Hillary Clinton's narrow win in Iowa became even smaller on Sunday after the Iowa Democratic Party said it found errors in the count from five precincts.
After auditing the counts from 14 of the 1,681 Democratic precincts in Iowa, the party found errors in five precincts that reduced Clinton's delegate lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders from 0.27 percent to 0.25 percent, reported Politico.
The Iowa Democratic Party, which reports results in state delegate equivalents (SDEs) rather than head counts, said Sunday that the updated results show Clinton winning with 700.47 SDEs to Sanders' 696.92 SDEs. In terms of percentage of caucus-goers, that's equivalent to 49.84 percent to 49.59 percent, according to The Hill.
The recount resulted in Clinton losing 0.122 SDEs, Sanders gaining 0.1053 SDEs and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who dropped out of the race after the caucuses, gaining 0.0167.
Sanders' increase came due to mistakes found in precincts in Marion, Woodbury and Poweshiek counties, Clinton's from a problem found in a precinct in Story County and O'Malley's from errors in Osceola County, reports CNN.
"I am extremely proud of the collaborative relationship we have with all parties involved, and together we have made updates at five precincts, affecting only five county convention delegates out of more than 11,000 elected on Caucus night," state party Chairman Andy McGuire said in a statement. "I would like to thank the campaigns and local party leadership for working so hard on caucus night and in the following days to ensure that our results are accurate."
In response to reports of missing votes and general disorder in some precincts on caucus night, McGuire said the party will review its procedures and improve in future elections.
"After every caucus, the party goes through a self-examination process to discuss what went right, and what can be improved upon," McGuire said in the statement. "This process will continue this year, and in conjunction with our State Central Committee, our partners and our allies, I will convene a committee to ensure we can improve upon our caucus process while preserving what makes it special."
The party still refuses to release the raw vote count as requested by Sanders and the Des Moines Register, making it difficult to determine which candidate won the popular vote, according to Newser.
