Iowa Caucus: Results Delayed By 'inconsistencies'

Iowa caucus: Results delayed by 'inconsistencies'

Results from Iowa's caucuses, the first vote in the race to pick a Democratic candidate to face President Donald Trump, have been plunged into chaos by apparent technology issues

Ottawa (Pakistan Point News / Online - 04th February, 2020) Results from Iowa's caucuses, the first vote in the race to pick a Democratic candidate to face President Donald Trump, have been plunged into chaos by apparent technology issues.The state's Democratic party said it had found "inconsistencies".But it insisted the unprecedented holdup was a "reporting issue", not a "hack or an intrusion".Voters flocked to over 1,600 schools, libraries and churches across 99 counties.

In the absence of official results, the candidates are starting to put out their own versions of events.Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders claimed victory, citing internal campaign data that placed him ahead of Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.Meanwhile, Mr Buttigieg is quoted as saying that "by all indications" his campaign is "going to New Hampshire victorious". He is referring to America's first Primary in the US state on 11 February.

Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said: "We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results."She added: "This is simply a reporting issue, 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."For the first time this year, Iowa Democrats were required to report three numbers to party headquarters, rather than just the final delegate totals.

It was unclear when any results would finally be released.McClure's statement was flatly contradicted by party officials at county level, who blamed technology issues for the delay.They said the app created for caucus organisers to report their results had malfunctioned, leaving precinct captains to call state party headquarters, whose phone lines swiftly became jammed.Elesha Gayman, the Democratic chairwoman of Scott county, Iowa's third largest, said many officials were having issues reporting results.

She said they had been left hanging on hold and she knew of only one precinct captain who had been able to report via the app.Dallas County chairman Bryce Smith also said the app had crashed.Nate Gruber, the Democratic vice-chairman of Black Hawk county, a part of the state with the largest concentration of African Americans, said he had not been able to use the app either."It doesn't really work," he said, adding: "No-one can reach the state party to report."Calls to the Iowa Democratic Party hotline late on Monday had the same recorded message: "All of our operators are currently busy."