Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton picked up a handful of delegates via coin toss in the razor-thin contest against Sen. Bernard Sanders in the Iowa caucuses Monday night.
Mrs. Clinton was awarded an additional delegate at an Ames precinct as a result of a coin toss after some 60 caucus attendees appeared to go missing, the Des Moines Register reported. Similar situations were reported at a handful of other precincts, with Mrs. Clinton winning each coin toss.
The state Democratic Party released a statement early Tuesday saying that Mrs. Clinton had won 699.57 state delegate equivalents to Mr. Sanders’ 695.49 delegate equivalents, with one precinct outstanding worth 2.28 delegates.
The Register reported that the delegates awarded via coin toss were to the party’s county conventions, not the statewide delegate equivalents seen in the reported results. The county-level delegates comprise a tiny fraction of the final tally, so they likely had a small effect on the final outcome despite the close overall race.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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