The Iowa Democratic Party blamed coding glitches in an app meant to report caucus site results for delayed results rather than human error in calculating totals.
As of 9:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, no results from Monday’s first-in-the-nation state presidential nomination contests had been reported due to “inconsistencies” in data being reported to headquarters.
“The underlying cause of these inconsistencies was not immediately clear, and required investigation, which took time. As this investigation unfolded, IDP staff activated pre-planned backup measures and entered data manually. This took longer than expected,” state party chairman Troy Price said in a statement.
“As part of our investigation, we determined with certainty that the underlying data collected via the app was sound. 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. This issue was identified and fixed,” Price said.
Reports coming in Monday night found multiple instances of the more than 1,600 Iowa caucus chairmen and chairwomen running precinct sites that were not accurately doing the math to calculate delegate allocation based on first and final alignment numbers, including by not counting individuals whose votes were locked in on a “viable” candidate in the first round but then left before the final alignment tally.
Inaccurate human calculations, though, was not blamed as the main reason for delayed results.
“The application’s reporting issue did not impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately,” Price said.
Caucus chairmen and chairwomen earlier on Monday reported difficulties using and logging into the app. The party emphasized that there was no “hack” or security concern.
“Because of the required paper documentation, we have been able to verify that the data recorded in the app and used to calculate State Delegate Equivalents is valid and accurate,” Price said.
The same app is reportedly supposed to be used for the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22. The party said results would be released “as soon as possible” on Tuesday.
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