The Iowa caucus mess just entered a new phase. Late Thursday the AP’s senior vice president said:
“The Associated Press calls a race when there is a clear indication of a winner. Because of a tight margin between former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders and the irregularities in this year’s caucus process, it is not possible to determine a winner at this point.”
As pressure mounts against the Democratic National Committee, chairman Tom Perez says:
Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.
A recanvass is a review of the worksheets from each caucus site to ensure accuracy.
And some people claim this recanvass was only called for after it appeared that Bernie Sanders was leading, at least where the popular vote is concerned.
Meanwhile, there is no question the results of the caucus are still very much in question. One Iowa Democratic worker says her box of results from caucus-goers was never even picked up.
The results released by the Iowa Democratic Party on Wednesday were riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws. According to a New York Times analysis, more than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses.
In some cases, vote tallies do not add up. In others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. And in at least a few cases, the Iowa Democratic Party’s reported results do not match those reported by the precincts.
