RE-PETE
Iowa caucus – Pete Buttigieg keeps slim lead as more results from shambolic Democrat vote released with Biden in FOURTH
PETE Buttigieg held on to his slim lead over Bernie Sanders early today as more results emerged in the shambolic Iowa caucuses.
Preliminary results in 71 per cent of precincts give the youngest Democrat candidate 26.8 per cent of votes while the oldest has 25.2 per cent.
11
Elizabeth Warren trails on 18.4 per cent while former Vice-President Joe Biden - the early favourite - slipped to fourth place with 15.4 per cent.
Amy Klobuchar won 12.6 per cent, Andrew Yang just 1 per cent and Tom Steyer and Tulsi Gabbard had less than 1 per cent.
But the state has still not declared a winner from Monday's caususes which descended into farce thanks to a tech meltdown.
11
11
11
Buttigieg - who was mocked for prematurely declaring victory on Monday - teared up last night as he learned of his lead while campaigning in New Hampshire.
"It validates for a kid somewhere in a community wondering if he belongs," he said.
"That if you believe in yourself and your country, there's a lot backing up that belief"
Buttigieg, 37, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is the first openly gay candidate to campaign for a major party's nomination.
He is also the least experienced of the packed field, but has used his outsider status to win support while senators Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar were in Washington for the impeachment trial.
Sanders, 79, is leading the popular vote with 32,673 ballots so far compared to 31,353 for Buttigieg.
But the percentages represent the likely share of Iowa's 41 delegates under the system used to decide the party's presidential candidate.
Buttigieg came top in some rural areas and so far has more delegates.
DEBACLE FOR DEMOCRATS
State party chairman Troy Price earlier admitted he could not say when the final count would be done.
He called the fiasco "simply unacceptable" and promised a full investigation, adding: "I apologise deeply for this."
Tom Perez, the head of the Democratic National Committee, also addressed the issues in Iowa on Tuesday night.
"What happened last night in Iowa should never happen again. We have staff working around the clock to assist the Iowa Democratic Party to ensure that all votes are counted," said Perez.
"It is clear that the app in question did not function adequately. It will not be used in Nevada or anywhere else during the primary election process. The technology vendor must provide absolute transparent accounting of what went wrong."
He went on to state: "Our immediate goal is to ensure that every vote is counted as quickly as possible. Accuracy is our guidepost."
11
11
11
Joe Biden also slammed the Iowa Democrat party's "acute failures" which forced candidates to take the stage on Monday night with no official results.
His campaign lawyer wrote to party chairman Price and executive director Kevin Geiken demanding a "full explanation".
He warned the results "cannot be trusted" when they eventually emerge from the 1,600 precincts.
11
11
11
11
President Donald Trump dropped in his two cents on the issue in an early tweet Tuesday.
"The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran that Country. Remember the 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare Website, that should have cost 2% of that. The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is "Trump".
Other Trump supporters questioned the abilities of the Democratic party following the disarray.
"Seriously; If Democrats cannot manage a simple caucus in Iowa, how can we possibly trust them to run America?" one user questioned.
Others, however, supported the system amid the chaos
"Am I the only one happy Iowa Caucus organizers abided by any potential election security issues and is doing what you do in any such election with an accurate paper trail, careful count? We want to trust our elections, even amid snafus. They did the right thing," one user wrote.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Several county chairs said they had struggled to use the app and were then put on hold for up to an hour when calling the results hotline the party has used for decades.
The app was created by tech firm Shadow - which is run by former staffers on Hillary Clinton's campaign, .
Shocking moment Dem voter demands to change her vote after learning Pete Buttigieg is gay and married to a man
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at [email protected] or call 212 416 4552.
Topics