‘The Majority’ of Iowa Caucus Results Will Be Released This Afternoon: Live Updates

That’s because in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton edged out Mr. Sanders in the state delegate count by a quarter of a percentage point, earning roughly 700 to Mr. Sanders’s 697. That meant 23 national delegates for Mrs. Clinton and 21 for Mr. Sanders — an inconsequential difference between the two rivals.

Mr. Sanders’s 2016 campaign fought for an audit in Iowa — comparing the reported results with the papers on which caucus leaders had recorded voters’ preferences — and accused the state Democratic Party of a lack of transparency.

Largely because of Mr. Sanders’s objections, the party decided to release additional numbers in 2020 that it had always logged but never made public: the number of supporters each candidate had in the first round of voting and the number he or she had in the second round, after nonviable candidates were eliminated and caucusgoers realigned.

The idea was that all this data would provide a fuller picture of each candidate’s strength. But it also made reporting the results more complicated. Read more here.

Iowa’s senators and governors defend state’s role in nominating process.

In a joint statement released Tuesday morning, Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa and the state’s governor, Kim Reynolds, defended the Iowa caucuses, saying they were confident the results would ultimately be tallied.

“Iowa’s unique role encourages a grass roots nominating process that empowers everyday Americans, not Washington insiders or powerful billionaires,” they said. “The face-to-face retail politics nature of Iowa’s caucus system also encourages dialogue between candidates and voters that makes our presidential candidates accountable for the positions they take and the records they hold.”

They also defended the state’s position at the start of the nominating calendar.

“Iowa’s large population of independent voters and its practice of careful deliberation contributes greatly to the national presidential primary and makes it the ideal state to kick off the nominating process,” they said. “Iowans and all Americans should know we have complete confidence that every last vote will be counted and every last voice will be heard.”

Maggie Astor, Peter Baker, Alexander Burns, Nick Corasaniti, Sydney Ember, Reid J. Epstein, Sheera Frenkel, Shane Goldmacher, Christine Hauser, Astead W. Herndon, Nicole Perlroth, Jonathan Martin, Jennifer Medina and Matt Stevens contributed reporting.