LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The final results for Saturday’s caucus are in. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was the winner by a long shot, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden in second place and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg finishing third.
Buttigieg is questioning the results.
The I-Team talked with a Nevada State Democratic Party leader about how the caucus unfolded and the outcome.
The state party had to switch plans in less than three weeks after the app they planned on using failed in the Iowa caucus.
The caucus was finished by Saturday afternoon, and results were slowly released.
By Monday, they were all in.
“We took our time to go through ’em, and that’s what the voters deserve, and that’s what the campaigns deserve, accuracy,” said state party Chairman William McCurdy II.
The campaign for former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is questioning the results and sent a letter to the state party, asking for the release of early vote and in-person totals per precinct. They seek to correct any alignment errors and explain results that appear to not look quite right.
The I-Team asked if the state party will release the raw results if anyone calls for that, like Buttigieg. McCurdy said:
“If there is, again, if there are any questions with the numbers that we have submitted, I believe that there is a process to have those seen by the campaign, yeah.”
When asked if they are prepared to show them, McCurdy stated they are ready to respond to a request, whatever it may be.
This means the Buttigieg campaign hasn’t formally asked for a recount. McCurdy also said it’s the only campaign to question the results.
This was the first year early voting was offered in the history of a caucus, and according to the state party, about 75,000 Nevadans early voted. About 30,000 showed up to caucus Saturday.
The I-Team asked if there were any hiccups.
“… You know what? I think that with the plans that we had in place, the redundancies that we had to make sure that we executed a successful caucus, I think that things went really well,” said McCurdy.
A discussion now for Nevada Democrats is if the state should move to a primary instead of a caucus.
Several high-profile lawmakers have expressed for that. Former Senator Harry Reid said Nevada should move to a primary, and it should be the first state to weigh in, not just an early state.