Sanders asks for recanvass of 25 Iowa caucus precincts

Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has formally requested a partial review of last week’s Iowa caucuses, after getting more votes but fewer delegates than rival Pete Buttigieg.

The recanvass request would apply to 25 precincts and three satellite sites. The Sanders campaign suggested they might ask for a full recount afterward.

“While a recanvass is just the first step in the process and we don’t expect it to change the current calculations, it is a necessary part of making sure Iowans can trust the final results of the caucus,” campaign adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement on Monday.

The Iowa Democratic Party confirmed that it has received recanvass requests from both the Sanders and Buttigieg campaigns and will “review” them.

Last Monday’s caucuses turned out to be a disaster of epic proportions for the Democrats, as the smartphone app intended to tally results “glitched” and the reporting phone lines collapsed under the workload. Full results were not available for days, and when they finally trickled in, they showed Buttigieg 0.1 percent ahead of Sanders and getting one more delegate as a result – but Sanders winning more of the popular vote.

The Sanders campaign has pointed to numerous issues and inconsistencies with the count and the reporting, saying that they should be awarded another delegate. Meanwhile, Buttigieg rode the publicity of winning the caucuses all the way to Friday night’s debate, ahead of the primaries in New Hampshire. 

A new Quinnipiac University national poll, released Monday, showed Sanders in a commanding lead with 25 percent among Democrat and Democrat-leaning independent voters. Former Vice President Joe Biden was distant second with 17 percent, while Buttigieg was in fifth place with only ten percent.

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