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Iowa Republicans highlight results reporting system for Jan. 15 caucuses [1]
['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- January']
Date: 2024-01-04
The Republican Party of Iowa showcased its caucus night reporting system in a call with reporters Thursday as the party prepares to hold the first-in-the-nation contest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Jan. 15.
Patrick Stewart, who helped the Iowa GOP with developing the vote reporting and recording system, said presidential preference expression at Iowa GOP caucuses will be submitted and recorded through a web-based application. Precinct chairs those designated to report results will be able to access the app by phone or computer across Iowa’s more than 1,600 caucus locations.
Verified results will be reported on the Republican Party of Iowa’s website.
There will be a three-stage process for submitting and recording results using the app, Stewart said. The volunteers recording presidential preference results will have to log in to report results, he said, and only have access to their precinct sites. The results then go through an internal verification process, before becoming available in the public reporting phase.
Iowa GOP staff will compare the results submitted by precinct reporters with historical data from previous caucuses as well as candidates’ expected performance to determine if the results submitted are accurate, or if a state party staff member needs to reach out to the precinct chair or designated reporter who submitted the results.
“We are going through and manually checking each precinct by hand,” Stewart said. “We have dedicated staff members that will be using the application and are familiar with the process to go through and check those results by hand one by one. Again, the reason for that is an entirely … volunteer-run and party run election. We want to make sure that those volunteers, what they enter is correct and that we don’t report anything that has been erroneously reported out.”
Iowa has traditionally kicked off the presidential nominating process for both Democrats and Republicans. But this year, only Iowa Republicans will hold their presidential caucus before other state contests, as the Democratic National Committee reorganized the nominating calendar last year. Iowa Democrats will still hold precinct caucuses Jan. 15, 2024 alongside Republicans, but no expression of presidential preference will take place at the in-person events.
Iowa Democrats have moved to a mail-in caucus system through presidential preference cards. Results will be released March 5, on “Super Tuesday.” The change to Iowa Democrats’ caucus structure — as well as the DNC decision to kick Iowa from its leading spot, came following major problems reporting results in the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses using an app developed by Shadow Inc.
Iowa Republicans have said they have worked for months to ensure their party caucuses do not suffer from the same reporting problems. Republican Party of Iowa chair Jeff Kaufmann said in September that the party’s results will be both reported quickly and easily audited.
“We do not want delays, and we want to be as quick and accurate as possible,” Kaufmann said during an Iowa Press interview.
Stewart said precinct chairs and results reporters who will be using the app have received training on how to use the reporting system.
“The volunteers have received training over the past couple of months from state party staff on the system,” Stewart said. “We have done multiple test runs with them, as well as had trainings involved with them, to show them not only logging in, setting up their accounts, but also using the system across the caucus night.”
Iowa GOP staff also clarified that while they plan to report precinct caucus results, the state party will not declare an official winner of the Iowa GOP caucuses. Caucus results will be used to determine the allocation of Iowa’s 4o delegates at the July 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Iowans interested in participating in the 2024 Republican caucuses can find their precinct location using the state party’s website. In order to participate, Iowans must be registered Republican voters to caucus, and can register to vote or register with the party on caucus night by bringing a valid form of identification and proof of residence.
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https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/01/04/iowa-republicans-highlight-results-reporting-system-for-jan-15-caucuses/
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