Iowa: Voter fraud isn’t a problem, county auditor says | TheGazette

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller feels as strongly about preventing voter fraud as Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who has made it his top priority. Where they part company, however, is that Miller believes current registration and election laws have prevented voter fraud problems, while Schultz is convinced that if he keeps “turning over every stone” he’ll find fraud. So far Schultz, a first-term Republican, hasn’t found any cases of voter fraud. Miller’s not surprised. “Where’s your poster child, Matt?” the Democrat asked. If Schultz can find a person who is committing fraud by voting as someone else, Miller added, “I’ll be right there with him.” Through 30 Linn County elections since he took office, Miller has never received a report of someone voting at the polls as anyone other than himself or herself. “I’ve asked my peers and they can’t come up with an example of an impostor either,” he said. “I think he’s trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Iowa: Secretary of State seeks to prove voter fraud | Sioux City Journal

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz’s push to uncover voter fraud has yet to lead to any criminal charges, but he says investigators still are looking into suspected instances of double-voting and non-citizens casting ballots. Schultz, a Republican serving his first term as the state’s top elections official, has made it his top priority to persuade lawmakers to pass a law requiring voters to show identification at the polls. He says doing so would prevent what he calls cheating. But critics, including the Democratic Party of Iowa, have said the state runs clean elections and the identification requirement would disenfranchise voters. Many local elections officials say fraud is not a problem. Against that backdrop, Schultz has promised in recent months that investigations by his office would prove his assertions. He told the Iowa Republican, an online news site, on Feb. 29: “We will be showing that there are cases of voter fraud in Iowa.” At a Republican Party dinner in May, he told activists he was “turning over every stone.” “I can tell you that, very soon, a clear message will be sent that you can’t cheat in Iowa. We are looking at our records,” he said. “I can tell you that we are coming on to something.” But records released by Schultz’s office last week, in response to a request from The Associated Press, show investigators could not find fraud in three cases involving voters whose qualifications were questioned after November’s elections.

Iowa: Few Iowa felons pursue voting rights | Fox News

Republican Gov. Terry Branstad has made Iowa one of the most difficult states in the nation for felons to vote, with an executive order he issued last year already having disenfranchised thousands of people, a review by The Associated Press shows. On the day he took office, Branstad signed an order reversing a six-year policy started under Democrat Tom Vilsack in which felons automatically regained their voting rights once they were discharged from state supervision. The move flew in the face of a nationwide trend to make voting easier for felons, making Iowa one of four states where felons must apply to the governor to have voting rights restored. Branstad’s new process requires applicants to submit a credit report, a provision critics call inappropriate and unique among states. Since then, 8,000 felons in Iowa have finished their prison sentences or been released from community supervision, but less than a dozen have successfully navigated the process of applying to get their citizenship rights back, according to public records obtained by the AP. Branstad’s office has denied a handful of others because of incomplete paperwork or unpaid court costs.

Iowa: GOP Examines What Went Wrong With Caucuses | ABC News

After a late night of vote counting, the Iowa GOP announced Mitt Romney as the caucuses’ tentative winner, having staved off Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes. “The good news is we were able to verify the vote reports tonight,” then-chairman Matt Strawn said at a news conference, noting that Iowa’s 1,774 precincts would have two weeks to certify their vote tallies. Two weeks later, the Iowa GOP announced that Santorum had won by 34 votes.  Eight precincts, meanwhile, could not be certified, and a party official made it clear that the votes would never be counted. A week and a half later, Strawn resigned as party chairman. The Iowa GOP has now set itself to the task of figuring out what happened and how to fix it next time, having formed an Iowa Caucus Review Committee comprised of 17 party members including county chairs, former state-party officials, party activists, volunteers and supporters of multiple presidential campaigns. Next Thursday, the committee will convene its first meeting, where it will hear the first round of reports from subcommittees on vote tabulation, public information and volunteer training.

Iowa: After Iowa, Reliability is Questioned in Caucus System | NYTimes.com

The errors started to emerge even before Mitt Romney was declared the winner of the Iowa caucus by eight votes. By the time the results were certified two weeks later, mistakes had been found in so many districts that the state Republican Party chairman declared that it would be impossible to determine a winner. Critics responded almost immediately with a seemingly obvious assertion: real elections have winners. But even after the party chairman reversed himself and called the race for Rick Santorum, many state leaders justified the confusion in a way that may appear at odds with the level of attention awarded the first-in-the-nation caucus: This was not, in fact, a real election.

Iowa: Matt Strawn resigns as Iowa GOP chair – resignation letter does not mention Iowa caucus results | Politico.com

Matt Strawn, the Iowa GOP chairman who has been embroiled in controversy since the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus results, is resigning, he announced Tuesday. “It is only because the Iowa GOP has returned as a strong and relevant voice in Iowa politics that I am now able to evaluate all the competing priorities in my personal, business and political life. The party is strong and has the resources in place for victory in November,” Strawn said in a statement. “Now is the time to transition to new leadership.” Strawn, who has chaired the state party since 2009, left his post after the Iowa GOP fumbled the results of the caucuses, initially declaring Mitt Romney the 8-vote winner. Two weeks later, on the eve of the South Carolina primary, the party reversed that decision and certified Rick Santorum the winner by 34 votes. The state GOP statement declaring Santorum the winner was released “in order to clarify conflicting reports.”

Iowa: Voter ID bill back with a twist | Quad-City Times

Secretary of State Matt Schultz jumped into one of the most partisan issues in electoral politics last week when he introduced a new voter photo identification bill, but he did so with a key change. Unique to his proposal is the idea that one voter can vouch for another in place of photo identification, something Schultz hopes will blunt criticism of his plan. Indeed, Schultz used the word “bipartisan” no fewer than 14 times during his Statehouse news conference and in answering questions from the media. When pressed, however, he acknowledged that he had bipartisan input, and not necessarily bipartisan support, for his plan.

Iowa: Schultz hopes to blunt voter ID plan criticism | Globe Gazette

Secretary of State Matt Schultz jumped into one of the most partisan issues in electoral politics last week when he introduced a new voter photo identification bill, but he did so with a twist. Unique to his proposal is the idea that one voter can vouch for another in place of photo identification, something Schultz hopes will blunt criticism of his plan. He used the word “bipartisan” no fewer than 14 times during his Statehouse news conference and in answering questions from the media. When pressed, however, he acknowledged that he had bipartisan input, but not necessarily bipartisan support for his plan.

Iowa: Support thin for Iowa voter ID bill | The Des Moines Register

Secretary of State Matt Schultz announced a new plan Thursday for requiring Iowa voters to show a photo ID at the ballot box, but it received a tepid response from legislative leaders. The new legislation is crafted to ensure security at the polls as well as access for voters at risk of being disenfranchised, said Schultz, a Republican. “The real point of this law is to make sure you are who you say you are when you come to vote,” he said, adding, “We’re not trying to disenfranchise or keep people from voting. We want security and integrity in our elections.” As a secretary of state-sponsored bill, the measure will be introduced in both the House and Senate, but lawmakers from both parties and both chambers offered something less than enthusiasm for it.

Iowa: Caucus results may threaten first-in-nation status | Des Moines Register

The winner of the 2012 caucuses, we now know, was Rick Santorum. The loser, it’s becoming clear, was Iowa. The certified results released this week from the nation’s first presidential nominating contest revealed that Mitt Romney’s declared eight-vote victory on caucus night was actually a 34-vote defeat. They revealed that eight voting precincts went missing in action, and their votes will never be counted. And they were accompanied by evolving statements from the Republican Party of Iowa, which, having initially called the race for Romney, first declared this week’s result a “split decision” and only later acknowledged victory for Santorum.

Iowa: Rick Santorum declared Iowa winner | Politico.com

On the eve of the South Carolina primary, ­ Iowa Republicans dealt Mitt Romney’s campaign a blow by formally declaring Rick Santorum the winner of their Jan. 3 caucuses. At 18 minutes before midnight Friday, South Carolina time, the Republican Party of Iowa released a statement revising its Thursday announcement that reported Santorum ahead of Romney but also saying the two-week-old race had no clear winner.

Iowa: The Semantics and Statistics of Santorum’s Win in Iowa | 538/NYTimes.com

Amid the swirl of developments on Thursday came word from the Iowa Republican Party that it had certified the results from the state’s Jan. 3 caucuses — and that Rick Santorum, not Mitt Romney, had gotten more votes. Mr. Santorum received 29,839 votes in the state’s certified tally, 34 more than Mr. Romney, who had 29,805. Iowa Republicans were hesitant to deem Mr. Santorum the winner, however. Early Thursday morning, the state party chairman, Matt Strawn, instead described the result as having been “too close to call.” Later, Mr. Strawn was somewhat clearer. “One thing that is irrefutable is that in these 1,776 certified precincts, the Republican Party was able to certify and report Rick Santorum was the winner of the certified precinct vote total by 34 votes,” he told reporters, He cautioned, however, that there was ambiguity in the outcome because the results from eight other precincts were unaccounted for and had never been certified. How safe is it to assume that Mr. Santorum in fact won? And does any of this matter, other than to historians and data geeks?

Iowa: Who won the Iowa primary – and does it matter from a technical perspective? | Jeremy Epstein/Freedom to Tinker

As Americans know, the 2012 presidential season began “officially” with the Iowa caucuses on January 3. I say “officially”, because caucuses are a strange beast that are a creation of political parties, and not government. Regardless, the Republican results were interesting – out of about 125,000 votes cast, Mitt Romney led by eight votes over Rick Santorum, with other contenders far behind. The “official” results released today show Santorum ahead by 34 votes. However, it’s not so simple as that.

Iowa: Santorum Didn’t Win Iowa By 34 Votes — He Won By 69 | TPM

The Iowa state GOP says their certified results show Rick Santorum winning by a 34-vote margin over Mitt Romney, a reversal of Romney’s reported caucus night lead of 8 votes — but the party has nevertheless called the result a “split decision,” citing the matter of 8 missing precincts. But those precincts aren’treally missing. “I can’t speculate without documentation from the missing eight,” Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn told the Des Moines Register. “The comments I made at 1:30 a.m. Jan. 4 congratulating both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum still apply. I don’t think the certified vote totals take anything away from either Governor Romney or Senator Santorum.”

Iowa: Recount gives Santorum edge in Iowa caucuses | Washington Times

In a stunning turn of events, Rick Santorum now appears to have won the Iowa caucuses, though the state’s Republican Party says there are too many holes in the results for them to ever be able to say for certain. The party, which runs the caucuses, has done a recount since the Jan. 3 voting, and told the Des Moines Register the tally now shows Mr. Santorum up by 34 votes. On caucus night the party said Mitt Romney had won by eight votes. The news dents Mr. Romney’s air of inevitability — he had claimed he’d gone two-for-two in the first nominating contests, and was poised to try to land a knockout punch with a victory in South Carolina’s primary on Saturday. Still, he was claiming a victory of sorts Thursday morning.

Iowa: Recount shows Santorum won in Iowa, but officials call it a tie | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum wound up with a 34-vote lead in the Iowa caucuses, reversing the 8-point margin for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that had been reported in the small hours of the morning of Jan. 4. But Iowa Republican officials are still calling the results a tie, in that the official tallies from eight precincts are still missing from the certified count completed two weeks after the 1,774 precincts reported. Mr. Santorum claimed victory on Twitter. “Thank you Iowa for the win!” read a tweet from the official @RickSantorum account. “I encourage enveryone to join our fight in South Carolina! Game on!”

Iowa: Iowa caucus count unresolved – Santorum finished ahead by 34 votes but 8 precincts’ numbers will never be certified | Des Moines Register

It’s a tie for the ages. There are too many holes in the certified totals from the Iowa caucuses to know for certain who won, but Rick Santorum wound up with a 34-vote advantage. Results from eight precincts are missing — any of which could hold an advantage for Mitt Romney — and will never be recovered and certified, Republican Party of Iowa officials told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday.

Iowa: Did Rick Santorum Win the Iowa Caucuses, Not Mitt Romney? | The Daily Beast

Did Rick Santorum win the Iowa caucus? That’s what it looks like if numbers from a caucus in the town of Moulton, Appanoose County, are correctly counted when the official certification begins Wednesday night. This not only would rewrite the election history of 2012 to date—it would invalidate the oft-repeated line that Mitt Romney is the only candidate to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. It would stop the inevitability narrative in its tracks. This possibility has the Iowa state GOP under new scrutiny as they begin the official certification process, which they have promised to complete by the end of the week. The national media to date has largely dismissed this story—which was first reported by local Des Moines station KCCI—apparently choosing to trust the state GOP’s initial off-the-record assurances that the story had zero credibility.

Iowa: Recount may boost Santorum | Washington Times

This could change the narrative a bit: A recount of the Iowa caucus vote could give the former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum the victory over front-runner Mitt Romney, who eked out an eight-vote win in the initial count. The Iowa Republican Party is in the process of certifying the results of the opening round of the GOP nomination fight, which could end up tweaking the initial storyline and erasing Mr. Romney’s place in the history books as the first non-incumbent to score back-to-back wins in Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Iowa: Did Romney win Iowa’s caucuses? Definitive answer may never come | The Des Moines Register

The waiting game continues for Iowans — and Republican presidential candidates — who want to know if Mitt Romney really won the Iowa caucuses two weeks ago today. Counties have until the close of business Wednesday to get their official paperwork with caucus results to the Republican Party of Iowa, and certification should be wrapped up by the end of this week, party officials said Monday. Even then, it’s possible there will always be a question mark hanging over the race.

Iowa: Final count could show Romney lost Iowa | Washington Examiner

It’s conventional wisdom in Republican circles here in South Carolina that if Mitt Romney wins the state’s primary this Saturday — having already won in Iowa and New Hampshire — he’ll be the GOP presidential nominee. But what if Romney did not actually win Iowa? That could change the calculation considerably. And there is a very real chance that the Republican Party of Iowa will announce this week that Rick Santorum, and not Romney, won the Iowa caucuses. Results released on caucus night — actually, at 2 the next morning — showed Romney won by eight votes, 30,015 to Santorum’s 30,007. Many observers assumed that those results were final, especially when party officials said there would be no recount. But the results were not final.

Iowa: Rick Santorum: I might win Iowa caucuses recount | Politico.com

Rick Santorum says the Iowa caucuses may not be over yet. Eleven days after he was declared a very narrow second place finisher — behind Mitt Romney by just eight votes — the former Pennsylvania senator predicted Saturday at a town hall meeting in here that a recount could put him on top. After a long count that went deep into the night on Jan. 3, Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn announced the results that had Santorum behind Romney. But Santorum says he’s getting the feeling that he may still edge ahead.

Iowa: Vote Result From Disputed Precinct Deemed Official | NYTimes.com

Iowa’s Republican chairman said on Saturday that the vote count from a disputed precinct had been deemed official by the Iowa Republican Party, despite multiple accounts of a vote-counting discrepancy that could potentially have made Rick Santorum the winner of the Iowa caucuses. The disputed precinct is in Appanoose County, which has already submitted its certification forms, the chairman, Matt Strawn, said in a statement to The New York Times.

“Appanoose County has submitted all its required Form E’s for all precincts in Appanoose County,” Mr. Strawn wrote in an e-mail to The Times, referring to the form by which the Republican Party of Iowa certifies its votes on a county-by-county basis. “Now that we have all the county’s forms at Iowa G.O.P. HQ for the two-week certification process, my statement from Thursday night still applies: While we will not comment on specific precinct vote totals during the two-week certification process of 1,774 precincts, the results of the Appanoose County precincts will not change the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.”

Iowa: Voter Casts Doubt on Winner of Caucus | Nate Silver/NYTimes.com

At just before 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn addressed reporters who had spent the night following the historically close Republican caucus race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. The margin separating the candidates was small — eight votes — but he was prepared to declare a victor. “Congratulations to Governor Mitt Romney, the winner of the 2012 Iowa caucuses,” Mr. Strawn said.

Mr. Romney’s victory is unofficial — the counties have up to two weeks from the caucuses to send their final certified results to the state party. However, there is no provision for a recount in the caucuses, and the campaign which might have the most interest in pursuing one — Mr. Santorum’s — is making no effort to challenge the results. Still, given Mr. Romney’s exceptionally small margin of victory, a single discrepancy could potentially reverse the outcome. On Wednesday, a voter in the town of Moulton in Appanoose County, Iowa claimed to have found one.

The voter, Edward True, signed an affidavit which stated that he had helped to count the vote after the caucus at the Garrett Memorial Library in Moulton. Mr. True claims that the results listed on the Google spreadsheet maintained by the Iowa Republican Party differed substantially from the count that had been taken at the caucus site. Mr. Romney had received only two votes in his precinct, Mr. True’s affidavit said, but had been given credit for 22 by the state. That would be enough to flip Mr. Romney’s eight-vote victory into a 12-vote win for Mr. Santorum.

Iowa: Moulton man challenges Iowa caucus results | Des Moines Register

The Republican Party of Iowa says it has no reason to doubt the accuracy of results it reported from the state’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses despite a claim of an error that would change the outcome. The final vote count reported Tuesday gave former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney an eight vote victory over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The Iowa GOP reported Romney edged Santorum in a see-saw battle by 30,015 to 30,007.

Since then, however, a Moulton man has called those results into dispute. Edward L. True has filed a notarized statement claiming Santorum is the real winner and that there was an error in the caucus results from Appanoose County. According to True, the number of votes Romney received from Washington Wells Precinct were inflated by 20 when recorded by the state GOP.

True, who said he hopes the discrepancy is a simple mistake, reportedly helped count the votes and kept a record of the outcome to post to Ron Paul Facebook pages. He said he noticed the error when he looked at the state GOP website.
If his claim is accurate, then Santorum was the winner with 30,007 votes to Romney’s 29,995 rather than 30,015. Late last night, The Gazette received a report of a discrepancy in the vote totals that were reported in the Illyria and Westfield townships in Fayette County. The report could not immediately be verified.

Iowa: Could Typo Rewrite Caucus History? | KCCI Des Moines

Caucus night was chaotic in many places, with hundreds of voters, candidates showing up and the throngs of media who followed. The world’s eyes were on Iowa. But in the quiet town of Moulton, Appanoose County, a caucus of 53 people may just blow up the results.

Edward True, 28, of Moulton, said he helped count the votes and jotted the results down on a piece of paper to post to his Facebook page. He said when he checked to make sure the Republican Party of Iowa got the count right, he said he was shocked to find they hadn’t.

“When Mitt Romney won Iowa by eight votes and I’ve got a 20-vote discrepancy here, that right there says Rick Santorum won Iowa,” True said. “Not Mitt Romney.” True said at his 53-person caucus at the Garrett Memorial Library, Romney received two votes. According to the Iowa Republican Party’s website, True’s precinct cast 22 votes for Romney. “This is huge,” True said. “It essentially changes who won.”

Iowa: Despite Close Finish, No Recount in Iowa | NYTimes.com

It was, perhaps, the closest finish ever between two candidates in a presidential caucus. At just before 3 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party went on television to announce the official result: Mitt Romney had beaten Rick Santorum by eight votes out of 60,022 cast for the two men.

So why no recount?

There is no legal provision for a recount in the Iowa caucuses, and, in fact, no legal need. The Iowa caucus, despite its position at the center of the political universe every four years, is nothing more than a nonbinding preference poll that does not legally determine who gets the state’s 25 delegates to the Republican nominating convention.

Iowa: Iowa GOP officials say there will be no recount if Iowa caucus vote ends ‘too close to call’ | The Washington Post

If the results of the Iowa caucuses are too close to call, they’ll stay that way. Iowa state GOP official Doug Heye said Tuesday there will be no recount, even if Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are exceptionally close when the vote count is finished.

Heye said votes were counted under the supervision of campaign representatives, who certified the totals. He said the numbers were double-checked when they were reported to state officials, and there is no reason to check them again.

Iowa: State GOP Says Voter Fraud Won’t be a Problem | Fox News

Despite the presence of Occupy protestors in Iowa, the Iowa Republican Party is confident voter fraud won’t be a concern Tuesday night at the presidential caucuses. The Iowa GOP sets the rules for voting, and has decided to allow Iowans to register on the day of the election. However, Iowa GOP chair Matt Strawn insists reports are incorrect that voters don’t need a photo ID to register on Tuesday.

“You need to make sure you are a registered Iowa voter in the precinct within which you live. And if you are registered Republican, your name will already be on the pre-provided list at your individual precinct. If you’re not a registered Republican, you can register tonight but you have to show a photo ID proving residence in that precinct in order to participant,” Strawn said.

Same-day registration has raised flags for some that unqualified candidates, like protestors, will disrupt the voting process. Strawn said visitors “are welcome to observe if you are from out of town, but we’re not going to give you a ballot.”

Iowa: Iowa’s Other Peculiar Institution | NYTimes.com

The drill begins at the State Fair. First come the vaguely familiar figures in shirt-sleeves, admiring the sculptured butter cow or beaming at the camera from behind a piglet or a corn dog. Then comes the Ames Straw Poll, that curious non-event, whose winners have included Pat Robertson, Phil Gramm and now Michele Bachmann.

Then come the 99-county bus tours, the so-called debates that can only make the Iowa High School Speech Association cringe, the rediscovery of Grant Wood by reporters who don’t realize that “American Gothic” was meant to be funny and at least $12 million worth of TV ads. It’s finally Iowa caucus night again.

Last time there were two open races and a platoon of candidates with what looked like Shakespearean potential. Full disclosure: That year, my neighborhood caucus of some 800 people in a room built for 700 might have gladdened the heart of Pericles.