Iowa Caucus Results Delayed Because of New Voting App - Reports

The Democratic caucuses in Iowa – the first state to vote – had to delay their results due to technical issues. According to party officials, the outcome of the vote will be released "at some point on Tuesday"; however, there is no specific deadline. What caused the bizarre delay?

Why did the Democrats defer releasing the results and recount the votes?

Preliminary reports suggest that the results were delayed due to "inconsistencies" and the slow reporting of data provided by a new mobile app.

The app, created by Shadow (a firm linked to the Democratic digital non-profit group ACRONYM), was supposed to transmit information to party officials. However, according to reports, the caucus results were delayed due to reporting problems from more than 1,600 precincts.

Caucus goers at the Knapp Center on the Drake University campus in Des Moines, Iowa

© AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar

ACRONYM noted that it had no information about the issue, stressing that the group is merely an investor in the company that created the app.

Just in — a statement from ACRONYM.
"We, like everyone else, are eagerly awaiting more information from the Iowa Democratic Party." pic.twitter.com/cBy2ZNwsPz

— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) February 4, 2020

​The caucuses are also struggling to report the results because they adopted a new reporting system this year - instead of the delegate count from each of the state's precincts, the chairs now have to report two different raw vote totals for every candidate and the number of delegates that supported each candidate in the final vote.

I am the caucus secretary for Story County Precinct 1-1. I've been on hold for over an hour to report the results. We have 6 delegates
First Alignment@BernieSanders - 111@ewarren - 82@PeteButtigieg - 47

Delegates
Sanders - 2
Warren - 2
Buttigieg 2

Here's how it happened 1/

— Shawn Sebastian 🐺🐴 (@shawnsebastian) February 4, 2020

In the meantime, both Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg stated that they are expecting victory in Iowa – which is the first state to hold a vote in the Democratic primaries, paving the way for the party's eventual nomination.

What Delay of Iowa Caucus Results Could Mean for Dems?

US political analyst Don Debar and independent political analyst Stephen Ebert have shared their views on the possible implications of the delayed Iowa caucus.

Don Debar: The political message is one of a party in a crisis, unable to handle an election process fairly and competently. One only need imagine how the State Department would react to an election handled this way in, say, Bolivia, Ukraine or Venezuela. 

Stephen Ebert: As for political overtones, some Sanders supporters may claim as they did wrongly in 2016 that this is all part of a rigged process and system. All others will just move on...as they should...to states that matter.