“State parties don’t have the capacity to run a 21st century election,” said David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. “I’m sure everyone worked hard, but it’s just not a good idea.”

Even the results that Iowa Democrats have released are “riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws,” according to a New York Times investigation.

“More than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses,” according to the analysis posted by our Upshot colleagues today.

Mr. Price has offered an apology and promised a full independent investigation. But he has given no real explanation for what went wrong.

Candidates are getting fed up with the uncertainty.

“That screw-up has been extremely unfair to the people of Iowa, it has been unfair to the candidates, all of the candidates, and all of their supporters,” Mr. Sanders said at a news conference today.

He’s right: The delay had a real impact on the dynamics of the race. The importance of Iowa stems from the momentum it can lend a candidate. Both Pete Buttigieg and Mr. Sanders, the two top finishers, lost some of theirs in the morass of mismanagement.

But the fallout will last far past 2020. Already, officials in Illinois, Michigan and other states have barely suppressed their glee at the idea of jumping to the front of the primary calendar. How Iowa Democrats handle the next steps will affect their already-diminishing chances of keeping their first-in-the-nation voting status.