The results of the Democratic Iowa caucus were delayed Monday evening because of a technical issue with the results system, according to reports.
About 85% of precincts were reporting results by 10:30 p.m. in 2016, according to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. This year, there were no results in at the same time, reportedly because of an issue with the application being used.
“Four years ago at this point almost 85% of the precincts had reported. Right now as you know, 0% of the precincts have reported,” Blitzer said Monday evening on CNN’s showing of “America’s Choice 2020: Iowa Caucus.”
Campaign officials are reportedly being brought in for a meeting to discuss the issue, Buzzfeed News’ Rudy Cramer tweeted.
There is technical issue with Iowa results reporting. Hearing from multiple campaigns that the Iowa Democratic Party is sending a tech staffer to the shared boiler room in Des Moines, where the campaigns have staff headquartered, to brief them momentarily on what’s going on.
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) February 4, 2020
The smartphone application that allows Democrats to record the results of Monday’s presidential caucus has raised security issues, the Wall Street Journal previously reported. The application is used by caucus workers on their personal phones. (RELATED: Here’s Why Joe Biden Is Floundering In Iowa, According To His Supporters)
The Democratic National Committee said in a statement Monday evening that there were “inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.” The application did not go down and wasn’t hacked, the DNC added.
“We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” the DNC said in a statement according to CNN. “In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report. This is simply a reporting issue.”
“The app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
????????????New statement from the Iowa Democratic Party.
via CNN #IACaucus pic.twitter.com/ocDMKywk0C
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 4, 2020
However, a new statement issued by the Iowa Democratic Party Tuesday morning noted that there was, in fact, a problem with the phone application.
“While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system,” Iowa Democrats said according to the statement.
NEW statement from @iowademocrats — “While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system.” pic.twitter.com/kOXdcvggoe
— Maura Barrett (@MauraBarrettNBC) February 4, 2020
CNN political director David Chalian lamented about the situation during the network’s coverage of the event as the panel was discussing the unusual issue.
“This was not the plan,” Chalian said. “Something is clearly off from the plan that the Iowa Democratic Party had at the start of the night. They did not expect to have no vote reporting at 10:30 Eastern at night. That is dramatically later than we’ve seen the past.”
“When it comes down to the actual caucuses and you have hundreds of thousands of people showing up, you are not in a test drive mode and there’s no way that this is according to plan right now.”