The fight over who won the Iowa caucuses isn’t over just yet after Bernie Sanders’s campaign asked for a recount.
Sanders, 78, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 38, both claimed victory in the first Democratic primary contest this month after Buttigieg received the most delegates, while the Vermont senator notched up the most raw votes statewide.
But with the delegate count forming the only path toward the 2020 presidential nomination, Sanders’s camp wants another partial review of the results after the outcome of a recanvass released late Tuesday left Buttigieg with 563.207 “state delegate equivalents,” the number by which national delegates are allocated, to his 563.127. As it stands, Buttigieg has 14 delegates to Sanders’s 12.
“While it is clear that Sen. Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa by 6,000 votes, the recanvass process reduced the State Delegate Equivalent deficit by 97 percent,” Sanders campaign spokesman Jeff Weaver said in a statement.
Weaver added, “We now believe a recount will give Sen. Sanders enough State Delegate Equivalents to put him over the top by that metric as well. We want to thank the people of Iowa, our supporters, our volunteers and everyone who made this possible.”
The Iowa Democratic Party, under the new leadership of Mark Smith, late Tuesday published the results of the limited-scope recanvass requested by the Buttigieg and Sanders teams. But the party announced that the changes to official outcomes at 29 precincts, either because of incorrect caucus math or misapplication of caucus rules, didn’t result in a national delegate reallocation.
Representatives for Buttigieg have until Wednesday night to join Sanders in asking for another review.
Smith was elected chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party over the weekend after Troy Price quit following the chaos of the caucuses.
On the day of the Feb. 3 contest, complaints emerged regarding a mobile application the Iowa Democratic Party rolled out to expedite the reporting process. When results weren’t quickly returned that night, media speculation that a snafu had occurred was confirmed. The party then slowly released figures as they became available over the course of the next week, with those records still containing inconsistencies between initial and final caucus alignments the first time the mostly volunteer organization disclosed the full data set. The fiasco became a national embarrassment, even drawing criticism from Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez.
While the Democratic field is focused on this Saturday’s caucuses in Nevada and beyond, top-tier candidates are bracing for a protracted fight to become the party’s standard-bearer, including Michael Bloomberg, who officially enters the race on March 3, or Super Tuesday.
