Iowa Democrats release some results

UPDATE: Early caucus returns from the Iowa Democratic Party showed former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg leading the delegate race with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont a close second. Buttigieg garnered 26.9 percent of the vote, while Sanders got 25.1 percent with 62 percent of precincts reporting. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota rounded out the field with 18.3, 15.6, and 12.6 percent, respectively. The party released partial results Tuesday afternoon after candidates waited with anticipation for answers they expected the night before. Technical difficulties with an app used to file vote totals delayed the results.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (10:13 a.m.): Democratic officials delayed releasing the Iowa caucus results Monday night, creating frustration and confusion among the presidential candidates. This year, the party promised to release three different data points about voters’ preferences, including their first picks and then the final reshuffling. But coding problems with a new mobile app used to report results to the party led to data inconsistencies, Democratic officials said. The party said hacking did not affect the results or cause the delay.

Where does the delay leave candidates? Multiple Democratic candidates claimed a strong finish in the Hawkeye State, but the delay means that the party is still without clarity in a contest that lacks a clear front-runner. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he believed his campaign did “very, very well here in Iowa.” Meanwhile, former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg was the most optimistic, telling supporters that “by all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.” President Donald Trump, who easily won the state’s Republican caucuses, called the night “an unmitigated disaster” for Democrats. State party officials say they plan to release the results later Tuesday.

Dig deeper: According to the votes counted so far, Sanders, Buttigieg, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts were in the top three spots, but the results are far from final. Watch the returns on RealClearPolitics.