Sanders, Buttigieg formally request Iowa recanvass
February 10, 2020
Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg’s campaigns formally requested a recanvass of specific precincts in Iowa after last week’s caucuses, setting the stage for a potential recount in the first caucus state.
“While a recanvass is just the first step in the process, and we don’t expect it to change the current calculations, it is a necessary part of making sure Iowans can trust the final results of the caucus,” Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement. “Our volunteers and supporters worked too hard, and too many people participated for the first time to have the results depend on calculations that even the party admits are incorrect."
The moves opened the door to a campaign potentially requesting a recount later. A recount would be a more intensive process that would likely be necessary in order to change the allocation of delegates from the Iowa caucuses. The Iowa Democratic Party said Sunday that Buttigieg would be awarded 14 Iowa delegates to the national convention, while Sanders would win 12.
Separately, the Buttigieg campaign also requested a recanvass, arguing that the former South Bend mayor will retain the lead in state delegate equivalents after any adjustments are made.
“In total, our recanvass request would result in a net increase of 14 SDEs,” Buttigieg wrote in a letter to state party chair Troy Price, which was obtained by POLITICO. In the letter, Buttigieg wrote that he would ask his request be withdrawn if no other candidate submitted their own recanvass request.
The Buttigieg recanvass request argues that the the number of SDEs awarded from satellite caucus locations was “miscalculated and misreported.”
The recanvass requests come a day after the Iowa Democratic Party announced that it reviewed apparent mistakes in 92 precincts that were flagged by three candidates: Sanders, Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren. The mistakes addressed some minor reporting errors, but the bigger issue is that the mathematical worksheets used to convert votes into delegates at some precincts contain other apparent errors. The party maintains that it cannot fix such mistakes on precinct worksheets without a recount.
“Once the recanvass and a subsequent recount are completed in these precincts, we feel confident we will be awarded the extra national delegate our volunteers and grassroots donors earned,” Weaver said in the statement.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. | Matt Rourke/AP Photo
The Sanders campaign released a list of caucus locations, totaling 25 precincts and 3 satellite caucus locations, where it was asking for a recanvass. The Buttigieg campaign also released a list of target precincts for a recanvass.
Separately, The New York Times and other reporters and caucus watchers have flagged problems in the numbers reported on some precinct math worksheets.
The Associated Press still has not called the race in Iowa, citing the close margin between Buttigieg and Sanders in the state delegate equivalent count and the apparent mistakes in some of the data reported by the state party.
Price, the chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, is scheduled to address reporters later this afternoon.
Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
