quality checks” by Democratic Party officials, Republicans suggested, with no evidence, that the contest was “rigged” against Sanders.
Trump campaign officials and the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action tweeted on Monday night, with no proof, that Democratic Party officials were purposefully withholding the results to hurt Sanders’s chances.
“Quality control = rigged?” tweeted Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.
“JUST IN: The DNC rigged the primary for Hillary Clinton again,” America First super PAC tweeted.
https://twitter.com/GaryCoby/status/1224532933924597761">https://twitter.com/AmericaFirstPAC/status/1224540732486299649">Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on whether the tweets violated its policies.
Originally published at 11:02 p.m.
By: Michelle Ye Hee Lee
12:01 AM: Quality control checks delay caucus results, Iowa Democrats say
Nearly three hours after Iowans began caucusing, there are still no official results from the Iowa Democratic Party.
“We have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the IDP is reporting out three data sets for the first time. What we know right now is that around 25% of precincts have reported, and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016,” Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said in a statement.
Before Monday, Iowa Democratic party leaders were predicting record turnout, owing to high interest, a still-large field of candidates and favorable weather.
It was unclear how much new technology factored into the delay. Earlier Monday, there were reports some precinct chairs were struggling to use a new app to send results to the state party. Precinct chairs can still report results the traditional way, using a hotline.
Originally published at 10:43 p.m.
By: Amy B Wang
2020-02-04 13:17:00Z
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