Stepping onto the stage, presidential candidates were ready to have one last hoorah as they celebrated their victories on Monday night in Iowa. But the state where they have spent the last year campaigning in let them down. They were unable to celebrate their victories because there was none. Iowa had failed to present the data collected in time, sending the candidates to New Hampshire unsure of where they stand. 

This chaos didn’t stop the candidates from addressing their supporters. “From our indications, it’s going to be close, we are going to walk out of here with our share of delegates,” Joe Biden said. “We don’t know exactly where it is yet, but we feel good about where we are.”

Amy Klobuchar also spoke with high hopes. “We know there are delays, but we know one thing: we are punching above our weight. We are feeling so good tonight.”

But where did these delays come from? A smartphone app, designed by Shadown Inc., did not run as smoothly as planned. The app struggled to transmit the caucus results from the precincts to the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP). Precinct leaders who have trouble connecting and even downloading the app had another option: using one of the three numbers to call the IDP  hotlines. And to add to the chaos, those lines got overloaded.

Yet, some precincts had no trouble submitting their results. Those results weren’t released to the public. The IDP made a statement at 10:36 p.m., which stated they found three inconsistencies in three sets of results, inconsistencies that will take time to fix. Another setback they didn’t need.

With this chaos affecting the entire country, the future of the Iowa caucuses remains unclear. Many Democratic figures believe that Iowa is not deserving of being first, and the fiasco of this caucus is only more supporting evidence. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate Minority Whip, believes that the Iowa caucus has passed its time. “The Democratic caucus is a quirky, quaint tradition that should come to an end,” Durbin said.

Former presidential candidate Julián Castro also spoke out against the Iowa caucus. “Tonight it has become clear that this Iowa caucus has been a total mess, a complete failure,” Castro said. “The fact is that we still don’t have reliable final results.” Before the debacle, Iowa was already facing issues with people believing the first in the nation spot should go to a more diverse state.

While some results are told be to be released at 4 p.m. today, all we can do is sit back and watch, letting everything fall into place.

And we wait.