Pete Buttigieg holds early lead in Iowa over Bernie Sanders as Democratic Party releases partial presidential caucus results – By Rick Pearson and Bill Ruthhart (Chicago Tribune) / Feb 4 2020
Nearly 24 hours after Iowa Democrats turned out to caucus, the first incomplete results from the gaffe-filled counting of preferences in the nation’s first presidential contest were released late Tuesday afternoon, showing former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg with a narrow early lead.
Based on the percentage of Iowa’s 41 national nominating convention delegates, Buttigieg received 26.9% of delegate support, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with 25.1%, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 18.3%, former Vice President Joe Biden with 15.6% and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar with 12.6%. The results are based on 62% of the state’s nearly 1,700 precincts reporting, including ones in all of Iowa’s 99 counties.
The numbers were not final and no official winner has been declared, nor did Iowa Democratic officials say when they would finalize the count.
“I think they should get it together and release all the data,” Warren said, expressing the day-late, millions-of-dollars-short exasperation of several candidates looking for the momentum that a good showing in Iowa provides.
The delay in the release of any results marked an embarrassment for Democratic officials — the result of “inconsistencies” and a “coding error” in a new system aimed at providing transparency and accuracy for reporting the contest’s outcome.
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