The Iowa Democrat Party announced late Monday evening that it discovered “inconsistencies” in the reporting of three sets of caucus results as delays continue to plague the first-in-the-nation primary contest.
“We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results. 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,” Iowa Democratic Party Communications Director Mandy McClure said in a statement. “This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
The development comes after officials announced they are doing “quality control” on the results prior to releasing them out of “an abundance of caution.”
As of 11:30 P.M. EST, final caucus results have not yet been confirmed. Previous races have been called between 8 P.M. EST and 10 P.M. EST.
The Biden campaign sent a letter to the Iowa Democrat Party regarding the delay, raising concerns about the “considerable flaws” in the reporting system.
“I write on behalf of the Biden for President Campaign regarding the considerable flaws in tonight’s Iowa Caucus reporting system. The app that was intended to relay Caucus results to the Party failed; the Party’s back-up telephonic reporting system likewise has failed,” wrote Biden campaign general counsel Dana Remus.”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.”
“We appreciate that you plan to brief the campaigns momentarily on these issues, and we plan to participate. However, we believe that the campaigns deserve 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,” Remus added.
Iowa Democrats went to their precinct caucuses Monday to vote for their choice for the 2020 presidential race among a historically large field of candidates and no clear front-runner.
The caucuses officially begin the 2020 primary season, which will ultimately lead to party presidential nominations this summer.
Under Iowa’s Democrat Party caucus system, members gathered at 1,678 neighborhood locations across the state, or at one of 87 “satellite caucus” locations around the world, to cast a ballot for their choice for the Democratic nominee among 11 candidates.
They voted for delegates for the Iowa state party convention who will support the various candidates, which in turn will correlate to the number of delegates for each candidate sent on to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee July 13-16.
The UPI contributed to this report.