The Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) finally released the vote count from the February 3 caucuses and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is asking for a recount after the results give Pete Buttigieg a razor-thin win and 14 delegates to Sanders’ 12.
“While it is clear that Sen. Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa by 6,000 votes, the recanvass process reduced the State Delegate Equivalent deficit by 97 percent,” Sanders campaign senior adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement. “We now believe a recount will give Sen. Sanders enough State Delegate Equivalents to put him over the top by that metric as well. We want to thank the people of Iowa, our supporters, our volunteers and everyone who made this possible.”
Fox News reported the IDP admitted mistakes in its tally:
Following the recanvass, in which the IDP said it corrected results in 29 precincts where either rules were misapplied, affecting delegate allocation, or final alignment results didn’t “match what was on the math worksheet,” Buttigieg has 563.207 state delegate equivalents and Sanders has 563.127 state delegate equivalents.
Campaigns have 24 hours after the release of the recanvass results Tuesday night to request a recount. Candidates may only request recounts of results that were reviewed in the recanvass process, according to the IDP.
Both Sanders and Buttigieg will join Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bloomberg for the ninth Democrat debate on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
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