Review Shrinks Clinton's Iowa Victory Margin

Hillary Clinton's razor-thin margin of victory in Iowa just shrank even more. The Iowa Democratic Party says that after reviewing the counts from 14 of the 1,681 Democratic precincts, errors were found in five precincts that cut her lead over Bernie Sanders from 0.27% to 0.25%, Politico reports. The party, which reports results in state delegate equivalents instead of head counts, says the precinct review resulted in small increases for Sanders in three counties, for Clinton in one county, and for Martin O'Malley in one county. The party has declined to release the raw vote count, so it isn't clear which candidate won the popular vote, the Des Moines Register reports.

The lack of clarity has caused some to label the result a fiasco, with a Register op-ed calling for changes in the process and warning that the party's refusal "to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy." Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire says the errors only affect five out of 11,000 county convention delegates. She says the party is "proud of the more than 171,000 Iowa Democrats who came out to caucus on Monday night" and has formed a committee to "ensure we can improve on our caucus process while preserving what makes it special." The Sanders campaign, meanwhile, has launched a review of its own. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)