Trump claimed victory at the Democratic caucuses in Iowa
REUTERS
Rebecca Speare-Cole4 February 2020

Donald Trump has branded the Democrats' efforts to pick a candidate to challenge him at the 2020 US Presidential election "an unmitigated disaster".

But, the voting was soon thrown into chaos as the results were delayed for hours while the state’s party carried out “quality checks”.

Mr Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday that he won a "big victory" in Iowa as he slammed the event.

He wrote: "The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran the Country. Remember the 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare Website, that should have cost 2% of that.

"The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is “Trump”."

Earlier he also wrote: "Big WIN for us in Iowa tonight. Thank you!"

While there are also Republican caucuses on Monday, with Joe Walsh and Bill Weld running against Mr Trump, the president's popularity within his own party is such that his nomination is all but a formality.

In Iowa, voters poured into more than 1,600 schools, community centres and other public locations in the first state to choose a November election challenger.

The Iowa state party said it was doing "quality checks" on the results and found "inconsistencies in the reporting" of the data from the caucus sites.

The Democratic candidates are still waiting for the results in Iowa
Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

Party officials voiced confidence in their ability to ensure accurate results, citing a paper trail to validate the votes.

"In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report," state party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said.

"This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion," she said, adding the underlying data and paper trail were sound.

Members of the media work during a primary debate in Iowa
AFP via Getty Images

Iowa voters were meeting to render judgment on a field of 11 Democratic contenders led by front-runners Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Vice President Joe Biden, who have battled for the top in recent Iowa opinion polls.

Long lines and heavy crowds were reported in some locations, but doors to the caucus sites closed and the process began at 7pm local time, 1am UK time on Tuesday.

Rural Iowa is the first test in the state-by-state battle to pick a Democratic nominee to face Mr Trump in the November 3 election.

Elizabeth Warren at a caucus night rally in Iowa
Getty Images

After more than a year of campaigning and more than $800 million in spending, the results in Iowa will begin to provide answers for a party desperately trying to figure out how to beat the businessman-turned-president.

With no results to celebrate or mourn, the candidates spun their own upbeat view of the outcome.

The Sanders campaign released what it said were its internal numbers collected at 40 per cent of precincts, showing him in first, ahead of Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and a trailing Mr Biden in fourth place.

"I have a strong feeling that at some point the results will be announced, and when those results are announced I have a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa," Mr Sanders told cheering supporters.

Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters at a caucus night campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa
AP

Meanwhile Mr Buttigieg told his supporters in Iowa that "we don't know the results" but was looking ahead to the next contest on Feb. 11 in New Hampshire.

"By all indications, we are going to New Hampshire victorious," he said.

Republican Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager, called it a "Democratic Party meltdown," on Twitter. "

They can't even run the caucus and they want to run the government. No thank you."

But Republicans in Iowa have their own history of chaos. On the night of the party's 2012 caucuses, Mitt Romney was declared to have won by eight votes.

But the party said two weeks later that Rick Santorum was the actual winner by a 34-vote margin. Romney went on to be the nominee.

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