2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses

2020 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses
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49 Democratic National Convention delegates (41 pledged with 27 on district-level and 14 statewide; 8 unpledged).
The number of pledged delegates won is set by the number of state delegate equivalents (SDEs) won
 
Candidate Joe Biden Pete Buttigieg Bernie Sanders
Home state Delaware Indiana Vermont
Delegate count 14 12 9
First vote 26,291
(14.9%)		 37,572
(21.3%)		 43,581
(24.7%)
Final vote 23,605
(13.7%)		 43,209
(25.1%)		 45,652
(26.5%)
SDEs 340.3
(15.8%)		 563.0
(26.2%)		 562.0
(26.1%)
 
Candidate Elizabeth Warren Amy Klobuchar
Home state Massachusetts Minnesota
Delegate count 5 1
First vote 32,589
(18.5%)		 22,454
(12.7%)
Final vote 34,909
(20.3%)		 21,100
(12.2%)
SDEs 388.4
(18.0%)		 263.9
(12.3%)
  Pete Buttigieg
  Bernie Sanders
  Elizabeth Warren
  Joe Biden
  Amy Klobuchar
  Tie

The 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses were the first votes to decide the nominee in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 United States presidential election, taking place on 3 February 2020. The winner was Pete Buttigieg, which made him the first openly gay person to win a presidential contest. The Iowa caucuses are closed caucuses, only allowing for people who are registered in the Democratic Party to vote. Iowa gives 49 delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, of which 41 are pledged delegates given to candidates based on the results of the caucuses.

After a three day delay in reporting the votes, the Iowa Democratic Party announced that Buttigieg had been awarded two more delegates than Sanders, but Sanders had won the popular vote in the state. Most of the media outlets would say that Buttigieg would be the winner, but the Associated Press declined to declare who would be the winner until all recount voting processes had been finished. The official result and calculation of pledged delegates was delayed again by a further six days after the election as they needed to correct the results from 3.1% (55) of the precincts. Both Buttigieg and Sanders then requested a recanvass for 8.1% of the official results, which narrowed Buttigieg's lead over Sanders to 0.08 state delegate equivalents.

The caucuses would be controversial because of the delays in the reporting of the results. Much of the delay was as a result of the mobile application used to report voting totals. More controversy started because of the errors and continued changing in the calculation and reporting of the state delegate equivalents. The Iowa Democratic Party chair would resign on the 12 February 2020 because of the criticism of the reporting.

References

  1. ↑ Levy, Adam; Merica, Dan (March 1, 2020). "Iowa Democratic Party certifies Buttigieg's Iowa lead amid Sanders challenge". CNN.com. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "2020 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions: Iowa Democrat". The Green Papers. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Iowa Democratic Party Announces Delegation to National Convention". iowademocrats.org. 13 June 2020. Archived from the original on 4 July 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  4. ↑ Susan Milligan, Seth Cline (January 27, 2020). "The Battleground States: Iowa Caucuses". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  5. ↑ "IDP Caucus 2020 (100% reporting: 1765 of 1765 precincts)". Iowa Democratic Party. Archived from the original on February 28, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  6. ↑ Astor, Maggie; Stevens, Matt (February 1, 2020). "How Will the Winner of the Iowa Caucuses Be Chosen? Here's What You Should Know". The New York Times. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  7. ↑ Rakich, Nathaniel (February 5, 2020). "Latest From Iowa: Buttigieg Still Leads On Delegates, Sanders On Votes, But It's Close". FiveThirtyEight. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  8. ↑ Maggie Astor (February 6, 2020). "The Associated Press 'is unable to declare a winner' in Iowa". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  9. ↑ Alexandra Jaffe (19 February 2020). "Bernie Sanders' campaign to request recount of Iowa caucuses". AP NEWS. Associated Press. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  10. ↑ Trip Gabriel (February 9, 2020). "Iowa Democrats Give Buttigieg the Most Delegates as Sanders Team Seeks Recanvass". New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  11. ↑ "IDP Caucus 2020 (100% reporting: 1765 of 1765 precincts)". Iowa Democratic Party. Archived from the original on February 28, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  12. ↑ Montellaro, Zach (February 10, 2020). "Sanders, Buttigieg formally request Iowa recanvass". Politico. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  13. ↑ Brooke Singman (February 12, 2020). "Iowa Democratic Party agrees to partial recanvass of caucuses". Fox News. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  14. ↑ Alexandra Jaffe (February 12, 2020). "Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Resigns After Caucus Chaos". Time. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  15. ↑ Zach Montellaro (February 18, 2020). "Buttigieg, Sanders separated by thousandths of a point after Iowa recanvass". Politico. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  16. ↑ "AP Explains: Why isn't there a winner of Iowa's Dem caucuses". AP. 10 February 2020.
  17. ↑ Cohn, Nate; Katz, Josh; Lu, Denise; Smart, Charlie; Smithgall, Ben; Fischer, Andrew (6 February 2020). "Iowa Caucus Results Riddled With Errors and Inconsistencies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  18. ↑ "NBC News review of Iowa caucus vote finds potential errors, inconsistencies". NBC News. 7 February 2020.
  19. ↑ Agiesta, Jennifer; Merica, Dan (7 February 2020). "CNN analysis shows errors in Iowa results count". CNN.
  1. ↑ The number of pledged national convention delegates is determined by the number of SDEs won, however, a candidate must get at least 15% of the total vote to get statewide and district delegates or at least 15% of the vote in a congressional district to get district delegates from that district. Each precinct has a certain number of SDEs and allocates them based on how many caucus goers there are for each candidate at that precinct. However, the caucus's allocation is preliminary and gets finally decided on district and state conventions, with only candidates still running during the state convention considered for statewide delegates. Yet, differing from this Buttigieg and Sanders actually retained at least a few of their statewide delegates.
  2. ↑ Originally placed fourth with 6 delegates. 8 of the 12 statewide delegates initially awarded to Buttigieg (2), Sanders (3) and Warren (3), who had withdrawn in the meantime, had to be reallocated to Biden as the sole remaining viable contender and were added to his own 2 statewide delegates at the state convention on June 13.
  3. ↑ Original winner with 14 delegates. Due to his withdrawal in March, 2 of the 5 statewide delegates mathematically won by Buttigieg were reallocated to Biden at the state convention on June 13.
  4. ↑ Original runner-up with 12 delegates. Due to his withdrawal in April, 3 of the 4 statewide delegates mathematically won by Sanders were reallocated to Biden at the state convention on June 13.
  5. ↑ Originally placed third with 8 delegates. Due to her withdrawal in March, all of the 3 statewide delegates mathematically won by Warren were reallocated to Biden at the state convention on June 13.
  6. ↑ Falling short of 15% on state level and in three of four districts, Klobuchar only surpassed the threshold in one district and won 1 delegate there.