Iowa Republicans are questioning the trip Gov. Tom Vilsack made to Florida last week in support of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore.

The Democratic Party asked Vilsack, who returned to Iowa Wednesday, to visit Florida and help in Gore’s quest for a fair recount in the state, said Joe Shannahan, press secretary for Vilsack.

“I was proud of him for going down there and making a very rational statement about letting the recount continue in a bi-partisan process,” said Rep. Jane Greimann, D-Ames. “I think he was teaching us a little bit about the democratic process.”

Shannahan said Vilsack met with voters from southern Florida who said they did not have the proper opportunity to vote. However, many Republicans said Vilsack should have focused on the voting difficulties many Iowa polls experienced in the Nov. 7 election.

“It’s fine that he goes down there and that it isn’t being paid for by Iowa taxpayers,” said Anne Dougherty, communications director for the Iowa Republican Party. “The thing that we would like [Vilsack] to get across to the Gore campaign is that this happens in Iowa too.”

She said Vilsack went to protest against throwing out votes because of ballot confusion, but she said there will always be a 1- to 2-percent margin of error in counting ballots no matter what a state does.

“What we are saying to the Governor is that if he is going [to Florida] to protest, how can he, in his mind, justify it when the same is happening [in Iowa],” Dougherty said.

Shannahan said Republicans had their chance to have a recount in Iowa.

“They are a day late and a dollar short,” he said.

Dougherty said there were about 13,000 people in Iowa who didn’t vote for a particular office on Election Day, yet voted for other offices, which she calls “under votes.” She said this is legal, and the ballot will not be thrown out. What comes into question, she said, are the machines used in Florida.

If a person decided not to vote for an office, Dougherty said, the machine might have dimpled the person’s ballot.

“We don’t have [punch-card ballots], and we still have 13,000 ballots that are under votes,” Dougherty said.

Voting procedures in upcoming elections will be a hot topic for county auditors and election officials in this upcoming legislative session, Greimann said.

“I think we need to look at the differences in the way we vote from county to county,” she said. “I know there are still some counties that use the older voting machines.”

She said the state needs to encourage county auditors to look at more modern and effective voting machines, but she has not seen major problems in the state.

“Iowa’s elections are run very smoothly at the local level, by both the Republicans and Democrats,” Shannahan said. “We have a very clean system of politics in this state.”