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Iowans react to delays: ‘I think it’s a shame’

Some Iowans expressed frustration on Tuesday that the state Democratic party had bungled its moment in the national spotlight after the party delayed releasing the results of the caucuses because of a technical glitch.



“I think it’s a shame. Everybody’s got their eye on Iowa to be first and then they got everything all screwed up,” said Joe Pendergrass, 52, as he waited for the bus in the East Village neighborhood of Des Moines. Pendergrass likened the episode to the 2000 Florida election debacle and said it might be a similar case where no one would ever be certain who had won.



As the country waited for the Iowa Democratic party to release partial caucus results on Tuesday, Des Moines was cold and quiet. Many of the candidates left in the early hours Tuesday morning to go directly to New Hampshire, which will hold its primary on 11 February. Reporters left for the airport to leave Des Moines, which has been jam-packed the last few days. In RAYGUN, a store that sells tongue-in-cheek goods, some people were stocking up on last-minute souvenirs of their time here.



Taking a cigarette break downtown, Scott Day, 28, said he was surprised the party had botched the results.



“I think it was actually pretty dumb. They’ve done it for so many years and accurately gotten a result after that,” he said.



Eating lunch at a food court, another woman, who declined to give her name, said she wasn’t surprised the new technology Democrats were using had caused a snafu. The entire episode, she said, was “kind of funny”.



“If I was a Democrat it would probably bother me,” she added.

