Op-ed by Mike Petersen of Mason City:
The Iowa caucus, 1st in the nation, something to be taken seriously. Well, at least as long as your candidate wins. It was clear from the beginning the establishment wanted Mitt Romney to win. Why not, he brings the big donors. The banks, the big corporations they all love him and give their money to the party, no wonder those with positions within the party wanted him to win, it’s their paycheck. So, he’s up by 8 let’s declare him the winner, who cares about the uncertified, the missing precincts. Wait, I was always told every vote mattered. Do you think Ron Paul would have been declared the winner if he was leading by 8 votes on caucus night? They would still be counting and recounting votes disqualifying as many as they could to get a different result. Even after it’s said and done, they say it’s basically a tie, What?! Santorum won by 34. One more thing, in the missing precincts Santorum had 81 votes, Mitt Romney only 46, why is there such a difference in those missing precincts than the rest of the election. Somebody needs to be held accountable, Matt Strawn should step down and that’s just the start. Local prominent republicans have mentioned that the accuracy rate was actual pretty good-What a bunch of bull. Get it right or get out! Nobody should give any time, cents or votes to the Republican party until they show some sign of actually being honest and ending this corruption.
Katie,
I understand your frustration from 4 years ago. Not knowing what county you are in I cant speak for what exactly happened in your precinct last time. This year, we added more caucus locations due to the crowding concerns and anticipated turnout. We had workers at all locations in Mason City and Clear Lake from the auditors office to help check in and register new people. From all accounts, it went generally smooth, though there was some wait times at a few locations to check in. All of the precinct was in proper order from all the chairs and secretaries. The whole stack of papers were in proper order when I shipped them to Des Moines. Our temporary precinct chairs, secretaries and result reporters did a great job. We held 2 different training meetings prior to Jan 3. Our sole problem for Cerro Gordo County Mason City Ward 2 precinct 3 was that in Des Moines they couldnt find the Form E for that precinct. Again, my stack of required papers I sent them was over 12 inches tall. Imagine then all 99 counties unboxed in a room. That is where our issue is. It was not at the County level. I hope this helps to understand a little of went on.
John
John, thank you for replying and for doing a good job. What upset me was the report that in many precincts, the wrong 2 persons were certifying the forms, only 1 person was certifying, the wrong person was certifying, etc. The problem was at the local level in those precincts. The results were accepted, from what I read, but it’s embarrassing that all our caucus workers can’t read and follow directions.At the training sessions, were the precinct leaders told the names of the people who had to sign the forms or just the titles? They evidently didn’t know what their titles were. It’s just so frustrating.
FWIW, my dad was a poll worker for years and he had to dig out the rule book constantly to keep the others from making up their own rules. As I said, I’m glad you were on top of things in our county, John.
Caucus results are only as good as the people running the caucuses. I did not go this time as I was ill. Four years ago, my precinct’s caucus was poorly run. I was very disappointed in the process. It seemed as though the person running things had very little prior instruction as to how to proceed and had not reviewed the agenda adequately beforehand. The agenda was not followed in order and it did cause problems. I don’t know if caucuses ran better this year, but it doesn’t appear that they did overall in Iowa. I’m not surprised that the vote submission sheets were not certified properly this year. It’s a shame that our State, full of well-educated people, can’t find enough detail-oriented people to volunteer to do this job correctly. There needs to be ONE trained person at each caucus site who is responsible for seeing that each sheet is properly certified before it is submitted by each precinct and no officials may leave until their precinct is certified. No one is going to take our State’s caucuses seriously if we don’t do a better job next time.
With all it warts the Caucasus worked for me. I got to listen to all the candidates as they came through. Many more than once. I shook their hands, looked them in the eye and asked some pointed questions personally and quietly. Some I made uncomfortable, some laughed me off, some changed the subject without answering. All in all I got out of the Iowa Caucasus what I expected, problems and all.
While not perfect for the most part Iowa works well in helping choose a leader.
If you want accuracy maybe Iowa should switch to an open primary, sanctioned by the Sec. of State, like other states and allow Democrats and Independents mess up our votes even more. Then we could nominate more weak candidates like John McCain.
Watchdog you make a good point. I tend to overreact sometimes. I get really upset when I see things unjust. But you are right, instead of being a quiter when things go wrong,I should try even harder to make things go right. Part of that includes trying to find common ground that could make a positive change rather than differences that divide. So, I guess that should be my starting point. That could probably help me in all phases of my life.
Mike, I think you are correct in this article. Crooked politic’s as usual just trying to control the results in spite of what the voter’s want.
Mike, I want you to think about something.
The vote was close. There is an establishment that wants the status-quo. Romney would be their logical pick.
But, there are many other voters that if they all pulled on the rope in the same direction could easily out vote the establishment vote.
Why don’t other voters all think in the same direction?
I submit it is because WE don’t have a common overriding goal that binds us. Until we come together with a thread that binds we are going to have these split votes and chaos.
The masses have been duped by our Educational Institutions, The Main Stream Media, and POLITICIANS.
We have so dumb-down that confusion and lack of trust is rampant.
We have to have a common goal and that is gong to take much more knowledge then what is on the streets currently.
Keep trying.