The committee that’s looking into problems with the 2012 Iowa Republican Caucuses, will release its final recommendations at a meeting in Sioux City Monday. The chair of the committee, Bill Schickle, says one of the recommendations would change how information about caucus winners is released.
“If the spread between the two top vote-getters is less than one-percent no winner will be officially declared on caucus night until the ballots are certified. And then the other thing regarding certification, we’ve collapsed the time frame down to 72 hours,” Schickle says. Schickle, who is also co-chair of the Iowa Republican Party, says previously the party had two weeks to certify caucus results, and the shorter time frame ensures a winner is declared before the New Hampshire primary.
Schickle says they’re also recommending changes to how the ballots are handled at the caucus sites. “To have those standardized ballots distributed at registration time, that the ballots be placed by individual caucusers in a ballot box, and that they be counted in the main caucus room,” he says.
The committee was appointed after Mitt Romney was declared the winner on caucus night, and certified results later showed Rick Santorum winning the contest. Schickle made his comments on the Iowa Public Radio program “River to River.”