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State Auditor David Vaudt and auditors from 42 counties, including some Democrats, will be on hand to oversee the balloting and vote-counting, according to the GOP.
The party says its unofficial, non-binding straw poll will accurately reflect attendees' presidential preferences, at least on one hot day in August. Campaigns spending mountains of cash to win the poll and boost their hopes of winning the real Iowa caucuses are banking on it.
"It is very important, that's why we've gone to all these extremes," said Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa. "We're spending thousands and thousands of dollars to put in all these levels of security."
But questions are being raised, particularly by supporters of Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul, and about the party's plan to use optical-scan voting machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems. Voting machines manufactured by the company have come under fire after California researchers found they might be vulnerable to computer hackers.
Although some of Paul's most vocal supporters are taking to radio call-in shows and online blogs to cry fraud, his campaign is not sounding alarm bells.
No other campaigns have raised concerns about the voting process.
"We don't have huge concerns," said Jesse Benton, communications director for the Paul campaign.
He said Paul backers want a hand-count of paper ballots to confirm the machine count.
"We're just asking for transparency to make sure there's fairness in this whole voting process," Benton said.
Laudner insists that the Diebold machines being used at the straw poll to scan ballots are not the same machines sparking controversy in Florida, California and elsewhere. He said the devices will not be hooked to a network, so hacking would not be a threat to the straw poll.
He also says there will be transparency. Representatives of each candidate will be allowed to monitor voting and vote-counting. Counting will be overseen by auditors and not the party.
"This fear factor they're trying to spread is ridiculous," Laudner said.
Douglas Jones, a University of Iowa computer science professor and voting technology expert, discounted worries about straw poll balloting.
"It seems to me like we shouldn't be making a controversy, in this case, with technology used at the straw poll," Jones said on WHO radio Tuesday.
Iowa Republicans see the event as a critical organizational test for candidates ahead of the caucuses. And despite its concerns, the Paul campaign has purchased a block of 800 tickets for its supporters, Benton said.
Todd Dorman can be reached at (515) 243-0138 or todd.dorman@lee.net.
