People waiting to get the caucus process underway Monday in Des Moines.
It has ended in a virtual tie.
The Iowa Democratic Party released the last batch of precinct results from Monday’s Iowa Caucuses on Thursday evening, showing Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders separated by just one-tenth of a percent in the delegate race.
Buttigieg — during a CNN town hall forum tonight — called it fantastic news. His campaign said Buttigieg finished first in 63 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Sanders had claimed victory earlier in the day, citing his lead in the raw vote totals. Tonight, the Sanders campaign called the delegate race which determines the Iowa Caucus winner a “meaningless metric.”
The chairman of the Democratic National Committee went on The Rachel Maddow Show and said he wants a “surgical” recanvas of precincts where questions have been raised about results, but state party rules say any kind of recanvas must be requested by a candidate.
Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez also said on MSNBC tonight there had been a “major league failure” when the smartphone app developed to collect Caucus Night results didn’t work. Perez said as is the custom every four years after the presidential election is over, party officials will consider the first-in-the-nation status of Iowa’s Caucuses.
“The people of Iowa are well-intentioned,” Perez said on MSNBC. “The party chair is well-intentioned. Everyone around him is well-intentioned, but this is hard.”
Perez said primaries give more voters a chance to participate. Despite talk of the potential for record turn-out, attendance at the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2020 Iowa Caucuses was just about the same as in 2016.