Iowa caucus results nowhere in sight half a day later

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Iowa state Democrats continued to struggle to produce first-in-the-nation caucus results Tuesday, nearly 16 hours after polling began.

As of midday Tuesday the Iowa Democratic Party still had 0% of the 1,765 caucus precincts reporting as the meltdown dragged on with no end in sight.

The party blamed the delay on a "coding issue in the reporting system,” and Chairman Troy Price said in a statement that precinct results are being manually verified and numbers are expected to be reported later in the day.

Multiple reports said the party told the presidential campaigns on a call that it plans to produce most of the results by 4 p.m. local time (2200GMT).

The party has denied the technical glitches were the result of a "hack or an intrusion."

The Iowa Democratic Party was, for the first time in history, to have reported out three distinct sets of results, rather than just delegate totals.

The new figures are to include the State Delegate Equivalents each candidate receives, caucus-goers' initial preferred candidate, and the tally after what is called a "realignment," which occurs in-between the two rounds of voting and is critical in reshaping the equation ahead of a final vote.

State Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said the party detected "inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results," which then prompted officials to manually cross-reference tabulations with the "underlying data."

Iowa has 41 delegates at stake, a small portion of the 1,991 delegates Democratic candidates need to secure the party's nomination in a series of state races. But Iowa's significance does not lie in those comparative handful of critical representatives.

For candidates, Iowa is about setting the narrative heading into the primary season and using that to build momentum in successive races.

That is critical as seven of the last nine candidates to win Iowa have gone on to secure the Democratic nomination, including the last four going back to former Vice President Al Gore who won in 2000 but lost nationally to President George W. Bush.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders lost Iowa to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a little more than 0.2% in 2016.

Ahead of Tuesday's contest, Sanders was leading in Iowa by a razor-thin margin with former Vice President Joe Biden trailing closely behind.

Each of the major candidates addressed supporters later Monday night, claiming victory without a firm tally in hand and with the New Hampshire primary just a week away.