First it was Pete Buttigieg claiming victory. Now Bernie is doing the same even though it’s neck and neck with only 97% of the vote in:
I want to thank the people of Iowa for the very strong victory they gave us at the Iowa caucuses on Monday night.
Some 6,000 more Iowans came out to support us than any other candidate.
With eight strong candidates competing, that is a decisive margin of victory.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 6, 2020
Here’s more:
DC EXAMINER – Voters may not have a full picture of what exactly happened during the Iowa caucuses, but Sen. Bernie Sanders is confident that he won the contest.
At a Thursday press conference Thursday afternoon in New Hampshire, Sanders attacked the Iowa Democratic Party for its oversight of its caucuses on Monday, while maintaining a triumphant tone on the results.
“What I want to do today, three days late, is to thank the people of Iowa for the very strong victory they gave us in the Iowa Caucuses,” Sanders said.
As of Thursday, 97% of precincts had reported results. Although former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is leading in the traditional way of counting a winner — known as state delegate equivalents — Sanders maintains a lead in the raw vote count.
“These state delegate equivalents have greatly diminished importance from past caucuses. And they should. In the past,” said Sanders, “a candidate with more delegates to the state and county conventions could actually change the number of national delegates — delegates that go to the national convention — from that allocated on caucus night. That is no longer the case.”
Even if it is a victory, it’s not a strong victory, especially considering that Buttigieg still had 3 more delegates than Bernie.
Tom Perez, the head of the DNC, is calling on Iowa to do a recanvass because of all the problems they’ve had:
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
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
So who knows if that will change anything but given the issues with inaccuracy up to now, I expect it will. What a mess.