Pete Buttigieg held a steady lead in the delegate race and Bernie Sanders maintained his edge in the popular vote Wednesday as the latest badly delayed results trickled in from the disastrous Iowa Democratic caucuses.
Nearly three days after Iowa Democrats gathered, the new vote counts showed little change from earlier vote dumps, solidifying both candidates' narrow leads in various metrics.
With 92% of precincts reporting as of 10 p.m. EST Wednesday, Buttigieg held 26.5% of so-called state delegate equivalents compared to 25.6% for Sanders. Elizabeth Warren remained in third place with 18.3%, followed by Joe Biden with 15.9% and Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 12.1%.
Sanders kept up his lead in the popular vote, besting Buttigieg by 3 points in voters' first choices and a much tighter margin after voters for lesser candidates were allowed to change their preference.
Both leading candidates are seen as scooping at least 11 of Iowa's 41 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Warren is expected to get five delegates and Biden's numbers are unclear due to rules requiring candidates to clear a hurdle of at least 15% to get any delegates.
Analysts say the remaining votes do not appear to be in dramatically different areas in the state than those that have been released so far, suggesting there will be no major surprises in the remaining precincts that remain outstanding.
Democratic officials blame the results-reporting debacle on an app that apparently malfunctioned.
The Iowa Democratic Party has yet to fully explain why it has taken so long to tabulate the votes and election officials have offered no timetable for releasing the outstanding results.
While the Iowa results continue to trickle in, the Democratic presidential candidates are currently campaigning in New Hampshire ahead of the primary next Tuesday. Six candidates from January's debate plus Andrew Yang have qualified for the New Hampshire debate on Friday: Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Warren and Steyer.
