Iowa caucus results delayed due to ‘reporting issue’
USA - The results of the Iowa caucuses, the first voting contest of the US 2020 presidential election season, have been delayed “due to quality checks”, the Iowa Democratic Party said.
“The integrity experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the (Iowa Democratic Party) is reporting out three data sets for the first time,” the party said in an emailed statement, adding later that there was “simply a reporting issue” and there had been no “hack or intrusion” with the app the precincts were using to report results. It was unclear when exactly official results would be announced.
As Iowans eagerly awaited the results, Senators Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg appeared in their respective campaign headquarters to reassure their supporters.
“We know one thing: we are punching above our weight,” said Klobuchar, the first of the 10 candidates participating in Iowa’s caucuses to address the delay. Warren told her supporters that they may not “know the results from tonight, but tonight has already shown that Americans have a hunger for big structural change”. Both Biden and Sanders told those gathered at their respective headquarters they had a “good” feeling about the results.
“When those results are announced, I have a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well in Iowa,” Sanders said.
“We feel good about where we are, so it’s on to New Hampshire,” Biden said, referring to next week’s primary in the northeastern US state. Buttigieg, speaking later in the night, said: “Tonight, Iowa chose a new path ... to say that the time has come to turn the page and start a new chapter”.
Without the results fromnearly 1,700 precinct sitesacross the state, it is still anyone’s game. Polls going into Monday night’s caucuses indicated Sanders and Biden leading a still crowded field of candidates, followed by Klobuchar, Warren and Buttigieg.
Iowa, a Midwestern state, kicks off the presidential nominating contest every four years. In 2016, 171,000 of the two million registered voters attended a caucus. The state Democratic party leadership and campaigns are hoping for much higher numbers this time around, especially given that the country is deeply divided along party lines and its opinions of the current president.
The Republicans also held caucuses across the state, with current President Trump declared the winner early in the night.
In a first this year, raw numbers from all precincts will be released for both rounds of caucusing, as well as the final overall results. That means the public will be able to see exactly how less-popular candidates did across the board. In the past, only final numbers were released. That change appeared to have contributed to the delay of Monday night’s results, leading to confusion and frustration across the state. (Al Jazeera)