Ames Voters Say Misgivings Aside, Caucuses Still Better than Primaries

Story County caucus goers said Thursday that the Republican caucuses miscount and missing votes will give other states ammunition when they try to leapfrog Iowa's first in the nation in 2016, but said Iowa will remain first anyway.

The certified Iowa Caucus count released by the , who was originally declared the winner. However, there were irregularities in 131 of the 1,774 precincts, and eight precincts weren't counted in the final certification, according to state party officials. So Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn said no true winner can be declared but added that Santorum is the winner of the certification process.

Jeff Angelo, former state senator and Republican party activist said the mishap will ramp up the anti-Iowa rhetoric for a bit.

The other states that try to jump out in front of Iowa will make an issue of it, Angelo said.

“It makes the fight a little harder because the people who want to take it away from you have something to beat you over the head with,” Angelo said.

In the certification of the Ames and Story County, remained virtually unchanged. The front runners were still Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. The men were separated by 10 votes. Rick Santorum received 835 votes in the county.

Caucus goer Karin Sevde said the process could be improved upon by using electronic ballots.

“No one wants to feel disenfranchised by mistakes made by others. This will just force the parties to spend a bit more money for the caucus on voting procedures,” Sevde said.

But it's not the process that makes Iowa first, Angelo said.

“We have the status because Iowan's are willing to be very enthusiastic participants in this process … that's really why we have the first in the nation status,” he said.

Candidates are able to draw hundreds for evening political rallies despite zero degree wind chills. And the caucus, a party event, is carried out by hundreds of volunteers.

“The Iowa caucuses are put on entirely by the state parties, that means all the counting, the ballots, finding poll workers, finding caucus locations, everything is done by the party and volunteers and not by the state government,” said Cory Adams, Story County Republican Party co-chairman, in an email response to questions.

Adams said the Republican caucus process mirrors civic elections which are known for having the same types of problems in close races.

“The same process, the same flip-flop of winners/losers, and most importantly, the same amount of time, takes place,” he said.

The caucus is still better than a primary, Adams said.

“Had the New Hampshire Primary been deiced by only eight votes on election night, do you think we'd have their certified results by now?”

Angelo said numbers changed in Thursday's certification, but the impact remains the same.

Santorum, Romney and Paul all received a big boost and Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry did poorly, he said.

“The results in regard to the impact on individual campaigns is still the same,” Angelo said.

For Santorum, the timing of the certification might be even better than a Jan. 3 first place declaration, he said.

On the same day that Perry dropped out and endorsed Newt Gingrich, Santorum can say he won Iowa, Angelo said.