Iowa caucuses results mired by reports of errors, use of snail mail

The meltdown has left Buttigieg and Sanders both claiming victory

Confusion over the results of the Iowa caucuses earlier this week dragged into a fourth day Thursday, with the Democratic victor of the first-in-the-nation nominating contest still unclear.

Although Iowa Democratic officials said Wednesday that nearly all of the results of Monday’s caucuses will be released Thursday, a few precincts might remain outstanding, according to The New York Times. The reason for the lengthy delay, in addition to the buggy mobile phone app that forced the night to conclude without an apparent winner, now boils down to snail mail and prank phone calls, the Times reported.

There were 85 phone lines to take calls at the party headquarters, but caucus chairs faced lengthy wait times, in part because internet trolls were deliberately calling and disrupting the phone line, NBC News reported. Plus, a few precinct chairs dropped their tallies into traditional mailboxes, meaning those worksheets won’t be counted until they’re delivered.

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“We are in the process of waiting for the mail to arrive,” said Troy Price, the party chairman. “Those final precincts may take a little bit for us to get those sheets.”

Late Wednesday night, the party was still releasing results, bringing the total to 97 percent of precincts reporting. The results showed a tight race between Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who had 26.2 percent of state delegates, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who had 26.1.

IOWA CAUCUSES SHADOW APP CEO SAYS BUG HAD 'CATASTROPHIC IMPACT'

The Iowa Democratic Party paid Shadow, a tech firm, more than $63,000 in two separate payments in November and December last year for "website development," according to state campaign finance records. Those payments were for the app the caucus site leaders were supposed to use to upload the results at their 1,765 precincts. But the system quickly broke down Monday night, requiring the party to enter data manually once it was clear there was an issue.

IOWA CAUCUS CHAOS LINKED TO APP STARTED BY CLINTON CAMPAIGN VETERANS

The meltdown has left Buttigieg and Sanders both claiming victory, and the momentum bump that generally accompanies it. The Associated Press has said the race is still too close to call.

Further complicating results are reports of inconsistencies and other flaws in the data, irregularities that could sow more uncertainty about the eventual outcome.

According to a New York Times analysis, more than 100 precincts reported results that were “internally inconsistent," missing data or were impossible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses. In some cases, the Times reported, tallies did not add up, while in others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. Other times, the data provided by the state party do not match the same results released by the precinct.

The Times reported that there is no apparent bias in favor of either Sanders or Buttigieg.

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