The Lesson from Iowa’s Non-Decision in the Republican Caucus

The Des Moines Register explains that the Iowa Republican Party will declare a tie, with Rick Santorum 34 votes ahead of Mitt Romney and 8 precincts whose votes will never be certified because of missing paperwork.

The lesson?  I said all I have to say the night of the Iowa caucuses, before Romney Declared Victory with an 8-vote lead:

The Lesson from Tonight’s Iowa Results for Election Law

Elections can sometimes be close.  Very very close (as in 5 votes close as I write this post).  So close that the margin of error in counting the votes can exceed the margin of victory.  Fortunately tonight’s results won’t lead to a recount (for how the non-binding caucuses work, see here); whether Romney or Santorum wins is more about bragging rights than anything else.

But this could happen in a presidential election again, in a state that matters.  And we haven’t done nearly enough to fix the problems in our elections that became apparent in the 2000 Florida fiasco.  As I will argue in great detail soon, we are not prepared for the next election meltdown.

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