The Iowa Democratic Party said Tuesday that it plans to release the results of its presidential caucus “as soon as possible today” after a major — and embarassing — technology glitch prevented a winner in the contest being announced as scheduled Monday night.
“We have every indication that our systems were secure and there was not a cyber security intrusion,” the state’s Democratic Party said.
The Iowa party said that the results from tens of thousands of voters were delayed after an “accuracy and quality check” revealed “there were inconsistencies with the reports” of results from precinct caucuses compared to results on a new app that also was being used to record the outcomes from each precinct.
“As part of our investigation, we determined with certainty that the underlying data collected via the app was sound,” the party said.
“While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data.”
“We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system,” the party said.
“This issue was identified and fixed. The application’s reporting issue did not impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately.”
In the absence of official results, Democratic presidential hopefuls took the chance to tout their performances to supporters.
Pete Buttigieg even went as far as to declare himself the night’s winner as he looked ahead to the Feb. 11 New Hampshire primary.
“By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious,” the former South Bend, Ind., mayor said.
But Buttigieg also called the glitch “frustrating.”
All of the other leading contenders heading into Monday’s caucuses — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. — talked up their Iowa showings before they started to make their way to New Hampshire.
A promising finish in Iowa can bring needed fundraising and legitimacy for campaigns looking to make inroads elsewhere.
President Donald Trump posted a series of tweets about the problems with the Iowa caucus, but also defended the state’s tradition of being the first contest of the quadrennial election cycle.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, R-Ill., in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said, “I think the Democratic Caucus in Iowa is a quirky, quaint tradition, which should come to an end.”
“As we try to make voting easier for people across America, the Iowa caucus is the most painful situation we currently face for voting,” Durbin said.
“People who work all day, pick up the kids at day care, do you think they’re headed to the caucus next? Of course not. We’ve got to have a means for people to express themselves that is reliable, unfortunately the caucus system is not.”
“I love my neighbors in Iowa and I’ve campaigned with them and respect them very much for their commitment to the party, but the state of Iowa does not reflect our party, and the fact that we’re putting so many chips on the table in Iowa, here we are the morning after, with Iowa caucus turning out to be one big political asterisk, and that is not a good outcome by any means,” Durbin said.
