Iowa Democratic Party to recount caucus results from 23 precincts

The Iowa Democratic Party announced Friday it will recount the caucus results of 23 precincts after the presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised concerns over the tallies.

Sanders and Buttigieg requested recounts of 10 precincts and 54 precincts, respectively. The Iowa Democratic Party said it will review the results from all 10 of Sanders’s precincts and 14 of Buttigieg’s precincts, for a total of 23 precincts after an overlap.

The party said the recount, which will be conducted by appointed recount administrators under the supervision and direction of the Iowa Democratic Party Recanvass/Recount Committee, will start Tuesday and is expected to last two days.

The recount will follow a recanvass of specific precincts that showed Sanders and Buttigieg within thousandths of a percentage point of one another in the state delegate equivalent count, the traditional metric by which a winner is declared in the state.

Buttigieg holds a narrow lead in that count but, due to caucus rules, leads Sanders by two delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Current tallies show Sanders won the most votes in the contest, and both contenders have declared victory in the state. 

The Iowa caucuses were first thrust into chaos earlier this month after reporting inconsistencies and technical issues with a new app delayed the final results for several days and sparked widespread confusion as to who the victor was in the race. Troy Price, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, resigned last week in response to the fiasco.

The confirmation of the recount comes just one day before the Nevada caucuses, where Sanders is anticipated to perform well. 

Buttigieg currently leads in the national delegate count in the primary race, though Sanders has enjoyed a surge of momentum following his narrow victory in the New Hampshire primary, and is expected to post top-tier finishes in the coming contests.