The Latest: Dems say delay due to coding error, results soon

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., poses for photos with Maddie O'Donnell, 6, from Ames, Iowa, before the start of a campaign event, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

DES MOINES, Iowa – The Latest on the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses (all times local):

8:45 a.m.

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The Iowa Democratic Party says delays in reporting the outcome of Monday's caucuses were due to a coding issue that has been fixed. The party says it hopes to release results “as soon as possible.”

In a statement Tuesday, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price says, “We have every indication that our systems were secure and there was not a cyber security intrusion.” Price says independent cybersecurity consultants tested the systems in preparation for the caucuses.

Candidates left Iowa Monday night for New Hampshire without the outcome of the contest being announced, a debacle that renewed criticism of Iowa's first-in-the-nation status and the caucus format.

Price says as results came in Monday night from more than 1,600 caucus sites the state party ran them through “an accuracy and quality check” and “it became clear there were inconsistencies with the reports.” Price says it took time to investigate the cause, which was later determined to be a coding issue in the app precinct leaders were using to report some data.

Price says state party staff used “pre-planned measures and entered data manually," which took longer than expected. He says the party has used required back-up paper documentation to verify data recorded in the app was accurate and to calculate delegate counts.

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7:30 a.m.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has picked up the endorsement of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late John F. Kennedy.

As the Democratic presidential hopefuls turn to New Hampshire, Kennedy called Biden the party's “best bet to win the White House, keep the gains we made in the House, and put the Senate in play.”

The former ambassador to Japan announced her decision to endorse Biden in an opinion article Tuesday in the Boston Globe.

The endorsement comes the day after Iowa's caucuses, which ran into technical problems that resulted in delays in results being released. Several Democratic candidates headed to New Hampshire, which holds its presidential primary next week.

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7:20 a.m.

Pete Buttigieg is starting his day in New Hampshire visiting with a local mayor and drinking black coffee after an overnight flight from Iowa.

He told Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess, who endorsed him Tuesday morning, that the lack of timely Iowa results was "frustrating."

But he claimed on "CBS This Morning” that his performance in Iowa was “phenomenal,” especially given the fact that he had started his presidential campaign with little name recognition.

"They said we shouldn't even be here. And now, here we are, in the position that we are in, coming into New Hampshire for what we think will be another historic night a week from today," he said.

Buttigieg has back-to-back events planned around the state on Tuesday. His supporters, including Donchess, say the New Hampshire primary will matter even more after Iowa was slow to report results.

Activist Dan Weeks told Buttigieg an oft-repeated phrase in the state: “Iowa picks corn. New Hampshire picks presidents.”

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3:50 a.m.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says her Democratic presidential campaign is built to compete across the country.

Stepping off a charter flight from Iowa to New Hampshire before dawn Tuesday, Warren said, “Our organizers in Iowa are now leaving there and going to all the other places where we’re on the ground.“

She says her campaign is active in 31 states and involves 1,000 people nationwide.

Warren says, “This is an organization that is built for the long haul."

She didn’t answer a question about other candidates who declared victory in Monday night's Iowa caucuses. Technology problems and reporting “inconsistencies” had kept Iowa Democratic Party officials from releasing results.

She says Iowa “was too close to call and it still is.”

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12:15 a.m.

The Iowa Democratic Party says it expects to release data from the Iowa caucuses later Tuesday.

Chairman Troy Price says the party is manually verifying its data against paper backups but says systems are taking “longer than expected.” He said the delays were the result of a reporting issue, not a hack or intrusion.

Price addressed reporters shortly after the party updated presidential campaigns about the status of the delayed results in the kickoff caucuses. He did not take any questions in the call with reporters.

Even without official results, some candidates have tried to declare victory and claim momentum based on their own internal data. The Associated Press has not called a winner of Monday's caucuses.

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11:55 p.m.

The Iowa Democratic Party has told the presidential campaigns in a late-night phone call that voting results from the first-in-the-nation caucuses are delayed because there are “redundancies in the results."

An aide to Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign tells The Associated Press early Tuesday that party officials are hand-checking the results. The aide says the party said it expected to release caucus results later Tuesday.

It’s the second call party officials have held with the campaigns to try to explain why results from the crucial kick-off caucus were not being reported. Officials said earlier that there were “inconsistencies” in some reporting.

The aide spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity early Tuesday to describe a private call.

Even without official results, some candidates tried to declare victory and claim momentum based on their own internal data. The Associated Press has not called a winner of Monday's caucuses.

— Associated Press writer Will Weissert

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12:40 a.m.

A precinct chairman in Iowa says when he tried to input voting results into Democrats' reporting app, he kept getting a confusing error message.

Iowa party officials had said they would not be sending the new mobile app to precinct chairs for downloading until just before the caucuses to narrow the window for any interference. Results from the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses had not been reported as of Tuesday morning, with party officials citing “inconsistencies” in results.

Jonathan Green, who chaired a precinct in Lone Tree, said when he tried to enter his results into the app, he kept getting an error message: "Unknown protocol. The address specifies a protocol (e.g., "wxyz:??".) the browser does not recognize, so the browser cannot properly connect to the site."

He said he ultimately gave up and tried to call in the results to the party and, like others, was put on hold for an extended period of time.

Green drove to a hotel in Coralville where Democratic precinct chairs in Johnson County had gathered. When one of them finally got through to the party, about 30 of them took turns passing around one cellphone to report their results, Green said.

By the time he was able to report results, it was nearly three hours after voting at his caucus site had ended.

"There was a lot of frustration in the room," he said. “I personally have advocated for moving to a primary, but my God, this is not the way I want to get to a primary.”

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12:35 a.m.

The Iowa Democratic Party is holding a late-night call with the presidential campaigns about the delay in reporting caucus results, according to officials from two of the campaigns.

It’s the second call party officials have held with the campaigns to try to explain why results from the crucial kick-off caucus were not being reported. Officials said earlier that there were “inconsistencies” in some reporting.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity early Tuesday to describe a private call.

Even without official results, some candidates tried to declare victory and claim momentum based on their own internal data. The AP has not called a winner of Monday's caucuses.

— AP Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace

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11:55 p.m. Monday

Organizers running precincts for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses didn’t get to test the mobile app they were to use to report results until just hours before voting began.

Iowa party officials had said they would not be sending the new mobile app to precinct chairs for downloading until just before the caucuses to narrow the window for any interference. Some precinct chairs said they had trouble downloading or logging into the app and didn't use it.

As of late Monday, the Iowa Democratic Party had yet to report any results, saying they have been delayed because of “inconsistencies” in the count.

An Iowa Democratic Party manual had told caucus organizers that the app was the "preferred method" for reporting results. It listed a single phone number for those who chose to call them in from the 1,678 statewide precincts.

Organizers would then use the app to report the results of the first and final alignments, and the app would calculate the number of delegates each campaign won. Lastly, they would take a photo of the Caucus Math Worksheet with the written results as a backup.

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11:40 p.m.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is declaring victory in Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, even though no official results have been reported.

Speaking to supporters late Monday in Des Moines, the Democratic presidential candidate says, “By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.”

He adds: “Tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.”

The manual laid out how the app would work: Organizers would log into the app using a PIN listed on their Caucus Math Worksheet when they called the meeting to order. They would enter the number of participants and the app would calculate the "viability threshold" for the site.

Buttigieg acknowledged the confusion in his speech, saying, “We don't know all the results." He added that still, "Iowa, you have shocked the nation.”

Polls going into Iowa's caucuses had showed Buttigieg among the front-runners, along with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden.

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11:35 p.m.

The campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is calling delays in the Iowa caucus results “a mess” and says that “every second that passes sort of undermines the process a little bit.”

Roger Lau told reporters at Warren's watch party in Des Moines late Monday that the campaign had seen very little official data. But he said based on the campaign's own internal figures, it sees a three-way jumble at the top with Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. He says their internal numbers show Joe Biden “a distant fourth.”

The Iowa Democratic Party has yet to report any results, saying they have been delayed because of “inconsistencies” in the count.

Lau says that he wasn't on the call the state party had with all the campaigns but that a representative from Warren's campaign was.

Iowa Democratic officials said results in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses were delayed because of unspecified “quality checks." They called the problem a “reporting issue."

Lau also said that he didn't know if there would be further calls or updates, saying only, “I hope so.”

"We're happy getting out of Iowa and with a ticket to New Hampshire," Lao said.

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11:20 p.m.

An Iowa precinct chairwoman says she did not use the new app created for caucus organizers to report results because organizers had problems trying to download and test it.

"We came to a consensus not to use it," said Ruth Thompson, who chaired a precinct at Lincoln High School in Des Moines.

Results in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus were delayed Monday night because of unspecified “quality checks," Iowa Democratic officials said. They called the problem a “reporting issue."

Thompson said that she also did not try to report her site's results over the phone after hearing reports of long delays in answering the line at state headquarters. Instead, veteran caucusgoers at her site used calculators to compute the delegate allocation and then texted a photo of the result to Polk County Democratic Party officials, who drove it to state party headquarters.

Thompson said the delays in results were unfortunate because the process went "remarkably smoothly" in other ways. She said that her precinct, with a turnout of 385 people, had a much larger space and finished two hours earlier than 2016.

"It was much less contentious in the room, and I feel really good about the way things went," Thompson said.

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11:05 p.m.

An elections expert says deploying new technology so close to an election is “always a risky proposition” amid a delay in results from Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Des Moines County Chair Tom Courtney said that in his county, an app created for caucus organizers to report results was “a mess” and organizers were instead having to call in results to the state party on Monday night.

Iowa party officials had said they would not be sending the new mobile app to precinct chairs for downloading until just before the caucuses — to narrow the window for any interference.

Lawrence Norden, elections expert with The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, said that was akin to a major retailer using new cash registers for the first time on Black Friday.

“To roll out a new technology without really testing it and making it available as early as possible and giving folks the opportunity to challenge it and work out all the bugs is a high-stakes decision which I think is proving to be problematic today,” Norden said.

Norden said party officials were wise to slow down the reporting to ensure accurate results, given concerns of another round of election interference by Russia or other hostile governments seeking to undermine U.S. democracy.

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10:50 p.m.

Joe Biden is declaring success in Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses despite results not yet being released by the state Democratic Party.

"We feel good about where we are, so it's onto New Hampshire," Biden said Monday night, adding that he'd "walk out of here with our share of delegates."

The Iowa Democratic Party says the caucus results have been delayed because of unspecified “quality checks.” They say, however, that the problem is a “reporting issue,” not a “hack or an intrusion.”

Biden has said he didn't have to win Iowa to win the nomination, but he wanted to avoid a bad showing.

Several donors attending his Des Moines watch party said they want to see Biden finish in the top three in Iowa to boost confidence going forward as the race moves to more diverse states where Biden is expected to be stronger.

For his part, Biden stuck to his usual argument, making President Donald Trump his target. "Each of us knows, deep in our bones, that everything this nation stands for is at stake," Biden said.

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10:45 p.m.

Elizabeth Warren says the results of the Iowa caucus are “too close to call” and instead used much of a speech at her caucus party to criticize President Donald Trump.

The Massachusetts senator told hundreds who gathered to cheer her on in downtown Des Moines on Monday night: “We don’t know all the results tonight, but tonight has already shown that Americans have a hunger for big structural change.”

Her White House bid calls for fundamentally remaking the nation’s economic and political system.

Warren said, “A president’s values matters and the only thing Donald Trump values is Donald Trump.” She said the president believes “government is a tool to enrich himself and his corrupt buddies at everyone else's expense.”

She said: "If you can imagine an America where people, not money, come first, then this campaign is for you."

Although the Iowa results aren't yet clear, she added: “Tonight we are one step closer to winning the fight for the America we believe is possible.”

The Iowa Democratic Party says the caucus results have been delayed because of unspecified “quality checks.”

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10:40 p.m.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is the first Democratic presidential candidate to address the delayed Iowa caucus results, saying, “We know one thing: we are punching above our weight."

The Iowa Democratic Party says the caucus results have been delayed because of unspecified “quality checks.” They say, however, that the problem is a “reporting issue,” not a "hack or an intrusion."

Klobuchar appeared on stage late Monday as the hours ticked by without any vote totals being reported from Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

The senator built her campaign around a strong performance in Iowa. While the results are unknown, she says, “We are bringing this ticket to New Hampshire.”

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10:30 p.m.

The Iowa Democratic Party says the delay in reporting caucus votes is the result of a “reporting issue” and not because of a “hack or an intrusion.”

Communications director Mandy McClure said Monday night that the party “found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.”

She says the party is using photos of the results and a paper trail to “validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report."

She says: “The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results."

It was not immediately clear how long it would take the state party to produce results. Iowa holds the nation's first presidential voting contest.

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10:20 p.m.

Iowa Democratic Party officials are holding a phone call with campaigns amid delays in reporting caucus results.

People familiar with the decision spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to describe the private call.

The Iowa Democratic Party said earlier Monday night that it was experiencing a delay in reporting results from the first-in-the nation caucuses because of unspecified “quality checks.”

Communications director Mandy McClure said in a statement Monday night that the delay is also the result of the party reporting three sets of data for the first time.

McClure says the party has data so far from “around 25%” of the state’s 1,765 precincts and “and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016."

— Associated Press writer Alexandra Jaffe

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9:50 p.m.

The Iowa Democratic Party says it is experiencing a delay in reporting results from the first-in-the nation caucuses because of unspecified “quality checks.”

Communications director Mandy McClure said in a statement Monday night that the delay is also the result of the party reporting three sets of data for the first time.

McClure says the party has data so far from “around 25%” of the state’s 1,765 precincts and “and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016."

The Iowa Democratic Party had decided to report three sets of results: tallies for the “first alignment” and “final alignment,” as well as each candidate's total of “state delegate equivalents.” Previously, only each candidate's ultimate number of state convention delegates had been reported.

The Associated Press will declare the winner based on the number of state delegate equivalents.

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9:40 p.m.

The results from the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses were slow to come in Monday night.

The reasons for the delays were unclear. The Iowa Democratic Party would not comment on what was slowing down reporting from caucus precincts around the state.

Des Moines County Chair Tom Courtney said technology issues appeared to be contributing to the delay. Courtney said that in his county, an app created for caucus organizers to report results was “a mess” and organizers were instead having to call in results to the state party.

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9:20 p.m.

The minutes kept ticking by, and Bryan Pollpeter just couldn't decide.

In the first round Pollpeter was undecided, and as the deadline neared in the second and final round, he stood near the doors at the Hoover High School gym in north Des Moines and looked a bit desperate.

"I like them all, but I'm kind of swinging between Amy and Bernie," he said, referring to Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who run the political spectrum from moderate to democratic socialist.

Pollpeter, a worker at the Des Moines Water Works, acknowledges they have different views, but he found both engaging.

Ultimately, though, he was persuaded to join with Pete Buttigieg. "I was standing over by the Amy people, but no one talked to me," he said. “A Pete woman came over so I said, well, OK, I'll go with Pete.”

He added, “I just want to beat Trump.”

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8:15 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bennet is spending the Iowa caucuses with New Hampshire voters — including one AARP volunteer he joked has been to more than 40 of his events.

The Colorado senator skipped out on Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses Monday to hold his 47th town hall in New Hampshire. He says he’s hoping to finish in the top 3 in the state’s Feb. 11 primary. That’s a long shot based on polling that shows he isn’t breaking through despite spending more time in the state than his rivals.

He says he prides himself on never being late to an event - until Monday. Plane delays from Washington, where he was participating in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, left his town hall attendees watching 15 minutes' worth of Bennet video clips before he arrived.

Bennet says he’s hoping to appeal to undecided New Hampshire voters who don’t believe the leading candidates can beat Trump.

He’s not shy about taking on his more progressive, and more popular, rivals. He’s contrasting his views with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in particularly by outlining his opposition to “Medicare for All” and saying Sanders’ spending proposals are unrealistic.

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8 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is visiting a caucus site in Des Moines as voting gets underway in the nation's leadoff voting state.

The Massachusetts senator addressed hundreds of caucusgoers Monday night at a high school gymnasium. She sought to promote a message of unity, saying, “I’m someone who treats all of our Democrats with respect.”

She says the party should nominate a candidate whose campaign organization is as strong nationally as hers is in leadoff Iowa. She added: “I’ve got a great national organization.”

Many of her supporters wore green, the signature color of the Massachusetts senator’s campaign. They chanted, “Warren! Warren!” People caucusing for other candidates also applauded, but a large group of supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders responded, “Bernie beats Trump!”

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7:50 p.m.

Iowa Democratic Party officials say an early issue with a mobile app designed to report results will not hinder the Iowa caucus process.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price said Monday that there were some reports from precinct officials that they couldn’t log into the app during the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

He said a team of troubleshooters is working to address any technical issues.

He added that the party has alternate ways for precincts to send in results, including a hotline.

“We’ve had an app before, but we’ve also had a hotline before, and folks have had the option to do that, and so we expect that we’ll be able to report the results in a timely manner this evening,” he said.

The app was designed to allow for the quick filing of results, and the issue appears to be the result of different PINs used for early testing and caucus night logins.

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