Iowa Caucuses

Dan Savage has an op-ed piece in the New York Times where he discusses the absolute lack of systematic control of who participates in the Iowa caucuses. He writes:

I was appalled when I learned that you didn't need a valid voter registration card or proof of residency - any identification at all - to take part in Iowa's caucuses. All you had to do was show up at a caucus site and fill out a voter registration card.

And, he describes his actual experience from the 2000 election.

So I went to a caucus site, gave the address of my hotel in Des Moines as my "residence" when I registered (no one asked how long I intended to reside in Iowa), and took part in the caucus. As it turned out, I didn't even need to register - when it came time to indicate whom we supported for president, slips of scrap paper were passed out to everyone in the room. There was nothing to stop someone who hadn't signed in, or even registered to vote, from grabbing a piece of paper and jotting down a name.

To determine if the requirements have changed since 2000, Savage contacted the Polk County Election Office in Des Moines and found that the process was the same as before.

Based upon his review of the controls imposed over the caucuses, he concluded that it would be exceedingly simple to adulterate the process by transporting a few busloads of supporters from another state into Iowa. More important, unless someone confesses, there's no way to determine if the results coming out of the caucuses just included Iowans.

Stuart Buck of The Buck Stops Here pointed me to this story and makes the comment that he can't understand "why it should be easier to get away with voting illegally than it is to rent a video from Blockbuster."

I agree.