DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 7 (UPI) — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton remains victorious in the Iowa caucus following a recount that revealed errors in the results of some precincts.
The Des Moines Register quoted officials as saying Sunday Clinton won with 700.47 state delegate equivalents, or 49.84 percent, while Bernie Sanders finished in second with 696.92 state delegate equivalents, or 49.59 percent.
The recount came amid calls for an audit following reported discrepancies in the caucus results last week.
In one precinct, a single delegate showed up to vote for Sanders but was erroneously marked as voting for Clinton.
In all, party officials reviewed 14 precincts and found errors in five.
The updated results gave a boost of 0.1053 state delegate equivalents for Sanders and 0.0167 for Martin O’Malley, who placed in third, while Clinton lost 0.122.
Sanders’ boost brought him to a quarter of a percentage point within Clinton’s number. The winner of the popular vote, meanwhile, remains unclear as state party officials have declined to release detailed figures.
The mistakes have also led to calls for the Iowa Democratic Party to change its caucusing process, which differs from the Republican Party’s method of conducting a simple, secret straw poll.
The Democrats use complex math formulas, coin tosses and past voter turnout to calculate numbers from a series of headcounts.
On Sunday, The Des Moines Register quoted a news release by Iowa’s Democratic Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire, who promised to convene a committee that would “improve on our caucus process while preserving what makes it special.”
