US: Sanders claims Iowa victory with incomplete results

WASHINGTON

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses Thursday as the possibility that final results will officially be announced has been cast into doubt.

Sanders laid into the state Democratic party, telling supporters in New Hampshire, the site of next week's second contest in the Democratic primary season, that his announcement should have occurred three nights ago "but for the inability of the Iowa Democratic Party to count votes in a timely fashion."

"That screw-up has been extremely unfair to the people of Iowa. It has been unfair to the candidates, all of the candidates, and all of their supporters," Sanders said.

"What I want to do today, three days late, is thank the people of Iowa for the very strong victory they gave us at the Iowa caucuses on Monday night."

"Even though the vote tabulations have been extremely slow we are now at a point with some 97% of the precincts reporting where our campaign is winning the popular initial vote by some 6,000 votes.

In other words, some 6,000 more Iowans came out on caucus night to support our candidacy than the candidacy of anyone else," he said, adding that after what is known as realignment he is ahead by 2,500 votes.

Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg are locked in a dead heat for first place, separated by less than 0.1%, an echo of the 2016 election when Sanders narrowly lost to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the state contest.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren trails far behind followed by former Vice President Joe Biden with the state party reporting 97% of state precincts.

While neither Warren nor Biden are likely to take the lead at this point, it is too close to call who will emerge victorious if final results are officially announced.

But even as the Iowa Democratic Party prepares to finalize its results, the New York Times reported significant and plentiful errors have been detected in the results that have so far been announced.

Shortly after the report was published, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called on the state party to immediately review the beleaguered vote "in order to assure public confidence in the results," saying "enough is enough."

Democratic candidates will next compete in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.