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Can What Happened In Iowa Happen In Ohio?

By Andy Chow

Published February 4, 2020 at 8:56 PM EST

The Iowa Democratic Caucus failed to produce results on Monday night due to what state party officials cited as "inconsistencies with the reports." As Ohio prepares for its primary in March, the state's top elections official ensures that Ohio's system is set up to avoid this type of problem.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R-Ohio) says "No," what's happening in Iowa could not happen in Ohio.

For one thing, Iowa uses the caucus system and Ohio uses the primary system with voting machines that tabulate the votes and include a paper trail.

"The way that that broke down last night in Iowa is disappointing. You would've hoped that the Iowa Democratic Party would've known better than to do it that way. But certainly there's really no analogy or no comparison between that and how Ohio runs its primary," LaRose said.

Problems with a smartphone app designed to report the Iowa caucus results ended up delaying official results.

Here's what we know about that app: https://t.co/cIskkfF6xC
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) February 4, 2020

LaRose also emphasized Ohio's county boards of elections have a direct and secure link to his office to report their results. Iowa was using a new mobile app.

"This app that has been used in Iowa is something that would have never passed the scrutiny that we have here in Ohio for the way we do election night reporting," LaRose said.

Every state should move to a primary, said Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper. He pointed to Iowa as an example of how state parties are not designed to run elections.