Iowa Caucuses 2020: AP unable to declare winner in Democratic caucuses

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa’s first in the nation caucuses were held Monday night. While President Trump, who was running unopposed as the incumbent Republican, won easily, there were complications for the Democrats. Party officials said new technology was causing delays and they were checking for inconsistencies. Find the latest updates below.

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UPDATE 6:30 p.m. Thursday (AP): The Associated Press says it us unable to declare a winner in the Democratic caucuses.

UPDATE 8 a.m. Thursday (CNN): Iowa continued reporting results of its Democratic presidential caucus early Thursday morning.

Pete Buttigieg remains the leader, with 97 percent of Iowa's precincts reporting:

• Buttigieg - 26.2 percent
• Sen. Bernie Sanders - 26.1 percent
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 18.2 percent
• Former Vice President Joe Biden - 15.8 percent
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar - 12.2 percent

UPDATE 2:30 p.m. Wednesday (CNN): The Iowa Democratic party has released additional results. With 75 percent reporting the candidates are in the following order for percentage of state delegates:

• Buttigieg - 26.9 percent
• Sanders - 25.2 percent
• Warren - 18.2 percent
• Biden - 15.6 percent
• Klobuchar - 12.5 percent

UPDATE 12:30 p.m. Wednesday (NBC): More results out of Iowa will be released in the early afternoon, per a Democratic Party official.

"As always, the IDP's focus is on the integrity of the results, including verifying the results with the paper trail. In some cases, that means literally examining a photo or physical document to match it against the inputted responses.

Caucus IDP organizing staff fanned out across the state to connect with precinct leadership and collect any outstanding documentation. IDP designed this system to more efficiently collect the paper records this cycle. The overwhelming majority of these documents have now been collected. Per IDP rules, these documents are stored offsite through a secure chain of custody."

UPDATE 7 a.m. Wednesday (AP): The Iowa Democratic Party released additional results from Monday night’s presidential caucuses.

After a daylong delay, the party has now made public 71% of results from all 99 Iowa counties.

The new numbers released late Tuesday do not change the state of play for the candidates. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, holds a slight lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar trail behind.

UPDATE 5:00 p.m. Tuesday (CNN):

Iowa Democratic Party chairman says delay in caucus reporting results was ‘unacceptable'

Troy Price told reporters that 62 percent of the results are in. The following candidates had more than 1 percent of the state delegates.

• 26.9 - Buttigieg
• 25.1 - Sanders
• 18.3 - Warren
• 15.6 - Biden
• 12.6 - Klobuchar
• 1.1 - Yang

The popular vote for the top four candidates came in as follows with the same 62 percent:

• 28,220 - Sanders
• 27,030 - Buttigieg
• 22,254 - Warren
• 14,176 - Biden

While the Iowa Democratic Party has announced several sets of data, the state delegates will be used to determine the party’s nominee at convention this summer.

Price did not announce when the remaining 38 percent of the results would be released.

UPDATE 4:00 p.m. Tuesday (NBC):

Troy Price, the Iowa Democratic Party chairman, told the campaigns during a call on Tuesday that the party expects more than 50 percent of all results by 5 p.m. ET. Price gave no timeline on when full results would come, but assured the campaigns repeatedly that they “have a process in place.”

UPDATE 11:50 a.m. Tuesday (AP):

The Nevada Democratic Party is trying to quell fears it will face a chaotic reporting system at its Feb. 22 caucuses. The party says it can "confidently say" that the problems Iowa Democrats experienced with reporting their caucus results Monday "will not happen in Nevada."

Nevada Democratic party chair William McCurdy II said in a statement Tuesday morning that Nevada will not be employing the same app or vendor used in the Iowa caucus.

The party had previously announced plans to use an app to tabulate results at caucuses, as Iowa did, along with a second app that would be pre-loaded onto tablets available for voters to use at caucus sites during four days of early voting.

McCurdy said Nevada Democrats had already developed “a series of backups and redundant reporting systems and are currently evaluating the best path forward.”

The party did not respond to a follow-up message asking if the party had already planned to use a different app and vendor or if that was a change made in the wake of Iowa’s delayed results and technical problems.

UPDATE 11:35 a.m. Tuesday (AP):

The Iowa Democratic Party says it plans to release at least 50% of results from Monday’s caucuses on Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m.

Party chairman Troy Price tells presidential campaigns on a conference call that “we are going to release the majority of results that we have by 4 p.m. today.”

Technical problems have delayed the release of results from the first-in-the-nation contest, leaving campaigns and the public in the dark.

Price says the party is collecting paper records from more than 1,600 caucus sites “to make sure we have all of the documented information in place.”

Price says results from about 50% of precincts should be released Tuesday. It was not clear when the final results would be available.

UPDATE 11:25 a.m. Tuesday (AP):

New Hampshire’s top elections official says the state has “kept it simple” when it comes to elections and that he doesn’t expect New Hampshire to encounter problems in its Feb. 11 primary.

He says, “the more moving parts that you have in the election process, the more room there is for something to not function right.”

Bill Gardner’s remarks Tuesday came as the Iowa Democratic Party still hasn’t released the results of its caucuses the night before.

New Hampshire runs a primary, not a caucus. People will vote via paper ballots that about 85 percent of towns will count electronically. Gardner says, “you can’t hack a pencil.”

Gardner says he’s not worried about New Hampshire losing its status as the first primary state despite handwringing about the state’s lack of diversity. He says the same conversation happens every four years.

UPDATE 9:30 a.m. Tuesday (AP): Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says her Democratic presidential campaign is built to compete across the country.

Stepping off a charter flight from Iowa to New Hampshire before dawn Tuesday, Warren said, “Our organizers in Iowa are now leaving there and going to all the other places where we’re on the ground.“

She says Iowa “was too close to call and it still is.”

Pete Buttigieg told Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess, who endorsed him Tuesday morning, that the lack of timely Iowa results was “frustrating.”

UPDATE 6:40 a.m. Tuesday (AP) President Donald Trump tweeted the following Tuesday morning: “The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran the Country. Remember the 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare Website, that should have cost 2% of that. The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is ‘Trump.’”

UPDATE 4:30 a.m. Tuesday (AP): The Iowa Democratic Party says it expects to release data from the Iowa caucuses later Tuesday.

Chairman Troy Price says the party is manually verifying its data against paper backups but says systems are taking “longer than expected.” He said the delays were the result of a reporting issue, not a hack or intrusion.

Price addressed reporters shortly after the party updated presidential campaigns about the status of the delayed results in the kickoff caucuses. He did not take any questions in the call with reporters.

Even without official results, some candidates have tried to declare victory and claim momentum based on their own internal data. The Associated Press has not called a winner of Monday’s caucuses.

UPDATE 1:30 a.m. Tuesday (CNN): Many of the leading candidates have spoken to their supporters in Iowa with optimistic messages despite the results not being in yet.

CNN is reporting that the campaigns have been advised not to expect results until sometime Tuesday.

UPDATE 11:30 p.m. Monday (AP): The Iowa Democratic Party says the delay in reporting caucus votes is the result of a “reporting issue” and not because of a “hack or an intrusion.”

Communications director Mandy McClure said Monday night that the party “found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.”

She says the party is using photos of the results and a paper trail to “validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report.”

She says: “The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”

It was not immediately clear how long it would take the state party to produce results. Iowa holds the nation’s first presidential voting contest.

UPDATE 10:50 p.m. Monday (NBC): Iowa Democrats give more info on delays, say turnout matches 2016

Iowa Democratic Party Communications Director Mandy McClure said in a statement, “The integrity of the results is paramount. We have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the IDP is reporting out three data sets for the first time. What we know right now is that around 25% of precincts have reported, and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016.”

UPDATE 10:30 p.m. Monday (NBC): Why no Democratic results yet? ‘Quality control checks,’ Iowa party says

Per the Iowa State Democratic Party:

“We are doing our quality control checks, making sure the numbers are accurate. People are still caucusing, were working to report results soon.”

At this point in the night in 2016, we had 80 percent of the vote in.

ORIGINAL REPORT (Associated Press): The first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses have officially begun in Iowa.

At 7 p.m. Central time in Monday, voters gathered at more than 1,700 sites throughout Iowa began declaring support for their preferred candidate. They then will participate in “alignment,” which allows supporters of eliminated candidates to choose again.

For the first time this year, the Iowa Democratic Party will report three sets of results: tallies for the “first alignment” and “final alignment,” as well as each candidate’s total of “state delegate equivalents.” Previously, only each candidate’s ultimate number of state convention delegates has been reported.

The Associated Press will declare the winner based on the number of state delegate equivalents.

Polls suggest Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders may have a narrow lead, but any of the top four candidates -- Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg -- could score victory in the unpredictable caucus system.

The Iowa caucuses – What you need to know The Iowa caucuses – What you need to know

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