Bernie Sanders himself has been vague about his expectations about the Iowa results moving forward. | Getty Sanders prepares for possible challenge to Iowa caucus results The Vermont senator's campaign is reviewing numbers from each of the state's 1,681 precincts.

DURHAM, N.H. — Bernie Sanders’ campaign is laying the groundwork for what could be a challenge to the Iowa Democratic caucus results, a step that could lead to a divisive and drawn-out dispute with Hillary Clinton.

The campaign has committed roughly 10 core staff members and volunteers, based in Sanders’ Des Moines headquarters and in locations across Iowa, to calling the campaign’s precinct captains from each of the state’s 1,681 precincts to make sure their results matched up with the official reported numbers.


After meeting with the leadership of the Iowa Democratic Party in Des Moines on Wednesday, the Sanders campaign is now reaching out to some of Martin O’Malley’s precinct captains to double check whether their tallies were the same as the state party’s results.

The extensive review of precinct results comes on the heels of Monday’s outcome in which Hillary Clinton was declared the winner in the closest contest in caucus history.

“We’re going precinct to precinct across the state to individually check the results with our precinct captains,” confirmed Sanders’ Iowa communications director, Rania Batrice. “We’re hoping to know more within several days."

At the end of the process, said Batrice, the campaign plans to reassess and determine how to proceed.

The painstaking precinct-by-precinct canvas — which is a long shot to change the top-line result — is an outgrowth of the Sanders’ camp’s repeated questions about the reporting process for the caucus results — questions the campaign raised before the caucuses. While his team has been careful not to allege any outright foul play, the campaign put a spotlight on the Microsoft software used to report the results and then — on caucus night — suggested to reporters that 90 precincts hadn’t properly reported their numbers.

The swirling questions surrounding the results came to the forefront after The Des Moines Register’s editorial board — which had endorsed Clinton — called for an audit of the results from the state party on Thursday.

“What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy,” the editorial read. “The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

But Iowa Democratic Party press secretary Sam Lau said a recount is not as simple as it sounds, a sentiment echoed by party chair Andy McGuire in a Register op-ed on Thursday. McGuire served as co-chair of the Clinton campaign in Iowa in 2008.

"The Iowa Democratic Caucuses are not a primary — they are the first step in a representative delegate selection process. County delegates are awarded based on Democrats who came to the caucuses on Monday who aligned and then realigned — sometimes for a different candidate than they initially supported. People physically aligned in groups. There are no paper ballots to recount. Monday’s caucuses were a unique event that involved more than 171,000 Iowans and their neighbors at a specific time and place, and thus they cannot be re-created or recounted,” Lau explained in a statement.

“That being said, we are working with all campaigns on individual concerns they are bringing to us, and addressing them on a case-by-case basis. Just yesterday, we met with the Sanders campaign who brought us a small amount of specific concerns and work with our county party leadership on any questions."

Clinton’s team is also taking a look at the results, said state director Matt Paul.

"We are proud of the support Secretary Clinton received from tens of thousands of Iowans to win the Iowa caucus. There have been a handful of instances — similar to issues raised in every previous caucus — where our reporting shows Secretary Clinton should have been awarded more delegates and we will continue to resolve them with the Iowa Democratic Party but none would alter the result of the caucus,” he explained in a statement.

"Whether it's with the Iowa caucus or endorsements, this continues to fit an unfortunate pattern of the Sanders campaign to disparage results that don't come out in their favor."

Sanders himself has been vague about his expectations about the Iowa results moving forward. In the days leading up to the contest, the Vermont senator said he would not be bothered by a tight loss to Clinton but on Tuesday, when asked if he planned to contest the results, Sanders told NBC’s Matt Lauer, “We’re looking at it right now.”

His national press secretary, Symone Sanders, told MSNBC on Thursday that “the senator has noted that he was thinking about, yes, talking about an audit."

Batrice said no such plans were being discussed yet, and that they would be considered only once the campaign had all the results in front of them — a scenario suggesting that the process could drag on, in an echo of Republican vote-counting saga of 2012 between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, when Romney was declared the victor on caucus night only to see Santorum named the official winner weeks later.

