Updated Feb 23, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Buttigieg campaign claims Nevada caucuses were "plagued with errors"

Jacob Knutson

Former mayor Pete Buttigieg — Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Pete Buttigieg's campaign wrote a letter on Sunday asking the Nevada State Democratic Party to release early vote and in-person vote totals by precinct and address certain caucus errors identified by campaigns, The Nevada Independent reports.

The big picture: The campaign alleges that the process of integrating early votes on caucus day was “plagued with errors and inconsistencies,” and says it received more than 200 incident reports from precincts around the state.

With around 60% of precincts reported early Sunday morning, Bernie Sanders leads with 46.0%. Joe Biden and Buttigieg follow at 19.6% and 15.3%, respectively, according to the New York Times.
The campaign seems to acknowledge in the letter that Sanders' lead is insurmountable and is asking the party to take these steps for the sake of accurately determining who came in second place.

What they're saying: “Currently our data shows that this is a razor thin margin for second place in Nevada, and due to irregularities and a number of unresolved questions we have raised with the Nevada Democratic Party, it’s unclear what the final results will be,” Hari Sevugan, Buttigieg’s deputy campaign manager, said in a statement.

Party spokeswoman Molly Forgey responded Sunday that the party is continuing to verify and report results: "We never indicated we would release a separate breakdown of early vote and in-person attendees by precinct and will not change our reporting process now. As laid out in our recount guidance, there is a formal method for requesting a challenge of results."

Read the letter.

Go deeper: How 2020 candidates reacted to Bernie Sanders' Nevada victory

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Buttigieg campaign claims Nevada caucuses were "plagued with errors"

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