Iowa’s Democrats have spoken but gremlins delay results of caucus

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Democratic party officials in Iowa worked furiously to deliver the delayed results of their first-in-the-nation caucus&comma; as frustrated presidential candidates claimed momentum and ploughed ahead in their quest for the White House&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Technology problems and reporting &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;inconsistencies” kept Iowa Democratic Party officials from releasing results from Monday’s caucus&comma; the much-hyped kickoff to the 2020 primary&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads1--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was an embarrassing twist after months of promoting the contest as a chance for Democrats to find some clarity in a jumbled field with no clear front-runner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Instead&comma; caucus day ended with no winner&comma; no official results and many fresh questions about whether Iowa can retain its coveted &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;first” status&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>State party officials said final results would be released later Tuesday and offered assurances that the problem was not a result of a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;hack or an intrusion”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Officials were conducting quality checks and verifying results&comma; prioritising the integrity of the results&comma; the party said in a statement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statement came after tens of thousands of voters spent hours Monday night sorting through a field of nearly a dozen candidates who had spent much of the previous year fighting to win the opening contest of the 2020 campaign and&comma; ultimately&comma; the opportunity to take on President Donald Trump this autumn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads2--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The candidates did not wait for the party to resolve its issues before claiming&comma; if not victory&comma; progress and moving on to next-up New Hampshire&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It looks like it’s going to be a long night&comma; but we’re feeling good&comma;” former Vice President Joe Biden said&comma; suggesting the final results would &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;be close”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Senator Bernie Sanders said he had &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a good feeling we’re going to be doing very&comma; very well here in Iowa” once results were posted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Today marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump&comma;” he predicted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Listen&comma; it’s too close to call&comma;” Senator Elizabeth Warren said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The road won’t be easy&period; But we are built for the long haul&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And Pete Buttigieg&comma; the former mayor of South Bend&comma; Indiana&comma; was most certain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;So we don’t know all the results&comma; but we know by the time it’s all said and done&comma; Iowa&comma; you have shocked the nation&comma;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;By all indications&comma; we are going on to New Hampshire victorious&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Democrats faced the possibility that whatever numbers they ultimately released would be questioned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And beyond 2020&comma; critics began wondering aloud whether the Iowa caucuses&comma; a complicated set of political meetings staged in a state that is whiter and older than the Democratic Party&comma; are a tradition whose time had past&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads3--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The party has tried to accommodate critics&comma; this year by promising to report three different data points about voters’ preferences&comma; presumably improving transparency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the new system created new headaches&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>State party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said it had &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results”&comma; forcing officials to try to verify results with &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;underlying data” and the paper trail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some of the trouble stemmed from issues with a new mobile app developed to report results to the party&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Caucus organisers reported problems downloading the app and other glitches&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Des Moines County Democratic chair Tom Courtney said the new app created &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a mess”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads4--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a result&comma; Courtney said precinct leaders were phoning in results to the state party headquarters&comma; which was too busy to answer their calls in some cases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Organisers were still looking for missing results several hours after voting concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Shortly before 2am&comma; the state party was making plans to dispatch people to the homes of precinct captains who had not reported their numbers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That was according to a state party official in the room who was not authorised to share internal discussions publicly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;148942" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-148942" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-148942" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;02&sol;CAB61DF8-8370-40A2-B9D0-8523AF7CBC4E&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"400" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-148942" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Earlier in the night&comma; Iowa Democrats across the state cast their votes&comma; balancing a strong preference for fundamental change with an overwhelming desire to defeat Mr Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At least four high-profile candidates vied for the lead in a contest that offered the opening test of who and what the party stands for in the turbulent age of Mr Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is just the first in a primary season that will span all 50 states and several US territories&comma; ending at the party’s national convention in mid-July&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For Democrats&comma; the moment was thick with promise for a party that has seized major gains in states since Mr Trump won the White House in 2016&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But instead of clear optimism&comma; a growing cloud of uncertainty and intraparty resentment hung over the election as the prospect of an unclear result raised fears of a long and divisive primary fight in the months ahead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One unsurprising development&colon; Mr Trump won the Republican caucus&comma; a largely symbolic victory given that he faced no significant opposition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The president’s campaign eagerly seized on the Democrats’ problems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Democrats are stewing in a caucus mess of their own creation with the sloppiest train wreck in history&comma;” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads5--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It would be natural for people to doubt the fairness of the process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;And these are the people who want to run our entire health care system&quest;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Pre-caucus polls suggested Mr Sanders entered the night with a narrow lead&comma; but any of the top four candidates — Mr Sanders&comma; Mr Biden&comma; Ms Warren and Mr Buttigieg — was positioned to score a victory&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Senator Amy Klobuchar&comma; who represents neighbouring Minnesota&comma; was also claiming momentum&comma; while outsider candidates including entrepreneur Andrew Yang&comma; billionaire activist Tom Steyer and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard could be factors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We know one thing&colon; We are punching above our weight&comma;” Ms Klobuchar said late on Monday&comma; promising to keep fighting in New Hampshire&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>New voters played a significant role in shaping Iowa’s election&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads6--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; ultrabillionaire Mike Bloomberg&comma; the former mayor of New York City&comma; is running a parallel campaign that ignored Iowa as he prepares to pounce on any perceived weaknesses in the field come March&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed34768218b">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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