Morgan Gstalter

mgstalter@dmreg.com

After a long day of recounts, the results of Saturday's Democratic convention in Polk County will be debated at the congressional district level.

Following almost 11 grueling hours of counts and debate, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will have 115 delegates and Bernie Sanders will have 113 delegates from Polk County at the district convention at the end of April.

Conventions in both parties in all 99 Iowa counties Saturday followed the high-profile precinct caucuses in February, which began the months-long formal process of identifying the state's delegates to the national party convention this summer — and whom those delegates will support for the presidential nomination.

Clinton won a narrow victory in the caucuses, and although she holds a considerable lead over Sanders among national delegates who will decide the nomination, the candidates' campaigns had an interest in attempting to secure their slate of delegates in Iowa. In 2008, campaign staff for Clinton and Barack Obama sought to increase turnout to county conventions and sway delegates for John Edwards, who had quit the presidential race after a strong finish in Iowa.

The Polk convention began smoothly Saturday morning, with some delegates arriving at Valley High School in West Des Moines as early as 8 a.m. Following the first count, Polk County officials received a complaint from the Clinton campaign about the numbers of delegates, said Tom Henderson, Polk County Democrats chairman. Officials conducted a "credential check" and found discrepancies in the number of delegates for both Sanders and Clinton, Henderson said. The credential check process took two hours to complete.

The groups divided during a realignment period, where both camps caucused for former candidate Martin O'Malley's eight delegates. The numbers changed again as the hours wore on, and many delegates ended up leaving the convention, Henderson said.

"Both camps complained about having people leave," he said. "But it's amazing how few people actually left."

When the final count of the 228 delegates viable for the 3rd District convention — 115 for Clinton, 113 for Sanders — was read, the room erupted into angry chants and boos, some even calling for the Polk County officials to resign.

"It's not uncommon to have inaccurate numbers floating around in a convention because we're not all together," Henderson said.

While delegate conventions often are a long, tedious process, some delegates were disappointed with how all participants were handling the delays.

"I think the older people here realize the importance of coming together," delegate Brett Wilcots said. "I fear they will pick up the ball and the bat and just go home and not play the game … I was a election judge in Cook County (in Illinois) for 20 years. Tonight felt like a general election night … it felt like a filibuster."

Delegate Sheena Thomas said she has been a delegate several times before but had never seen anything like this before.

"The process we witnessed today is not worthy of Polk County Democrats," delegate Jon Neiderbach said of the convention.

The delegates will have the option to contest the results of Saturday's convention when they represent their respective candidates at the district convention.