2020 candidate former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg backed 2020 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) call for a partial recanvass of the Iowa caucus results on Monday after the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) projected on Sunday Buttigieg the winner of its catastrophic caucuses.
Sanders wrote a letter to IDP chair Troy Price requesting a “limited precinct-level review and recanvass” for 25 precincts and 3 satellite caucuses due to the “mathematical errors and inconsistencies” made while the caucus result data was compiled.
The letter attached a detailed list of the discrepancies the Sanders campaign found in each of the 25 precincts and three satellite caucuses.
Several hours later, the Buttigieg campaign sent Price a letter boosting Sanders’ request.
“In total, our recanvass request would result in a net increase of 14 SDEs,” Buttigieg wrote, according to Politico.
The IDP awarded Buttigieg 14 national delegates, giving the former mayor a slight lead over Sanders, who received 12 delegates.
As of Monday morning, the Associated Press has still declined to formally project a victor of the race due to errors in the vote tallying process.
“The Associated Press remains unable to declare a winner because it believes the results may not be fully accurate and are still subject to potential revision,” the AP reporter Alexandra Jaffe wrote.
Buttigieg and Sanders, who won the state’s popular vote, both declared victory in the last week as the IDP’s review dragged on, which showed a razor-thin margin between the two candidates at 26.2% and 26.1% of SDEs, respectively.
The New Hampshire primary race begins on Monday.
