Where are the results?

By Linh Ta, Iowa Capital Dispatch
Posted 2/6/20

The Iowa Democratic Party’s delay in reporting caucus results sparked more criticism of the state’s first-in-the-nation status Monday.

While the winner of the Iowa caucus isn’t …

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Where are the results?

Posted

The Iowa Democratic Party’s delay in reporting caucus results sparked more criticism of the state’s first-in-the-nation status Monday.

While the winner of the Iowa caucus isn’t normally finalized until late in the evening of the event, it’s typical for results to be released throughout the night, giving some indication of front-runners and losers.

The Iowa Democratic Party has still failed to release any numbers by 9 a.m. Tuesday, resulting in angst on social media, criticisms from President Donald Trump’s campaign, and even some harsh words from the Democratic presidential candidates.

In an update to the public Tuesday morning, the Iowa Democratic Party released a statement saying there were inconsistencies with caucus reports Monday evening, resulting in an investigation that delayed the release of public numbers.

For the first time this year, precincts used apps to report the results from their caucuses. While the data the app collected was accurate, only partial numbers were being reported due to a coding error, according to the news release.

“As this investigation unfolded, IDP staff activated pre-planned backup measures and entered data manually. This took longer than expected,” according to the news release.

Because paper documentation of the results is required as well from precincts, the party was able to verify the data from the app with the submitted papers, according to the news release. Results from the caucuses were expected to be released on Tuesday.

Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price read a statement during a media call just after 1 a.m. He said the party was manually reviewing results from all precincts and he expected to have results later on Tuesday. 

“The integrity of our process and the results have and always will be our top priority,” he said. He reiterated previous party statements that the problem was a “reporting issue, not a hack or an intrusion.”

Price said in addition to the digital tracking of the results, photos and a paper trail were being used to validate results and ensure accuracy. “We have said all along we have these backups in place for exactly this reason.”