The campaigns for Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg each requested full recounts of 63 Iowa caucus precincts, according to the Iowa Democratic Party.

Sanders, a U.S. Senator for Vermont, requested a recount for 10 precincts; Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, asked for a recount of of 54 precincts. One precinct was duplicated.

The party will respond to the requests within 48 hours of receiving the recount requests. Party officials will give an estimated time to complete the recount if the requests are deemed valid.

The two candidates are virtually tied in state delegate equivalents, the traditional measure of victory in the caucus, although a recount of presidential preference cards filed by caucusgoers could change that. Under current reporting, Buttigieg holds a 14-12 lead over Sanders in national delegates from Iowa.

Buttigieg said he was seeking "to protect our historic victory" with a recount, according to the letter requesting a recount. He is the first openly gay presidential candidate to win delegates from a primary state. The letter states that the two recount requests "could be dispositive of at least one" national delegate. Party rules specify that recount requests must include evidence that it could affect the allocation of one or more national delegate to be honored.

"We know that you are eager to turn to the next steps of this process ..." the letter states. "We too are ready to look to the future. But we have an obligation to our supporters to protect the historic victory that they earned."

In its recount request, the Sanders campaign identifies about 1.7 state delegate equivalents at stake in the precincts it wants recounted. The recount could give him a clean sweep of caucusgoers and national delegates.

"We now believe a recount will give Sen. Sanders enough State Delegate Equivalents to put him over the top by that metric as well. We want to thank the people of Iowa, our supporters, our volunteers and everyone who made this possible," Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement announcing the recount request.

The audits follows a disastrous, delayed caucus results reporting process, after which campaigns headed to New Hampshire without knowing even preliminary Iowa results. A software app for reporting results malfunctioned, and the backup phone hotline turned into a bottleneck plagued with pranksters, reporters and precinct chairs alike.

The Des Moines Register and other media found errors and inconsistencies in the caucus data released by the party in the week following the caucuses.

The Associated Press has not called a winner in the Iowa race.

Iowa has 41 national delegates, and the Sanders and Buttigieg campaigns are tussling over two of them. They will be among the 4,000 delegates to the Democratic National Convention that will formally vote this summer to declare the party's presidential nominee.

Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.