Iowa Caucuses Update: Buttigieg, Sanders Seek Partial Recanvass

Both former South Bend (Ind.) Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Monday asked the Iowa Democratic party to recanvass the votes cast in last week’s Iowa caucuses.

Buggigieg’s campaign asked for a recanvass in 66 precincts and all satellite caucus sites while Sanders’ campaign asked for a reexamination of results in 28 precincts and satellite caucus centers.

Last Monday’s caucuses were a disaster for the party. Trouble with a vote-counting app and problems with phone lines delayed tallying the results, which one week later indicated Buttigieg captured the largest percentage of delegates, leading Sanders by 0.1 percentage point. Sanders, however, led by more than 2,000 in the popular vote. The Associated Press has declined to call a winner in the race.

The caucuses were just the first round of voting. Two more rounds are scheduled for spring to divvy up the state’s 41 delegates. A candidate will need 1,990 delegates on the first ballot to capture the nomination at the Democratic National Convention or 2,373 thereafter.

The requests come a day ahead of the New Hampshire primary where Sanders and Buttigieg are seen as the leaders.

Sanders charged in a letter to state party Chairman Troy Price there were numerous inconsistencies in the vote count and that Buttigieg was awarded 26.2% of the delegates in error.

“As I’ve stated, the challenges in reporting data, and delays in publicizing results were categorically unacceptable. Iowa Democrats demand better of us, and we demand better of ourselves – and last night brought us one step closer to bringing the 2020 Iowa caucus to completion,” Price said in a statement Sunday.

The campaigns had until noon CST to submit evidence of inaccuracies. He said the evidence would be compared to the official numbers and corrections could be made.

The Sanders campaign said it was confident the recanvass would result in additional delegate equivalents being awarded to the Vermont independent while the Buttigieg campaign expressed confidence its delegate count would hold.

The debacle has prompted talk Iowa could lose its first-in-the-nation status and calls that it abandon the caucus system in favor of a primary.

The New York Times reported last week’s problems ran deeper than the faulty app, including failure to train precinct captains adequately, failure to test the app fully and delays in signing agreements with the national party that cut the time needed for planning. It also cited overconfidence among party officials.