There’s something rotten in the state of Iowa. We may all wish to believe that some sort of technical glitch created our current situation, but I believe the reality is that certain members of the Iowa Democratic Party are engaging in a concerted effort to suppress the vote for Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. I do not reach this conclusion lightly. But the evidence increasingly points to the IDP having selectively released the Iowa caucus results to create the public perception that Pete Buttigieg and his campaign have won the state caucuses, thus minimizing Bernie Sanders potential fundraising and polling bump that usually follows an Iowa caucus win.

The remaining precincts that have yet to report are areas that went strongly for Bernie in 2016, and from initial reports, were going overwhelmingly for Bernie this year. The missing precincts are primarily located in Polk County and Blackhawk County. The Blackhawk County Supervisor recently posted this to his Facebook page:

x

He includes the following results from his County:

1. Sanders 2,149 votes 155 County Delegates

2. Buttigieg 1,578 votes 111 County Delegates.

3. Warren 1,244 votes, 87 County Delegates.

4. Biden 986 votes, 85 County Delegates.

5. Klobuchar 862 votes, 55 County Delegates.

6. Yang 33 Votes, 4 County Delegates

7. Steyer 27 votes, 4 Delegates.

According to Schwartz, all the county results were provided to the IDP over 24 hours ago. As of 2:30 pm YESTERDAY, February 4, ALL physical ballots are now with the Polk County Dem HQs, and the IDP have been at the Polk County Dem HQ since 10:30 am.

x WeÃ¢ÂÂve had the state party at our @polkdems HQ since 10:30 this morning. All of the results from all 177 of our precincts have been provided to them as of 2:30.



Thank you to all 177 of our precinct chairs for getting every physical copy turned in in record time.#iacaucus pic.twitter.com/9cqRcg6tpz Ã¢ÂÂ Sean Bagniewski (@bagniewski) February 4, 2020

Yet, we’re still missing large chunks of precincts from Polk County. When asked why the IDP hasn’t reported the results, the Polk County Chair responded:

x No idea. The IDP had a copy of every precinct as of 230 this afternoon. Not a single question or comment from them since Ã¢ÂÂ Sean Bagniewski (@bagniewski) February 5, 2020

“NOT A SINGLE QUESTION OR COMMENT FROM THEM SINCE” The IDP has also failed to report the results from the satellite precincts, despite those caucuses being held earlier in the day on February 2.

It’s not just the County Chairs screaming bloody murder. It’s starting to become painfully obvious to political insiders:

x Initially wasnÃ¢ÂÂt inclined to believe the Iowa dem party deliberately sabotaged #caucus numbers to sandbag @BernieSanders. But day 3, the party is still at 71% results? WTF? This is moving well past Ã¢ÂÂinnocent mistakes with the appÃ¢ÂÂ and into something deliberate + disgusting. Ã¢ÂÂ David Shuster (@DavidShuster) February 5, 2020

This has moved past the point of “innocent mistake” and appears like a concerted effort to suppress the enthusiasm of the Sanders campaign by selectively leaking incomplete precinct results that appear to show Pete Buttigieg leading the Iowa caucus.

Update:

x There will be a minor correction to the last batch of results and we will be pushing an update momentarily. Ã¢ÂÂ Iowa Democrats (@iowademocrats) February 5, 2020

x The state party is now being forced to walk back their error of giving @BernieSanders delegates to @DevalPatrick who received zero votes in Black Hawk County. Press can dm me. https://t.co/yaS8pXvYM7 Ã¢ÂÂ Chris Schwartz (@SchwartzForIowa) February 5, 2020

You can flag this for CT all you want, but it’s a very, very reasonable position to hold at this point, and supported by mounting evidence.