Iowa has two weeks to certify the results of the Iowa caucuses and according and affidavit written by one vote counter, Edward True, 28, of Moulton, Appanoose County, a typo mistakenly gave Mitt Romney 20 additional votes, which if true, could very well make Rick Santorum the official winner of the Iowa caucuses.
He, Edward L. True, hereby states the following:
This was my first Iowa caucus, January 3, 2012. Our local caucus met at Garrett Memorial Library, 123 South Main Street, Moulton, Iowa. The precinct for our caucus was Washington Wells, our precinct code/ID was 4013. I was excited to participate and help in any way. I was asked to help count the ballots.We voted by writing our choice for President on a blank piece of paper. The ballots were deposited by each voter in a box. There were 53 participants. Afterwards, myself and two participants counted the ballots. Here were the results: Michele Bachmann, 3 votes: Gov. Rick Perry, 13 votes; Cong. Ron Paul, 7 votes; John Huntsman, 1 vote; Rick Santorum, 21 votes; Mitt Romney, 2 votes; Newt Gingrich, 6 votes.
The vote totals were then read aloud to all present.
The official word from the Iowa Republican Party when questioned about True's statements, via KCCI.com, Des Moines, is that since True was not a precinct captain or county chair person, he had no business discussing the results publicly and the party would not be giving interviews until the results have been certified.
According to Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight, the counties have two weeks from the caucus date to send the final certified results to the state party.
Read Silver's whole piece, he goes through the detail of Appanoose County and provides context of voter percentages and the likelihood of True's assertions.
During the verification process numbers have already been adjusted so there is no telling what the final outcome will be and it is probable that the official certified results will not be forthcoming until after the New Hampshire primary but before the South Carolina primary.
Still, with Romney claiming victory by a margin of a mere eight votes, there is a good chance that after certification, Rick Santorum may have officially won Iowa.
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