U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders declared victory in the Iowa caucus Thursday based on total supporters. The senator's announcement came "three days late" because of a "screw up" by the Iowa Democratic Party, he said.

Sanders pointed to the "decisive" lead he held, as of Thursday afternoon, in first-alignment support. In Iowa's Democratic caucus system, caucusgoers get to declare their preferences twice, in a first and final alignment.

With about 97% of precincts reporting, Sanders led former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg by about 6,000 people in the first alignment of caucusgoers, about a 3 percentage-point lead. In the second and final alignment, Sanders' also had a lead, though it narrowed to about 2,500 supporters, or about a 1.5 percentage point lead.

However, due to the intricacies of the Electoral College-style caucus system, Buttigieg still held a slight lead in state delegate equivalents, at 550 to Sanders' 547, giving Buttigieg a 0.1 percentage point lead. As of Thursday afternoon, the two Democratic presidential candidates were tied with 11 national delegates each to the Democratic National Convention, where the nomination will be formally made.

"Some 6,000 more Iowans came out on caucus night to support our candidacy than the candidacy of anyone else," Sanders said in a streamed news conference from New Hampshire. "And when 6,000 more people come out for you in an election than your nearest opponent, we here in northern New England call that a victory."

Sanders predicted Iowa delegate equivalents — the metric used by the state party and most media, including the Des Moines Register, to declare victory — may show himself or Buttigieg with a slight edge when all precincts are counted. But he predicted the number of national delegates will remain tied. The state delegate equivalents do not affect the number of national delegates, he said.

► Iowa Caucus results: ​​​County-by-county breakdown

► Iowa Caucus results: ​Democratic results and alignment tallies

"In an election with voter turnout of approximately 180,000 people, and with eight strong candidates competing, a victory margin of some 6,000 votes is pretty decisive," Sanders said, before thanking the "unprecedented grassroots effort" boosting his campaign.

He also chastised the Iowa Democratic Party for a slow tabulation of results, an unnecessarily complicated process, and a reliance on "untested technology." The party delayed its results Monday night, forcing the campaigns to end their Iowa efforts with questions marks as they decamped for New Hampshire. Buttigieg still gave a semblance of a victory speech caucus night, while Sanders told nearly 600 supporters he had "a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa."

Three days later and people are still awaiting official results while the chair of the Democratic National Committee is calling for a complete recanvassing of results.

Sanders didn't explicitly endorse the recount, but joked sarcastically, "given the fact that we have waited three days, and now there's a talk of another recount, we might want the decisions of the Iowa caucus before the November election."

"I really do feel bad for the people of Iowa, because I have been all over the state, as you well know," Sanders said in New Hampshire. "... these are serious people who are trying to do the best they can in determining who the best candidate for president is.

"I think what has happened with the Iowa Democratic Party is an outrage. That they were that unprepared, that they put forth such a complicated process, relied on untested technology, and also, to be honest with you, they have relied on thousands of volunteers — good people, who then have to get up and go to work the next day — to do what is enormously complicated. I think there is very little doubt that what happened on Monday night, that type of process, that complicated process, that is never ever, I don't think, ever going to happen again."

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.