The chairman of the US Democratic National Committee (DNC) has called for a review of the vote totals in the contest to pick a presidential nominee in Iowa, after an array of problems.
His comments came just before the final results, which were three days later than expected amid technical problems and reporting delays.
“Enough is enough,” said Tom Perez. He said he wanted to ensure accuracy.
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.
— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) February 6, 2020
The Iowa Democratic Party said it had no plans to carry out an audit.
Final results eventually came late on Thursday local time, with the party declaring Pete Buttigieg the winner by a small margin.
Meanwhile Bernie Sanders, who was practically neck-and-neck with Pete Buttigieg, declared a “very strong victory”.
The results gave Mr Buttigieg a lead of 0.1% in the number of delegates selected ahead of Mr Sanders, although Mr Sanders has a greater share of the popular vote.
Buttigieg was at 26.2 percent and Sanders had 26.1 percent, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., running behind the pair of leaders at 18.2 percent. Former Vice President Joe Biden had 15.8 percent, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., at 12.2 percent and other candidates were in low single digits.
Mr Buttigieg had already declared victory for himself on Monday, before any of the results were released.
Iowa Democratic caucus results are not actual votes cast. The percentages, based on partial returns of the estimated number of state convention delegates won by each candidate through the caucus process, are known as state delegate equivalents, or SDEs.
The totals were put out by the Iowa Democratic Party over the past two days after chaos over the caucuses Monday night.
