And like some others in iowa, hes questioning the way final Democratic Caucus results are posted. Patrick our precinct went for sanders. Otos precinct, the paper work was filled out showing that they went for sanders. And yet, s sehow, the democraticic partys reporting it for clinton. Tim Keane Schwartz served as captain for that oto precinct, precinct 43. He was the only voter to participate and aligned with Bernie Sanders. But the state party results show the precinct being won by Hillary Clinton. Keane and im the only one on a sheet of paper, very clearly filled out for this candidate, with no opposition and it gets, you become a hillary delegate. Tim precinct 40 and 43 are 2 of 6 held at river valley high school. Schwartz, west and fellow precinct cocaptain steven eitzen all say caucus night was a night of disorganization. Steven there wasnt a lot of discussion. There was, i mean at the end there was. But during the process, we were just sitting there. Patrick we went in there, it lots of tables, no direction, just have a seat where ever you want. Tim but afterwards, eitzen mentioned, mass confusion concerning a potential 99 tie between clinton and sanders. The men say ththprecincts lone omalley supuprter offered to switch support to clinton, forcing a deadlock. But that person left the caucus prematurely. Patrick you cant have votes that way. Its just not reasonable. I wanted her to have her opinion, i wanted her to have her vote. But if shes already left the building, and we cant confirm it . It cant be counted. Steven never was there an announcement that some candidates were unviable. And there was a realignment period, that they could d align to other groups. Im in the end, the captains signed off on a 98 win for sanders. But the state democratic tally shows woodbury county, precinct awarded to clinton by that same total. Monday marked all 3 mens first caucus experience. Changes in the iowa system, but plan to participate again. Keane there needs to be more people that need to step forward and question and make those numbers more available. Patrick it fit at a time when it was just a bunch of old men smoking cigarsrsdrinking whiskey and arguininall night. It doesnt fit with modern lifestyles at all. Amanda alright, we are joined now by sam lau, Communications Director with the Iowa Democratic party. Sam, first of all, thanks for being here. Sam thank you for having me. Amanda now tim, the reporter who did this story did request to see documents related to these precincts reporting. And heres the statement that we got from your chairwoman, dr. Andy mcguire. She said quote, the iow Democatic Party has released our final results. Any concerns we will look in to at the local level and with the parties involved. Reporting sheets are internal party documents. Again sam, i know this has been, maybe a busier than expected week for you. First of all, lets talk about this. Is there anything you can elaborate on . Are you guys aware of these discrepancies that are out there . Them and as our chair said, we are looking in to these on a case by case basis. There have been a very small number of concerns flagged to us by the Sanders Campaign. But also by the Clinton Campaign. Amanda mmhmm. Sam and so, right now, were in the process. Were going to look at them on a case by case basis. Talk to our Party Leaders on the ground. Amanda ok, and when you guys are analyzing the data that you get from your research and these investigations, i guess, that youre doing. Can you share this information publicly . Will the results that you find be made known . Sam i mean, if we see that there was a data reporting error, of course. We want the correct county Convention Delegates to go to our county conventions. The precinct caucuses are really just the first step in our county, in our caucus to convention process. So our county Convention Delegates will then have a caucus where they will then select district and state Convention Delegates. And eventually, thats who gets to elect national conventon delegates to go to philadelphia. Amanda yeah, its not exactly the easiest process for a lot of people to understand. But there is a process in place, none the less. Sam there is. Amanda now, chairwoman andy in the Des Moines Register about this. Sam mmhmm. Amanda saying people who are asking for a recount out there dont exactly understand the process, at least on the democratic side. So can you explain to the people who are saying we want a recount, why it is that you cant really do that . Sam yeah and actually chair mcguire was here in these studios and i know she worked with one of you colleagues, sabrina. You had Army Soldiers out here and we were moving them around. And thats because on caucus night, people move to a corner of the room for their candidate and then often times they have to realign. If they didnt get enough support. Amanda mmhmm. Sam and then youre, this is happening in a very dynamic atmosphere. People are having conversations with each other, deciding where or not to stand in the room. We had more than 171,000 democrats come out on caucus night in nearly 1,700 locations. To do a recount, you cant recreate exactly what happened on caucus night. Amanda exactly, so lets talk about some of the precinct locations. Weve heard that maybe they were understaffed or that the volunteers who were supposed to be running those precincts maybe didnt know exactly what they were supposed to be doing. Sam well look, caucuses are volunteer run. We have nearly 1,700 locations and we conducted extensive trainings all across the state. In fact, cspan filmed one of them, its about 2 and a half hours long. If you want to watch the full thing. Amanda oh riveting, im sure. laughter sam yeah, so, you know, we are always looking at what happened. What can we do better next time . Its in that same process that this year, we launched 2 of our expansion efforts. The satellite caucuses and the telephone caucuses, which allowed people like members of the military who werent in iowa. Amanda mmhmm. Sam as well as people who couldnt get to the caucuses, such as seniors in nursing homes. The ability to caucus for the first time, where they wouldnt be able to in the past. So, we are always looking at what went right, what went wrong and looking to see how we can continue to make the caucuses better while perserving what makes them unique and special. Amanda and i know you used the Microsoft App this year sam absolutely, yeah. Amanda to get to the results. Sam mmhmm. Amanda you have other precincts who are calling in with their results. Is this, i want to talk about transparency for a second. Are these things that can be made public . That people can actually call up say i want to see the results from this precin . Sam well amanda and the paperwork that was also filed . Sam i mean, our results from every single precinct are on our website right now. And you can see that, and you know the Microsoft App was great this year. It worked incredibly well and i hope we continue advancing on that typ technology. Because it worked really smoothly. Amanda mmhmm. Sam so, our results are on our website and in fact, i mean, you were there. You saw them coming live as they were announced on caucus night. Amanda right. Sam so, you know, our results are out there and weve put them on our website. And were really excited. Amanda i talked to some one with the Bernie Sanders campaign, their iowa Communications Director. And she said they want to actually take the paperwork that was filed at precincts, report it to, and compare that to the results that were actually filed. So, as far as the paperwork is concerned, is that internal only or is that some thing that we have access to . Sam were working with the Sanders Campaign, as well as the Clinton Campaign on their concerns on a case by case basis. And that involves reaching out to the Party Leaders who are on the ground. Reaching out to the chairs who sure that we do have the results cause like i said, we want the correct county Convention Delegates going on. But you know, we have been working with the campaigns on that on a case by case basis. Amanda ok, so as far as the transparency is concerned, do you let the public in on the process thats taking place . If you are working with the Sanders Campaign, for example, on any sort of comparison with precincts . Between results and the those precincts . Sam well, you see there is, people filed their results via the app. They called in via phone and then there were worksheets that they worked on there. Amanda right. Sam and so, were working with the Sanders Campaign on concerns that they have. And you know, if for example, there is a change that needs to be made, of course. We want to correct county delegates to go to their convention. But once again, county Convention Delegates are worth fractions. Fractions of state delegate equivalents and so were of course working with all of the campaigns, if they have concerns. And were working with our Party Leaders to help resolve those. Amanda and all of this, of course, stems from the great turn out and because of how close this race was. Sam mmhmm. Worse, is maybe bringing a lot of these issues to light. So let me ask you if you think the process needs to change . Because iowa is certainly going to be a target of criticism. Sam well, youre right. It was a historicly close caucus between incredible candidates. I think it shows how fired up democrats were and how great our candidates were that we had so many people come out for both of those candidates. You know, like i said, we are always looking at ways to improve and its through that same process, from critisms that weve heard in the past. That we got to the telecaucus this year and the satellite caucus and the microsoft reporting app. So that process is going to take place, it was always gonna take place. And so, we will look at, like i said, some things that we thought went really well. Some things maybe we can improve on and make those changes as we see fit. Amanda well of course, being first in the nation is very important to a lot of people in this state. Do you think this will jeopardize that status at all . Sam you know, i think that we had a historically close election. That was preceded by a historically close election. Amanda yeah, true. Sam i think in some ways, i because you know, there were heavy favorites in both of those times and you want to know what . Iowans made the final call. To talk to them one on one, they had to travel all across our state. I think it was democracy in action and so, you know, lightning apparently does strike twice with close elections here in iowa. laughter sam but i dont think thats something against iowa, i think thats something for iowa. Amanda right, right. Sam, thank you so much for being here today. I know its been an incredibly busy week and youre exhausted. So, i appreciate your time. Sam thank you for having me, amanda. Amanda alright, coming up next on our show here music amanda our conversation continues with the Des Moines Registers opinion editor, lynn hicks. What he has to say about what music amanda welcome back. The Des Moines Register opinion team is blasting the democrats in an editorial out this week entitled something smells in the democrcric party. And heres an excerpt, quote, once again the world is laughing at iowa. We can take ribbing over our quirky process, but what we cant stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error. What happened monday night at the Democratic Caucuses waa democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure, but the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy. Joining us now is lynn hicks, hes the opinion editor for the Des Moines Register and it was that team of people who wrote this editorial. Lynn, thanks for being here. Lynn thank you. Amanda first of all, why did you think that issues from monday night on the democratic side rose to such a level of concern that it was worth writing this editorial . Lynn well, your own program contained some of those questions. And we felt that all the reports that we were hearing. Things that i observed, other members of the Editorial Board observed, our reporters observed, um, all called for a deeper look at what happpped. Amanda mmhmm. L ln and we felt that the results were so close and there were so many questions out there that why not sit down with and as possible. To discuss and go over the results and audit the results. Amanda now you guys are actually calling for a complete audit of the results. You heard what sam had to say from the Iowa Democratic party, who was just on our show and what andy mcguire has had to say. That may be impossible to do, so is that an acceptable answer . Lynn well, we never used the word recount a a i realize that do what some consider a full recount would be impossible. To try to get people back in a room. Amanda right. Lynn but t fact is, there are supposed to be documents out there that exist. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn now, we dont know where those are and we dont have access to them. But we know there are documents that exist that show, that the precinct chairs write down the number of people for each candidate. And then do their calculations to determine the delegates. And that is one thininthat the Sanders Campaign has asked for. Weve asked for r formation like that. Weve asked for information regarding the coin flips. Part of our editorial. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn and the coin flips have been over blown, as far as their effect on the results. But its the totality of all of these concerns and why we feel that there needs to be more information to check the results. Amanda let me ask you, in your opinion, or maybe the opinion of your board and other people on your staff. What went wrong on caucus night . L ln well, what appeararto us is that t t party was unprepared and we, you know, saw the long lines of people. We saw lots of confusion about where people were supposed to go. I was at a location where you had republicans from one precinct, democrats from 2 precincts all in the same area, next door. People were getting in line in the wrong place. They had only a couple of volunteers who could help people. There wewe a lot of new registrants, t ty were having to go off to the side. Editorial Board Members attended, they ran out of registration forms. They were just using random sheets of paper. And then, in my caucus location, they got started 50 minutes late. And so, there were so many and there were so many other cases that youve heard out there. That it just feels like they were unprepared. Now were not criticising the volunteers, a lot of people stepped up. They worked hard, they did what they could. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn but it didnt feel like and what would have e ppened if it was 2008 and 240,000 people would have shown up . This was 171,000 and so it did not look, in our eyes, that the party was prepared for this. Amanda mmhmm. Im gonna have you sit tight, because we want to move on to the republican race and talk to you about that a little bit. Which was also not with out some criticism from your Editorial Board this week. On friday, an editorial came out critical of the way ted cruz campaigned in the final days before the caucuses. Calling him out for a misleading mailer that was sent to voters suppororrs about a ben carsoso departure from t race. When carson, in fact, did not drop out. So, what is your take on these candidates attempts to do these things in the final hours leading up to the caucuses . Lynn you know, we nt to see this as part of the Iowa Caucuses and we felt like, that those tactics and they werent just, you know, we could say that people coming in to iowa and iowa values. But there were some iowans who were part of that. Amanda yeah. Lynn including our former secretary of state and steve kingngid not help things by retweeting and suggesting that carson was dropping out of the race. Amanda mmhmm. Lynn so, people know better and thats what we were saying. Amanda alright lynn, thanks so much for your time. Lynn thank you. Amanda appreciate you being here. music amanda coming up next music ted god bless the great state of iowa. cheering amanda our local 5 analyst Steffen Schmidt joins us to talk about the republican race and who has the momentum now heading in to New Hampshire. Its all coming up when we come music amanda welcome back everyone to this week in iowa. Im amanda krenz. We spent the first part of the show talking about the democrats in large part. Now, we do wananto talk more about the republicans. We heard lynn hicks from the register talk about issues that he had with ted cruzs campaign tactics. Well, other candidates apparently feel that same way. Donald trump took to twitter to accuse cruz of fraud by implying ben carson was dropping out to get more evangelical support. Cruz fired back, saying trump is just being a sore loser. Ted the American People are not interested in this circus sideshow of insults. You know, my girls are 5 and 7 and i gotta tell you caroline and catherine are better behaved than a president ial candidate who responds by insulting everyone every day when he loses. Amanda alright, heres dr. Steffen schmidt with us now. What do you think . Does that hurt cruz . Just so much back and forth, is he being a sore loser . Sffen i think it hurts both. I think were tired of whiners. Everybody is whining about everything and everything being done badly. And i think the American Public would like