Two days after Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum finished in a virtual tie in the Iowa caucus voting, a Ron Paul supporter in Iowa has informed the Iowa Republican party that 20 missing votes from Tuesdays results show that Mr. Santorum actually won, The Quad-City Times reports.
Edward True, a resident of Moulton, Iowa, filed an affidavit Thursday on behalf of Appanoose, County. Mr. True’s filing claims that Mr. Romney received 2 votes, instead of the 22 votes reported by the Iowan Republican party from his voting precinct.
“This will make Iowa look a little foolish in the eyes of the rest of the country which already questions the seriousness of the caucuses,” said Dennis Goldford, a Drake University political science professor. “But in terms of Santorum’s results here, the caucuses have made him a player in presidential politics and if he should nudge ahead of Gov. Romney for the final certified result that’s really not going to make any significant difference at this point.”
The Iowa caucus results originally reported early Wednesday morning showed Mr. Romney pulling off a slight victory by just eight votes.
The totals showed Mr. Romney received as total of 30,015 votes, while Mr. Santorum received the support of 30,007 voters. However, Mr. True’s affidavit filed Wednesday states that there was a mix up by the Republican Party of Iowa.
“Since the 2012 Iowa caucus, which all the world was accepting, was that Romney only defeated Santorum by 8 votes, I was very concerned because I realized that this 20 vote discrepancy in Romney’s favor would change the results of the Caucus making Santorum the winner,” wrote Mr. True in the filing.
Mr. Santorum reacted to the news of the possible miscount Thursday while campaigning in New Hampshire, stating that he was “not surprised” that there may have been a miscount.
“We were ahead and they told us that 20 votes were undercounted for Romney and that’s what changed it,” said Mr. Santorum, The Huffington Post reports. “We’ll see what happens.”
News of the miscount should help Mr. Santorum’s surging campaign, his second place finish was a surprise after he had been polling in last place in the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses. The Iowa voting mishap will certainly help him with South Carolina voters, according to a Rasmussen poll of likely South Carolina voters released Friday shows Mr. Santorum trailing Mr. Romney by three percentage points in the Palmetto state.
A spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Iowa said Thursday that her party will have no comment until the results are certified, which takes several weeks.
