Iowa parties are cooperating to get it right on caucus night

Running Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses always has been a big responsibility, but perhaps never so much as this year.

We're talking about Democrats and Republicans, professionals and volunteers, who will be in charge of making sure what happens in nearly 1,700 precinct caucuses is reported swiftly and accurately across Iowa, the nation and globe.

Rarely has results reporting been scrutinized as it will be on caucus night 2016. That's because of the debacle of 2012, when state Republican officials declared Mitt Romney a stunning eight-vote caucus winner only to declare more than two weeks later that Rick Santorum had won by 34 votes. Mistaken, missing and mishandled vote tallies tainted the results. Of all the external threats to Iowa's presidential status, none did as much damage as that internal misfire.

Gov. Terry Branstad is taking heat for breaking his caucus neutrality pledge in defense or ethanol, but another botched result is a far larger threat to caucus integrity.

The good news is Republican and Democratic leaders in Iowa have shown they understand what's at stake. And they've closely cooperated to put in place systems, safeguards and training to avoid another high-profile embarrassment.

The parties have partnered with Microsoft to develop a phone and tablet-based reporting app that will be used by precinct captains to report preference vote results on the Republican side and delegate equivalent totals for Democrats. Not only will the system streamline reporting, it's designed to catch reporting errors. For example, if a precinct with 50 voters reports 500 votes, that entry will be flagged for review.

The parties have trained hundreds of Iowans to use the new system, while retaining a traditional telephone call-in system as a backup. Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann told us caucus results will be certified within 48 hours this year, rather than two weeks.

Democrats will be breaking new ground by holding a 'tele-cacucus” for Iowans serving in the military or who are unable to attend a caucus in person for a variety of reasons.

Of course, even the best planned systems can have glitches. But we're comforted by the attention to detail and commitment to training by both parties. Republicans and Democrats appear to know what's at stake and are determined to get it right.

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