DAVENPORT, Iowa – Iowa Democrats are extending a deadline for a campaign to request a recanvass or recount of the Iowa caucus results. The results are in after Monday's reporting delay; that’s why the Iowa Democratic Party Chair, Troy Price, announced an independent investigation on Friday into what happened caucus night. The delay was due to a coding error in the app used to tabulate results.
Iowa democrats say because of those delays, as well as inconsistencies in data, it’s allowing campaigns to request a recount or recanvass.
Candidates now have until Monday to ask for a recanvass. This comes after the Democratic National Committee Chairman, Tom Perez, demanded a recanvass of the votes, but he has no say. The Iowa Democratic Party says the request must come from a candidate or their campaign.
Here’s the difference:
A recanvass is where the Iowa Democratic Party looks at the totals from each worksheet submitted by almost 1,800 precincts in Iowa.
A recount – a deeper dive – the party goes through 180,000 preference cards from each voter.
A recanvass or recount would only benefit the two candidates at the top: Pete Buttigieg or Senator Bernie Sanders.
“This race is so tight,” says PJ Foley, an Adjunct Instructor in Political Science at St. Ambrose University. “You are at 26.2% and 26.1%. I think they just want to make sure given all the issues on Monday all the way through today on Friday, they want to make sure everything was done correctly.”
A recount was done in 2008 for Senator Mitt Romney and former Senator Rick Santortum. Romney was declared the winner first, but after the recount Santorum won. By then, Romney already had the momentum heading into New Hampshire and Santorum’s candidacy faded.
CNN reports both Pete Buttigieg and Senator Bernie Sanders seem uninterested in either a recount or recanvass. They say they are looking ahead to New Hampshire.