In an editorial published late Wednesday evening, The Des Moines Register skewered the Democratic caucuses in Iowa as being a “debacle”.
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McGuire, whose state organization, like the national party apparatus, is solidly behind Clinton, rejected the request, telling the Register in an interview Tuesday, “These are the final results”.
The Iowa Caucuses allocated 23 delegates to Clinton and 21 to Sanders.
After the Iowa Democratic Party rejected calls for an audit of last Monday night’s results, they have finally agreed to look at the tallies, following concerns that some precincts had irregular numbers.
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton was declared the victor, defeating rival Bernie Sanders by just 0.2 percentage points, with Clinton earning 49.9 percent of the vote to Sanders’ 49.6 percent. So the editorial board of the Des Moines Register on Thursday called for an audit of the results to provide greater transparency and tamp down the inevitable conspiracy theories.
In one precinct cited by the Register’s report, Sanders won 19 delegates to Clinton’s 7 – but the party’s official results differed by one delegate in Clinton’s favor. “072 state delegate equivalents – not even a tenth”, wrote the Register, which is tracking the changing data on their site here. A caucus should not be confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins trigger automatic recounts in other states. “Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure”.
According to CNN, seven of coin flips/games were recorded using the Microsoft app. Six of them involved Clinton vs Sanders, and Sanders won five of them.
“The refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy”, the paper’s editorial board wrote.
“Iowans who have committed countless hours to these campaigns deserve to have all of the facts”, Sanders spokeswoman Symone Sanders said in an emailed statement.
Dr. Andrea “Andy” McGuire served as co-chairwoman of Clinton’s 2008 campaign in Iowa, and the Des Moines Register reported the license plate on her Buick Enclave reads: “HRC 2016”.
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The news comes as many Democrats and media outlets raise concerns about the accuracy of Monday’s results. Sanders said they believe he’d receive “at least two more” if there was an audit of the results. So by that standard Clinton may have won the popular vote after all.
