DES MOINES, Iowa – The chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, Tom Price, apologized Tuesday afternoon for the delay in delivering caucus results.
Shortly afterwards, about 62% of the results were released, showing Pete Buttigieg in the lead with 362 delegates.
The holdup in releasing the results of the caucuses came amid the Democrats' push to make the famously complicated and unique caucus process more transparent. Officials hoped to release three sets of results: Voters' first preference, voters' final preference and state delegate equivalence. In the past, officials only released state delegate equivalence.
However, according to a spokesperson for the Iowa Democratic Party, "inconsistencies" between the three sets of data were found when tabulating results.
According to a statement released by Party Chair Tony Price, a coding error in an app used to caucus data was detected after the party ran the data through a quality check.
After party officials found the error, they decided to enter data from precincts manually, which has resulted in a lengthy delay in announcing the results.
According to Price's statement, all the data collected by the app was "sound," but was only reporting "partial data." Price also maintained that Democratic party systems are secure and were not hacked by a third party.
Though the outcome of the caucuses remains unclear, some major candidates took the opportunity to give victory speeches late Monday. Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg told his supporters that his campaign was moving on to New Hampshire "victorious."
Other candidates took a more measured approach. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the results were "too close to call."
Forty-one delegates were up for grabs in Monday's primary, which will be split among candidates who qualify.
President Donald Trump easily won the Iowa caucus for the Republican Party on Monday evening. Trump is facing opposition from former Congressman Joe Walsh and Former Mass. Gov. Bill Weld.
