Bernie Sanders has not conceded the Iowa caucuses, and with good reason.
Newly updated totals released by the Iowa Democratic Party today show Sanders continues to gain om Hillary Clinton.
From The Hill:
The Iowa Democratic Party on Sunday updated the results of the Iowa caucuses after discovering discrepancies in the tallies at five precincts, but the final outcome remains unchanged.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton still places first in the caucuses with 700.47 state delegate equivalents, or 49.84 percent, the party said in a statement.
Primary rival Bernie Sanders comes in second with 696.92 state delegate equivalents, or 49.59 percent.
The total net change gives Sanders an additional 0.1053 state delegate equivalents and strips Clinton of 0.122 state delegate equivalents.
Despite what the article says, the final result in Iowa is a long way off. Iowa has a multi-tiered caucus system, and what you saw on February 1 was only the first tier--what are known as precinct caucuses. Still to come are the county conventions (March 12), the Congressional district conventions (April 30), and finally the state convention on June 18.
Dedication matters in this process. Results at each successive level could change depending on how many Clinton and Sanders delegates elected at the previous level bother to show up. For example, in 2012 Ron Paul and his smallish band of highly committed fanatics actually won a supermajority in the final tier after finishing third at the precinct level. From Wikipedia:
This [multi-tiered] process rewarded campaign organizations that could not only get supporters to the caucus sites, but get supporters who would be willing to serve as delegates to county conventions and beyond. As a result, Ron Paul was ultimately able to win 22 of the 28 delegates to the national convention and Mitt Romney won the other six.
The 2016 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses are a long way from over. With the contest so close, conceding at this early stage would be ill-advised.
