The chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday called for a recanvass of the results of the Iowa caucuses, potentially delaying yet again the results in the first-in-the-nation presidential contest.
“Enough is enough,” DNC chair Tom Perez tweeted. “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.”
A recanvass is a review of the worksheets from each caucus site to ensure accuracy.
The IDP will continue to report results.
— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) February 6, 2020
Recanvassing requires double-checking existing vote counts, not re-doing the caucuses themselves.
In a statement shortly after Perez’s own, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price said the state party was “prepared” for any recanvass requests by qualified presidential campaigns — he made no mention of the national party chairman’s request.
“In such a circumstance, the IDP will audit the paper records of report, as provided by the precinct chairs and signed by representatives of presidential campaigns.”
NEW from Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy Price: "Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP is prepared." pic.twitter.com/MUSE26alPo
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 6, 2020
Perez’s announcement added to confusion about the Iowa tally. The state party has delayed completing the count of the state’s caucuses for days, first blaming a faulty app that was used to transmit data from the precinct level to the state, and then saying they were still collecting and verifying vote tallies.
As of Thursday morning, the state had released result data for 97% of precincts, showing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg neck-and-neck in the count of “state delegate equivalents,” which the state uses to determine the contest’s winner and allocate convention delegates.
Analysts had noticed errors and inconsistencies in some of the data that the party did release.
