Live coverage of the Iowa caucuses: First votes of the 2020 presidential election
The first votes in the 2020 presidential election race were cast today, but the process used to count them quickly descended into farce.
After almost a year of build-up and relentless campaigning, the first votes in the 2020 presidential election race were cast today - but the process used to count them descended into an "unbelievable" farce.
The Iowa caucuses were the first chance for Democratic voters to officially have their say on who they wanted to represent them as their party's nominee against Donald Trump at the general election in November. Other caucuses and primaries in America's 49 other states will follow in the coming months.
The results in Iowa usually set the tone for the rest of the primaries and start to determine which of the leading candidates are most viable.
This time though, nothing went as planned. Technical problems and confusion over the accuracy of the vote count caused a huge delay in reporting results, and as evening gradually turned to late night and early morning, no official results were confirmed.
The Iowa Democratic Party now reportedly hopes to have the results "some time on Tuesday", which is tomorrow, Australian time.
The bungled process has been derided as a "train wreck" by Donald Trump's re-election campaign, a "total mess" by one former Democratic candidate, "unbelievable" by one of the party's current contenders, and "ridiculous" by political journalists.
Read on for a breakdown of all the news as it unfolded.
Originally published as Live coverage of the Iowa caucuses: First votes of the 2020 presidential election