Iowa Democrats, GOP planning joint caucus reporting effort

JOHNSTON - Iowa's major political parties will soon announce a joint effort to improve the timeliness, accuracy and transparency of caucus results.

'It's electronic and wonderful and I think you will really think it's very accurate, it's very timely,” Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire said Friday, 'and certainly will be good for both parties.”

She and Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann were guests on Iowa Public Television's Iowa Press, where they said the effort will show that the parties can work together. It also 'will make it impossible to make an argument that we shouldn't be first-in-the-nation,” Kaufmann added.

'Absolutely,” added McGuire. 'That's what this is all about - that we have accurate results, we have timely results.”

Iowa Press will air at 7:30 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday on IPTV, at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV World and will be available at www.iptv.org this evening.

In 2012, the Iowa GOP on caucus night announced Mitt Romney as the winner. After the caucus results were certified two weeks later, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had more votes than Romney, who went on to win the nomination.

McGuire pointed out Democrats have not had a similar problem, but agreed that the joint effort will help assure observers of the integrity of the process.

'We're going to reach out to wherever we can to get some help with these particular problems,” Kaufmann said when asked about the possibility of corporate partners.

McGuire and Kaufmann said any problems associated with the caucuses are neither Democratic nor Republican because Iowa's first-in-the-nation status rises and falls on the combined success of the caucuses.