The Iowa Caucuses are just a few days away and while the candidates are engaged in a final flurry of campaigning, Iowa Republican Party officials have been hustling to lay final plans for the 1,774 precinct meetings on Tuesday night.
Protesters have been showing up at the offices of Republican presidential candidates and the Iowa Democratic Party’s headquarters this week. An online video from “Anonymous” calls on protesters to “peacefully shut-down the First-in-the-Nation Caucuses on January 3.”
Iowa Republican Party officials say they’re been in contact with local law enforcement about security procedures at each Caucus site. The party also announced the tabulating of Caucus results has been moved to an “undisclosed location.” Craig Robinson, the political director of the Iowa GOP back in 2008, shares this perspective about that announcement.
“It was kind of a new way in which to say, ‘Look, it’s secure and we’re taking it to an undisclosed location,'” Robinson said. “But to be honest, it’s always been undisclosed.”
The results of the 2008 Iowa Caucuses were tabulated out-of-state. The paper votes cast at each Caucus site are counted in front of representatives from each campaign, to monitor the process, then that same group of monitors watches and listens as the designated person at each site phones-in the results to an automated system.