She won all six of the coin tosses. The odds against winning six out of six coin flips are 64-to-1 against, or 1.56 percent.
The Des Moines Register explains that one of the coin tosses came from precinct 2-4 in Ames, where “60 caucus participants apparently disappeared from the proceedings.”
The Register quotes caucus participant and Iowa State University professor David Schewingruber, a Sanders supporter, on how it went down:
A total of 484 eligible caucus attendees were initially recorded at the site. But when each candidate’s preference group was counted, Clinton had 240 supporters, Sanders had 179 and Martin O’Malley had five (causing him to be declared non-viable).
Those figures add up to just 424 participants, leaving 60 apparently missing. When those numbers were plugged into the formula that determines delegate allocations, Clinton received four delegates and Sanders received three — leaving one delegate unassigned.
Unable to account for that numerical discrepancy and the orphan delegate it produced, the Sanders campaign challenged the results and precinct leaders called a Democratic Party hot line set up to advise on such situations.
Party officials recommended they settle the dispute with a coin toss.
A Clinton supporter correctly called “heads” on a quarter flipped in the air, and Clinton received a fifth delegate.
The same thing happened at precincts in Des Moines, Newton, West Branch, and Davenport.
The coin tosses gave Clinton a technical delegate victory in Iowa, although it’s hard to call it a win.
