Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on Thursday called on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately “recanvass” the results after problems emerged in the results-reporting process.
“Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass,” Perez wrote on Twitter.
“A recanvass is a review of the worksheets from each caucus site to ensure accuracy,” Perez continued. “The [Iowa Democratic Party] will continue to report results.”
The recanvass will likely involve a “hand audit” of precinct results to “ensure that they were tallied and reported correctly by a telephone intake sheets and caucus reporting application correctly,” according to Iowa Democratic Party rules.
On Thursday the New York Times reported it found certain discrepancies in the results of the caucus. The paper found over 100 voting precincts for which the results contained errors or inconsistencies that should have been impossible according to the Iowa caucus’s rules. Iowa has 1,681 precincts in total.
The paper did not see any evidence that the inconsistencies were the result of bias toward a particular candidate.
Publication of the final results of the Iowa Caucus was severely delayed after the Iowa Democrats’ app for reporting results experienced systemic failures. As of Thursday afternoon 97 percent of the results had been reported, showing a virtual tie between South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.).