Caucus Update : "Math is Hard" edition
Feb. 4th, 2012 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23This week, Matt Strawn stepped down as the head of the Iowa Republican Party.
While the Iowa GOP is arguably stronger than when Strawn took over (as he says it is), Strawn's legacy will be the clusterf*ck known as the 2012 caucus.
To review, the timeline went something like this: On Caucus night, Strawn announces Romney has won the caucus by eight votes. Two days later, a Ron Paul supporter says he saw a discrepancy between what was reported to the state GOP and what he wrote down to post on his Facebook. So, we were told to wait until the votes were certified.
When the votes were certified, the totals indicated that Santorum had won by 34 votes, but Strawn announced that Santorum could not be declared the winner, essentially naming Romney the winner of an election in which he got the second most votes. Strawn gave in to pressure (as there would be) to name Santorum the actual winner. It was during this time, that we found out eight precincts in five counties had not gotten their forms in (Not that it made much difference, they would have actually increased Santorum's lead to 69 votes).
That will be Strawn's legacy. I don't think it will cause Iowa to lose it's first in the nation status. However, it's a solid red mark against the Hawkeye State and it's misunderstood-as-it-is process.
The Des Moines Register broke down what happened in the four counties.
Emmet County- 1 precinct-28 votes- The County chairman's uncle passed away and so she had a volunteer mail the paperwork in, while she left town. The county chairman suggests taking a picture of the Form E and e-mailing it. She also suggests that this incident will scare away potential workers- the caucus is dependent on volunteers in the first place.
Pocahontas County- 1 precint 17 votes- Santorum and Perry campaign representatives oversaw the voting. However, at the end of the night, the chairman didn't get one of the forms back. He wouldn't name who was the precinct committee-person who didn't get the form back.
Franklin County- 1precinct 19 votes- the Chairwoman swore she sent all the forms in, but she didn't doublecheck. She admits the state could have lost it, but she takes full responsibility.
Cerro Gordo County- 1 precinct 22 votes- The chairman said he double checked everything, saved copies, and it's likely that a page slipped out when the State GOP opened it.
Lee County- 4 precincts, 182 votes- The chairman doesn't know what happens, refusing to blame the volunteers who are people he "go(es) to church with and go(e) fishing with." A college poli-sci class watched over the night. The chairman did discover the form was missing on caucus night, but found it dishonest to write something up himself.
A solution for 2016 has been found. You see everything that gets filled out on Caucus night is filled out in triplicate (with carbon copies). Everything that is, except for the actual sheet where you write down the votes. That sheet is just a white piece of paper- not yellow or pink or anything out of the ordinary. Make the Form E to be filled in triplicate. Problem solved.
Then again, why not make the whole thing electronic. The Ames Straw Poll does that, and it counted 17,000 votes in less than a hour. The Iowa caucus total votes are ten times bigger, but totals weren't tallied into way into the early morning of the next day.
While the Iowa GOP is arguably stronger than when Strawn took over (as he says it is), Strawn's legacy will be the clusterf*ck known as the 2012 caucus.
To review, the timeline went something like this: On Caucus night, Strawn announces Romney has won the caucus by eight votes. Two days later, a Ron Paul supporter says he saw a discrepancy between what was reported to the state GOP and what he wrote down to post on his Facebook. So, we were told to wait until the votes were certified.
When the votes were certified, the totals indicated that Santorum had won by 34 votes, but Strawn announced that Santorum could not be declared the winner, essentially naming Romney the winner of an election in which he got the second most votes. Strawn gave in to pressure (as there would be) to name Santorum the actual winner. It was during this time, that we found out eight precincts in five counties had not gotten their forms in (Not that it made much difference, they would have actually increased Santorum's lead to 69 votes).
That will be Strawn's legacy. I don't think it will cause Iowa to lose it's first in the nation status. However, it's a solid red mark against the Hawkeye State and it's misunderstood-as-it-is process.
The Des Moines Register broke down what happened in the four counties.
Emmet County- 1 precinct-28 votes- The County chairman's uncle passed away and so she had a volunteer mail the paperwork in, while she left town. The county chairman suggests taking a picture of the Form E and e-mailing it. She also suggests that this incident will scare away potential workers- the caucus is dependent on volunteers in the first place.
Pocahontas County- 1 precint 17 votes- Santorum and Perry campaign representatives oversaw the voting. However, at the end of the night, the chairman didn't get one of the forms back. He wouldn't name who was the precinct committee-person who didn't get the form back.
Franklin County- 1precinct 19 votes- the Chairwoman swore she sent all the forms in, but she didn't doublecheck. She admits the state could have lost it, but she takes full responsibility.
Cerro Gordo County- 1 precinct 22 votes- The chairman said he double checked everything, saved copies, and it's likely that a page slipped out when the State GOP opened it.
Lee County- 4 precincts, 182 votes- The chairman doesn't know what happens, refusing to blame the volunteers who are people he "go(es) to church with and go(e) fishing with." A college poli-sci class watched over the night. The chairman did discover the form was missing on caucus night, but found it dishonest to write something up himself.
A solution for 2016 has been found. You see everything that gets filled out on Caucus night is filled out in triplicate (with carbon copies). Everything that is, except for the actual sheet where you write down the votes. That sheet is just a white piece of paper- not yellow or pink or anything out of the ordinary. Make the Form E to be filled in triplicate. Problem solved.
Then again, why not make the whole thing electronic. The Ames Straw Poll does that, and it counted 17,000 votes in less than a hour. The Iowa caucus total votes are ten times bigger, but totals weren't tallied into way into the early morning of the next day.
