According to missing precinct votes that were released by the Iowa Republican Party Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum actually defeated rival candidate Mitt Romney in the January 3rd Iowa caucus voting.
The Iowa Republican Party released the certified results of the Iowa caucuses Thursday, and found the Mr. Santorum actually finished with 29,839 votes, a total of 34 votes ahead of Mr. Romney who finished with 29,805 votes.
The official statewide count did not include a total of eight voting precincts that failed to turn their total number of votes in by the deadline, which was 5 p.m. the day after the Iowa caucus voting, according to The Washington Post.
“Our goal throughout the certification process was to most accurately reflect and report how Iowans voted the evening of January 3. We understand the importance to the candidates involved, but as Iowans, we understand the responsibility we have as temporary caretakers of the Iowa caucuses,” said Iowa Republican party chairman Matt Strawn in a press release Thursday.
The original Iowa caucus voting results were announced two weeks ago stating that Mr. Romney had finished 8 votes ahead of Mr. Santorum, however regarding to the missing votes, an unidentified Iowa Republican Party spokesman told The Washington Post “We never got ‘em.”
It will be interesting to see how the new results influence voters in South Carolina, as they are released just two days ahead of the South Carolina Republican primary election. The results are also released on the same day that Texas Governor Rick Perry announced he would be suspending his campaign and endorsing rival Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
In a statement Thursday, Mr. Romney called the new results a “virtual tie.” Mr. Santorum’s communications director Hogan Gidley though said that the new results “destroyed” the “inevitability” of Mr. Romney winning the 2012 Republican nomination.
A Public Polling Policy poll of likely South Carolina voters released Thursday shows Mr. Gingrich now holding a lead over Mr. Romney, as he finished the poll with 34 percent of the votes compared to 28 percent for Mr. Romney. In the same poll Mr. Santorum finished with 14 percent in fourth place behind Texas congressman Ron Paul.
