As we wait for 2020 Iowa Democratic caucus results, here’s what we know so far

The first nom­i­nat­ing event in the 2020 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial con­test is offi­cial­ly under­way. Demo­c­ra­t­ic vot­ers and activists in the Hawk­eye State are meet­ing in school gym­na­si­ums and cafe­te­rias to express their sup­port for a bevy of pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates, from Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden to Eliz­a­beth War­ren and Pete Buttigieg to Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang.

The Iowa Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has still not yet released any offi­cial results (to the annoy­ance of the mass media), but social media is full of unof­fi­cial reports from jour­nal­ists and par­tic­i­pants report­ing on their expe­ri­ence at their cau­cus site.

Here are some of the unof­fi­cial reports we’ve seen:

And here’s a snip­pet from the Des Moines Reg­is­ter’s live update chronol­o­gy:

When an Iowa cau­cus del­e­gate count gets too close to call — get a coin. That’s what hap­pened at a rur­al precinct in Iowa Falls on Mon­day evening dur­ing a tight cau­cus count between Sen­a­tors Amy Klobuchar and Eliz­a­beth Warren.

Six­ty-two peo­ple were in atten­dance, accord­ing to Sara Bara­nows­ki, edi­tor of the Iowa Falls Times-Cit­i­zen. The via­bil­i­ty thresh­old to obtain del­e­gates in that loca­tion was 10.

Klobuchar of Min­neso­ta took an ear­ly lead with 19 sup­port­ers as her rivals strug­gled to keep pace. But War­ren of Mass­a­chu­setts was able col­lect 19 sup­port­ers of her own.

Klobuchar won the coin toss to win four del­e­gates, while War­ren got three, along with for­mer South Bend, Indi­ana, May­or Pete Buttigieg — despite him hav­ing five few­er sup­port­ers. For­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden earned the remain­ing two.

Anoth­er coin toss was nec­es­sary for a del­e­gate in Ocheyedan. Klobuchar was again a win­ner. Although Pete Buttigieg edged out Klobuchar in a third coin toss.

- Phillip Bailey

Once the Iowa Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty gets its act togeth­er and starts releas­ing num­bers, we will update this post with our assess­ment of the results.