After Tuesday night's Iowa caucus votes were counted, it appeared Mitt Romney won over Rick Santorum by an eight-vote hair. But did Romney really win at all? According to a report by The Ticket, maybe not. Here are the details.
* Unofficial results for the Iowa caucus have declared winner Romney with 30,015 votes in the state, and runner-up Santorum with 30,007, The Ticket reported.
* Edward L. True, who helped count ballots in the Washington Wells precinct, stated he had listed only two votes in the precinct for Romney. However, the state party listed 22 votes for Romney from that precinct -- a discrepancy that gave Romney an eight-point win rather than a 14-point win for Santorum that might have been warranted.
* True, an avowed Ron Paul supporter, says he has notified the person in charge of his precinct as well as the Republican Party leadership of this discrepancy and that he has been assured the numbers will be fixed before the results are certified.
* According to the statement of the State Party Chairman Matt Strawn, The Ticket reported, GOP officials in the state have been in contact with Appanoose County Republican Party officials and they "do not have any reason to believe the final, certified results of Appanoose County will change the outcome of Tuesday's vote."
* According to a report from The Gazette, of Cedar Rapids, unverified claims of discrepancies in the Illyria and Westfield townships in Fayette County were also received. However, The Gazette points out that even if the issue pointed out by True turns out to be accurate, as well as other claims, it will do little the change the race for the Republican nomination beyond changing the recipient of bragging rights. Santorum, himself, said he was not concerned about the outcome of the claims, as the race was essentially a tie.
* Though far less impactful of a presidential race, and history itself, the Iowa vote-count discrepancy may bring to mind another controversy in how votes are counted: that of the Bush-Gore 2000 election. According to a November 2001 report by the Washington Post, President George W. Bush would have likely won the election anyway if limited recounts had been done the way Al Gore and the Florida Supreme Court had wanted them to be. However, the Post reported, if Gore had triggered a statewide recount, the results may have been completely different, depending on the standard applied. Either way, the winning margin in that contest was fewer than 500 votes.
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