DNC chairman calls for recanvass of Iowa caucuses

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DNC chair calls on Iowa Democrats to recanvas caucus votes

Iowa Democratic Party chair says his team will remain focused on collecting and reviewing incoming results; Peter Doocy reports from Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez on Thursday called for the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) to conduct a recanvass after the state's caucuses earlier this week were mired in confusion and have yet to produce a definitive result.

Perez cited difficulties with the delegate selection plan and concern over public trust in the results of Monday's caucuses after nearly three days of controversy.

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"Enough is enough," Perez tweeted Thursday. "In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass."

By Thursday morning, with 97 percent of Iowa precincts in, former South Bend, Ind. Pete Buttigieg narrowly leads the count with 26.2 percent of delegates over the 26.1 percent in favor of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to numbers released by the Iowa Democratic Party.

But a New York Times report revealed that the caucuses were "riddled with errors and inconsistencies." The report said that more than 100 precincts had results had inconsistencies such as missing information or results that “were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses.”

The Times said that the errors did not seem to reflect any bias for the leading candidates. Still, it said that there are significant problems that could foster doubts over the process.

The inability to declare results Monday night had been blamed on multiple factors. First, the state party blamed an app for the inability to declare Monday night, a problem that still lingers even as frustrated candidates have packed up and moved on to New Hampshire for the nation's first primary. Then workers manning the phones reportedly claimed that President Trump backers flooded the hotline number for precinct chairs that led to even more confusion and disarray.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, IDP chair Troy Price did not mention Perez, but indicated the party would only begin a recanvass if requested by one of the presidential campaigns.

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"Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP is prepared," he said. "In such a circumstance, the IDP will audit the paper records of report, as provided by the precinct chairs and signed by representatives of presidential campaigns. This is the official record of the Iowa Democratic caucus, and we are committed to ensuring the results accurately reflect the preference of Iowans.”

Price recognized the problems with the caucuses, and said the party "identified inconsistencies in the data and used our redundant paper records to promptly correct those errors." He said they were working with precinct chairs, and were "working diligently to report the final 54 precincts to get as close to final reporting as possible."