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REGISTER EXCLUSIVE: 2012 GOP caucus count unresolved
JENNIFER JACOBS 4:00 AM, Jan 19, 2012


THE RESULTS: Santorum finished ahead by 34 votes
MISSING DATA: 8 precincts’ numbers will never be certified
PARTY VERDICT: GOP official says, ‘It’s a split decision’

Rick Santorum – Final total: 29,839 Change: -168
Mitt Romney – Final total: 29,805 Change: -210

It’s a tie for the ages.

There are too many holes in the certified totals from the Iowa caucuses to know for certain who won, but Rick Santorum wound up with a 34-vote advantage.

Results from eight precincts are missing — any of which could hold an advantage for Mitt Romney — and will never be recovered and certified, Republican Party of Iowa officials told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday.

GOP officials discovered inaccuracies in 131 precincts, although not all the changes affected the two leaders. Changes in one precinct alone shifted the vote by 50 — a margin greater than the certified tally.

The certified numbers: 29,839 for Santorum and 29,805 for Romney. The turnout: 121,503.

It’s not a surprise that the ultra-thin gap of eight votes on caucus night didn’t hold up, but it’s tough to swallow the fact that there will always be a question mark hanging over this race, politics insiders said..................>>>>....................>>>>........................http://caucuses.desmoinesregis.....us-count-unresolved/

The FACT is that both the organizers of the caucus and the media were "in the pocket of" the Romney campaign ----   even if the previous totals with Santorum 8 votes behind had stood .. it was obvious to every THINKING and REASONABLE  analyst or commentator that a little known former senator with hardly any money and hardly any organization had pulled off a "David vs. Goliath" upset by rising from single digits to a statistical dead heat with the  extremely well-known, extremely well financed candidate who employed armies of paid workers and who has been campaigning for over 5 years.

Santorum won --- Romney lost .... the same way that Senator Eugene McCarthy "beat" President Johnson in New Hampshire in 1968.    McCarthy only won 42% of the vote  -- but he proved that Johnson was vulnerable by keeping the president's total vote just under 50%.   It created the perception that Johnson could be beat and in politics quite often the perception is more important than the reality.