(Reuters) – Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy Price resigned on Wednesday after the failure of a vote-counting app and a backup phone system caused several days of delay in determining the results of the state’s influential presidential nominating caucuses.
“Democrats deserved better than what happened on caucus night,” Price said in a statement distributed by the party.
Officials blamed inconsistencies related to a new mobile app used for vote counting for the unusual delay in Iowa, the state that traditionally kicks off a presidential election campaign that culminates this year on Nov. 3.
The uncertainty enraged Democrats worried it would only strengthen President Donald Trump’s bid for re-election and prompted some Democratic candidates’ campaigns to question whether the results would be legitimate.
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“As leader of the party I apologize deeply for this,” Price told reporters last week. “We’ve been working day and night to make sure these results are accurate.”
A New York Times analysis of the vote counts last Wednesday found they were still riddled with mistakes and inaccuracies.
More than 100 precincts reported results that were “internally inconsistent,” missing data or not possible under the Iowa caucus’ rules, according to a New York Times analysis published Thursday.
According to The Times, the errors suggested the state’s caucus leaders struggled to follow caucus rules or adopt additional reporting requirements introduced since 2016 and that the Iowa Democratic Party failed to validate the results before making them public.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento; Editing by Scott Malone and Chris Reese. Pluralist contributed to this report.)
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