Turn-out in last night’s Caucuses was below expectations on both sides. An Iowa State University professor contends Iowa’s democratic party must change the rules for future Iowa Caucuses, or the status of the first-in-the-nation event will be threatened. I-S-U professor Steffen Schmidt says the rules for participating in last night’s caucuses were designed to scare away all but the most committed partisans.Republicans at the beginning of their meetings hand out strawpoll ballots for presidential voting, but Democrats sometimes conduct party business before the presidential preference discussion. He says he’s had several people who told him they don’t like to be asked for money or have petitions read at the caucuses.Democrats must stand up and publicly declare their choice to their neighbors — and then wait to find out if their candidate has enough support in the Caucus. He says it would be wise to move the presidential preference portion of the caucuses to the top of the agenda so people could vote and go home. Schmidt says since the Iowa Caucuses have such significance, it’s time to change the rules to make them less arcane so more voters will participate.
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