WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday called for a "recanvass" of the results of the Iowa caucuses, saying it was needed to "assure public confidence" after three days of technical issues and delays.
"Enough is enough," party leader Tom Perez wrote on Twitter.
With 97% of precincts reporting, Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are nearly tied for the lead, and both candidates have declared themselves victorious in the contest. The Associated Press has not called the race.
The Iowa Democratic Party apologized for technical glitches with an app that slowed down the reporting of results from Monday's caucuses and has spent the week trying to verify results. However, it was unclear if the state party planned to follow the directive of the national leader to recanvass those results, a process that would probably require state officials to review caucus math worksheets completed at more than 1,600 caucus sites to ensure the calculations were done correctly and matched the reported results.
Iowa chairman Troy Price suggested in a statement Thursday that he would pursue a recanvass only if one was requested by a campaign.
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Sanders called the Iowa Democratic Party's management of the caucuses a "screw-up" that has been "extremely unfair" to the candidates and their supporters.
As first reported by The New York Times, numerous precincts reported results that contained errors or were inconsistent with party rules. For example, the AP confirmed that dozens of precincts reported more final alignment votes than first alignment votes, which is not possible under party rules. In other precincts, viable candidates lost votes from the first alignment tally to the final, which is also inconsistent with party rules.
Some precincts made apparent errors in awarding state delegate equivalents to candidates. A handful of precincts awarded more state delegate equivalents than they had available. A few others didn't award all of theirs.
The trouble began with an app that the Iowa Democratic Party used to tabulate the results of the contest. The app was rolled out shortly before caucusing began and did not go through rigorous testing.
The problems were compounded when phone lines for reporting the outcomes grew jammed, with many callers placed on hold for hours. Party officials said the backlog was exacerbated by calls from people around the country who accessed the number.
"The Democrats, they can't count some simple votes and yet they want to take over your health care system," President Donald Trump said at a White House event Thursday celebrating his impeachment trial acquittal.
Without a winner called, Democrats have quickly turned their focus to New Hampshire, which holds the next voting contest Tuesday.
The results released so far show Buttigieg and Sanders locked in an exceedingly close contest. They lead Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Party activist John Deeth, who organized the caucuses in Iowa's most Democratic county, Johnson, said he welcomed a recanvass and would help as needed.
"It makes sense to look everything over again and get it right," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Ryan J. Foley, Will Weissert, Bill Barrow, Stephen Ohlemacher and Emily Swanson of The Associated Press.
A Section on 02/07/2020