Iowa Caucuses 2020 results delayed due to technical issues
There is reportedly a technical issue with Iowa results reporting, resulting in an unprecedented delay. The presidential campaigns will soon be briefed about the issue, according to a BuzzFeed News reporter.
The reporter, Ruby Cramer, on Monday night, tweeted that the Iowa Democratic Party is sending a tech staffer to the shared boiler room in Des Moines, where the campaign has their staff headquartered.
"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," she tweeted.
The Iowa caucus results have been slower this year than with past caucuses. Nearly 90% of the total votes were counted in the Democratic caucus in 2016 by this time, according to The Guardian. Although the high number of Democratic candidates this year and high voter turnout was being speculated as the reasons for the delay, technical issues could also be a contributing factor.
Precinct officials in Howard county said it is taking them nearly 20 minutes or more to get a call through to give results.
Meanwhile, the Iowa Democratic Party released a statement, citing "quality check" as the reason behind the delay. "The integrity of the results is paramount. We have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the IDP is reporting out three data sets for the first time. What we know right now is that around 25% of precincts have reported, and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016," the party said.
Earlier in the evening, there were reports of glitches with the new app designed to record Iowa caucus results. The app was formulated for the chairs of each precinct — there are nearly 1,700 caucus sites — to swiftly announce the night's final results.