Spotlight: Results of Democratic caucuses in Iowa delayed, causing confusion, discontent

APD NEWS

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Results of Democratic caucuses in Iowa on Monday night were delayed, causing confusion and discontent at the beginning of the 2020 U.S. presidential primary.

Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) Communications Director Mandy McClure said in a statement that "we have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks," as the nation was anticipating a winner from the much-hyped nominating contest.

The delay could be partly caused by a new proceeding. The IDP, for the first time, is reporting out three data sets: first preferences, final preferences, and "State Delegate Equivalents (SDEs)," McClure said.

The SDEs will be used to determine how the state's national delegates are awarded to candidates.

McClure said they "found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results," while refuting claims that a mobile app that precinct chairs should use to send results went down.

"This is simply a reporting issue," McClure said. "The app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results."

Democratic presidential campaigns have been told not to expect any results from the Iowa caucuses until at some point on Tuesday, CNN quoted state party officials as saying.

Iowa, a state in the Midwestern United States, held Democratic and Republican caucuses Monday night, kicking off the presidential primary.

The caucuses brought tens of thousands of Iowa's registered voters to churches, public libraries, and school gyms for discussions of their presidential preferences.

Sitting President Donald Trump won the Republican caucuses, in which participants cast a vote to indicate their support, in a largely symbolic vote as he was facing no significant challenge.

"Big WIN for us in Iowa tonight. Thank you!" Trump tweeted.

The Republican Party is expected to nominate him for a second term during the Aug. 24-27 national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Democratic caucuses, however, require party members to show up to their precinct and physically move into designated parts of a room to express their preference for a certain candidate, a more complicated process would certainly cost more time.

Currently, there are 11 Democrats seeking the party's presidential nomination.

In Iowa, they were vying for the state's 41 pledged delegates to the party's national July 13-16 convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a gathering for the party's delegates to choose its presidential nominee.

Though the delegates Iowa have account for only 2 percent of the 1,991 national delegates a candidate needs winning to be the Democratic nominee, a strong finish could help him or her stand out.

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar, and Indiana's former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, addressed supporters late Monday night despite the delay of the caucus results.

Biden's campaign also raised concerns "regarding the considerable flaws" in the Iowa caucus reporting system.

"We believe that the campaigns deserve full explanation and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and opportunity to respond, before any official results are released," Biden's general counsel wrote in a letter to the IDP.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, tweeted that the "fiasco" has dramatically reduced the impact of the results of the Iowa caucuses, historically an important part of the presidential nominating process.

The Iowa caucuses will be followed by the New Hampshire presidential primary, slated for Feb. 11.

The 2020 U.S. presidential election will take place on Nov.3.

(XINHUA)