The chair of Iowa's Dubuque County Democrats said he was "blown away" by the low turnout at the county's caucus Monday night.
"We were blown away by the fact that we did not have the turnout that we expected," said Steve Drahozal, chair of the Dubuque County Democrats, on the local NBC affiliate KWQC. "We had expected higher numbers."
KWQC correspondent Brian Tabick reported that just 217 people caucused at a local high school in Dubuque, an Iowa city with a population of approximately 57,000. Attendants, the correspondent said, "were expecting a much higher turnout" than they got.
"If we wanted to, we could all sit in this corner," said one bearded caucus-goer in a "Bernie 2020" shirt.
Drahozal told KWQC that he went to rural parts of the county to get voters to come to the caucus because getting a high turnout is "key" after the 2016 election. The ultimate turnout was "a little bit higher ... than 2016," Drahozal said.
The results from the Iowa caucuses are expected at some point Tuesday, following a significant delay due to what state Democratic officials are calling technical issues.