Iowa Democratic Party says it will begin recanvass this weekend
The Iowa Democratic Party, in letters sent Wednesday to the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, agreed to begin a partial recanvass that both campaigns asked for earlier this week.
The decision comes more than a week since the Iowa caucuses, marred by faulty technology and arcane rules, descended into chaos. It took the party days to release the full count of votes and multiple campaigns highlighted errors in those counts after they were released.
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The Iowa Democratic Party said on Wednesday that they will begin the partial recanvass on Sunday and expect the process to last for two days.
Campaigns, according to party bylaws, have 24 hours to respond to the party’s letter and pay the cost of having each precinct recanvassed.
The Iowa Democratic Party, after completing their review of 90 precincts which campaigns initially flagged as potentially inaccurate, announced earlier this week that Buttigieg maintained a 0.1% lead over Sanders in the state delegate count.
If there are no significant changes during a recanvass or recount, Buttigieg would be the winner of the Iowa caucuses. According to the Iowa Democratic Party, he will claim 14 delegates. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will receive 12, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren will get eight, former Vice President Joe Biden will receive six and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar will get one.
The chaos around Iowa has allowed both Buttigieg and Sanders to claim victory, with the Vermont senator pointing to the “popular vote” and Buttigieg pointing to the delegate lead.
Iowa Democratic Party Char Troy Price has admitted that mistakes were made during the process, which he called “categorically unacceptable.”
On key issue in the recanvass is that the state party cannot alter the data written on the signed caucus math worksheet from each precinct.
“We cannot go back and change results because it would be us changing the data, changing the information provided from each of the precincts,” a party aide told reporters on Sunday. “The Iowa Democratic Party cannot go in and make changes.”
