Iowa caucuses: When Hillary won delegates by toss

Des Moines (Iowa), Feb 2: In some Democratic caucus precincts in Iowa on Monday, delegates were awarded with a coin toss and it went to Hillary Clinton's favour, said a Des Moines Register report.

One of the incidents happened in precinct 2-4 in Ames where supporters of Hillary and Bernie Sanders disputed the results after 60 attendees apparently vanished.

A coin was tossed as a result and the former secretary of state got an additional delegate which means she had five of the precinct's eight delegates while Sanders had three, the report said.

There were in all 484 eligible caucus participants were initially present at the venue. But when the preference group was counted, Hillary had 240 supporters while Sanders had 179 and Martin O'Malley five.

But it meant only 424 participants were counted and 60 remained missing. One the figures were counted for allocating delegates, Clinton received four delegates and Sanders three. One delegate remained unassigned.

Unable to resolve the situation, the Sanders campaign challenged the results and when the Democratic Party officials were consulted to find a settlement, they advised a toss which was subsequently won by a Hillary supporter who called "heads", the report said.

Similar situations were also reported from two other precincts Des Moines, Newton, West Branch and Davenport and in all cases, the coin spoke in Hillary's favour.

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