Pete Buttigieg is the shock winner in Iowa
Sanders gains popular vote as Trump gloats over ‘unmitigated disaster’ of Iowa Democrat election
Pete Buttigieg, the small-town mayor from Indiana, seized a shock lead as Iowa finally released partial results last night. With 62 per cent of the state’s precincts reporting Mr Buttigieg, 38, led with 26.9 per cent, followed by Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist senator, on 25.1 per cent. Senator Elizabeth Warren was in third place on 18.3 per cent, and Joe Biden, the former US vice president, was heading for a humiliating fourth place finish on 15.6 per cent.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, the small-town mayor from Indiana, seized a shock lead as Iowa, the first US state to vote in the race for the Democrat presidential nomination, released partial results last night.
With 62 per cent of the state’s precincts reporting, Mr Buttigieg, 38, led with 26.9 per cent, followed by Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist senator, on 25.1 per cent.
Senator Elizabeth Warren was in third place on 18.3 per cent, and Joe Biden, the former US vice president, was heading for a humiliating fourth place finish on 15.6 per cent.
Those percentages represented the share of state delegates each candidate had been awarded so far, the measure traditionally used to determine victory.
However, the complexities of the Iowa caucus system meant Mr Sanders was actually ahead in the popular vote, meaning he could also claim to be in the lead.
The still incomplete results were published nearly 24 hours late, robbing Mr Buttigieg or Mr Sanders of the opportunity to make a momentous victory speech televised across America.
Problems in how more than 1,600 Iowa precincts reported their vote counts were related to a “coding issue” in the app used to submit the numbers,
Donald Trump called the botched Democrat election an “unmitigated disaster” and compared the party’s struggle to run a statewide vote to their ability to run the country.
He wrote on Twitter: “The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is ‘Trump’.”
Despite the lack of official results, Mr Buttigieg did use his caucus night speech to pronounce he had been “victorious,” based on his campaign’s internal data.
He said: “We don’t know all the results... but we know, by the time it’s all said and done, Iowa you have shocked the nation.”
Mr Sanders’ campaign then released its own data compiled from 40 per cent of the precincts, showing him in the lead.
Traditionally, Iowa winnows the field of candidates seeking the nomination, but the inconclusive results meant those that performed badly could carry on this time to New Hampshire, the second state to vote on Feb 11.
Amy Klobuchar, a US senator from Minnesota, secured 12.6 per cent in the partial results and vowed to fight on.
The Iowa Democrat party admitted there had been a problem with its new app, which those running the local votes were meant to use to submit the results to headquarters.
Troy Price, the local party chairman, said: “While the app was recording
‘We don’t know all the results... but by the time it’s all said and done, Iowa you have shocked the nation’
data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data.
“We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system. This issue was identified and fixed.”
It was reported that a technology company called Shadow had been paid $60,000 (£46,000) before Christmas to create the app.
Electoral officials who reverted back to the old system of calling in results over the phone complained of long delays, with some saying they were stuck on hold for more than an hour.
Both the leading candidates would be a historic break with precedent if they win the nomination. Mr Sanders is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist pledging “political revolution”. Mr Buttigieg hopes to be both the youngest person ever to reach the White House and the first openly gay US president.
Campaign staff for Mr Biden, who appeared to be heading for a poor result, wrote a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party complaining about its handling of the caucuses.
The row has renewed calls for Iowa to end its idiosyncratic system of caucuses, in which people vote by moving to different corners of a room, one area for each candidate, where they are then counted.
The local party had initially put out a statement blaming “inconsistencies” in the reporting of three different sets of results – a change to the procedures which only took effect this year. The statement added: “This is not a hack or an intrusion.”
Mr Buttigieg, campaigning later in New Hampshire, said: “We still have to do some math. But we are coming here with momentum.”
Mrs Warren, also in New Hampshire, said: “I think they ought to get it together and release all the data.”
Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire candidate who did not compete in Iowa, sensed opportunity amid the chaos.
He announced plans to double his television advertising spending, which has already exceeded $100million, in states that vote later.
Dick Harpootlian, a South Carolina state senator and longtime Biden supporter, who served as an Iowa precinct captain for Biden on Monday, said: “I think Iowa is a dumpster fire.”