The Iowa Democratic Party blamed “inconsistencies” in reporting for its long delay in announcing the results of Monday’s caucus.
“The app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion,” the party said in a statement. “The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take further time to report the results.”
Results were reported using an app as well as photos of the results and a paper trail, the party said.
The party is working to validate the results to “and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report.”
But despite the party’s insistence that the new app used to report results did not go down, numerous precinct captains reported issues with the app. Captains received no training in how to use the app ahead of the caucus.
"The app is fucking up," a senior Democratic campaign aide told NBC News. "Can't trust the numbers coming in."
According to The Washington Post, Iowa Democrats were warned of serious problems with the app last Thursday. Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Democratic Party, said he brought up the issues but was referred to a staffer who was unable to help.
“We had had so many complaints about the app that we started telling our chairs that if they were having problems with the app then you should call in the results,” Bagniewski said.
Captains were then required to phone in the results but there were issues with that too.
They said that they’ll be with me in the order in which you know, I got on hold, and there was moment where they did connect for like one second about half an hour ago and then I just wasn’t responsive quick enough and they just hung up on me. So I’m back in line,” Shawn Sebastian, a caucus secretary in Ames, told NBC.
Biden calls for hold on results:
The Biden campaign asked for an “opportunity to respond” before the “official results are released.”
"I write on behalf of the Biden for President Campaign regarding the considerable flaws in tonight’s Iowa Caucus reporting system. The app that was intended to relay Caucus results to the Party failed; the Party’s back-up telephonic reporting system likewise has failed. Now, we understand that Caucus Chairs are attempting to — and, in many cases, failing to — report results telephonically to the Party. These acute failures are occurring statewide,” wrote Biden general counsel Dana Remus.
Roger Lau, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign manager, told NBC that “every second that passes sort of undermines the process a little bit.”
Bernie, Buttigieg release internal numbers:
Pete Buttigieg declared victory on Monday as early numbers showed him neck-and-neck with Bernie Sanders.
“We saw that turnout this year was in line with 2016 turnout and our first and final alignment numbers were around 22% and 25%, respectively. In calculating the State Delegate Equivalents from the final alignment numbers, we came in with 480.44 SDEs (28%) in the precincts that have reported,” the Buttigieg campaign said.
Sanders released internal data from about 40 percent of precincts, showing him leading with 29.7 percent. Sanders’ numbers show Buttigieg at 24.6 percent, similar to what the former mayor reported, followed by Warren at 21.2 percent, and Biden in a distant fourth place at 12.4 percent.
“We recognize that this does not replace the full data from the Iowa Democratic Party, but we believe firmly that our supporters worked too hard for too long to have that work delayed,” the Sanders campaign said.
