US: DNC chair calls on Iowa to review caucus results

WASHINGTON Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez called for a recanvass Thursday after significant errors were detected in the long-delayed Iowa caucus results. "Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass," Perez wrote on Twitter. His tweet came after the New York Times reported significant and plentiful errors detected in caucus results that have so far been announced. The errors are so significant that they raise questions about whether final results will ever be released, according to the newspaper, which said the state party has so far failed to fully verify results before publicly releasing them. "Just about every election night includes reporting errors. They can be difficult to identify, but can often be corrected during a recount or a postelection canvass," the Times wrote. "This year’s Iowa caucuses are the reverse: Errors are now easy to identify, and hard to correct." Vermont Senator Bernie 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 Iowa Democratic 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.