Pete Buttigieg keeps a narrow lead over Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucuses with the Iowa Democratic Party reporting on Thursday that 100% of precincts are already reporting.
The previous South Bend, Indiana, mayor outshines the Vermont senator by one-tenth of one percentage point in the all-important state delegate equivalent count, with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar trailing them from behind.
Buttgieg told CNN town hall on Thursday:
“That’s fantastic news!”
“First of all, I want to say, Sen. Sanders clearly had a great night too and I congratulate him and his supporters.”
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez requested a recanvass of all results in Iowa on, as the state’s Democratic Party struggles relentlessly to confirm the data from Monday night’s caucuses, which depicts an important step in the fallout from the confusion that followed the quadrennial event.
In a recanvass, all the numbers from the state party would be examined against the results gathered at caucus sites.
Tom Perez aired his concerns on Twitter:
“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. The (Iowa Democratic Party) will continue to report results.”
Tweets from Perez were airing questions about how the Iowa Democratic Party is sticking to the plan they tendered to the national party, which details how the state party would allocate delegates.
Troy Price, Iowa Democratic Party Chair, aired a response to Perez, stating that the party is ready to do a recanvass “should any presidential campaign” ask for one.
“Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP is prepared,”
“In such a circumstance, the IDP will audit the paper records of the report, as provided by the precinct chairs and signed by representatives of presidential campaigns. This is the official record of the Iowa Democratic caucus, and we are committed to ensuring the results accurately reflect the preference of Iowans.”
Meanwhile, In a news conference on Thursday, Sanders announced a strong victory, emphasizing his lead in the popular vote, and described the late reporting of results as a big screw-up.
The Iowa Democratic Party announced the popular vote totals this year, but CNN decides the winner of the Iowa caucuses by who has the lead in state delegates. State delegates are used to pick national delegates, which finalizes who wins the Democratic nomination.
However, a CNN analysis found mistakes in the count stated by the Iowa Democratic Party. Two reliable sources told CNN that Perez immediately took the step of calling for a recanvass mainly because of issues around how the Iowa Democratic Party was allocating state delegate equivalents from satellite caucus sites and the larger inconsistencies that have come into light in recent days.
One person who knew about Perez’s decision stated it was done to work past calls for a recount from candidates, something the party worried would look divisive.
According to reports from two people who have knowledge about the matter, the Iowa Democratic Party did not receive an early warning that Perez has plans to call for a recanvass.
Left unsaid in Perez’ tweet is that DNC officials have been on the ground in Iowa since the caucuses, looking over the process of confirming and tracing data from precincts across the state.
But the tweet only shows about the tensions forming between the Iowa Democratic Party and the DNC that CNN and several news outlets reported Wednesday.
Replaced!