The Democratic Party’s effort to choose an election challenger to Donald Trump got off to a chaotic start in Iowa, with officials blaming “inconsistencies” for an indefinite delay in the state’s caucus results and the president gloating over his rivals’ misfortune.
Chris Dignam has more.
(SOUND BITE) (English) CAUCUS OFFICIAL, SAYING: "It would not let me change that." Problems with a new mobile app designed to report the results from caucus locations in Iowa, the first state to hold a nominating contest, contributed to a chaotic start to the 2020 election.
(SOUND BITE) (English) CAUCUS OFFICIAL, SAYING: "It would not let me change his number at all, like, to zero.
Like, if all his people dispersed to other groups." When local officials turned to the "phone" function on their devices to call in the results, they were put on hold and could not get through.
In a statement, Iowa's Democratic Party chair said the data collected from the app was sound but that it was reporting out only partial data, and tried to assure voters that it was not a hack, saying: “We have every indication that our systems were secure and there was not a cyber security intrusion... As precinct caucus results started coming in, the IDP ran them through an accuracy and quality check.
It became clear that there were inconsistencies with the reports... IDP staff activated pre-planned backup measures and entered data manually.
This took longer than expected." The chaos was likely to increase criticism from Democrats who have long complained the rural state with a largely white population has an outsized role in determining the presidential candidate.
Republican President Donald Trump mocked the Democrats, calling the caucus confusion an “unmitigated disaster” in a tweet on Tuesday.
Some of the Democratic candidates had already moved on.
(SOUND BITE) (English) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ELIZABETH WARREN, SAYING: "When I left Iowa, I said it was too close to call, and it still is, but I feel good." By Tuesday morning, they were in New Hampshire, which hosts the next nominating contest on Feb.
11.