7:24 a.m. | Updated
Mitt Romney’s eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses will be rescinded on Thursday, following a two-week review by the state’s Republican Party that found that Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes ahead of Mr. Romney, two party officials confirmed.
Matt Strawn, chairman of Iowa’s Republican Party, is set to announce at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time that an actual winner cannot be determined in the caucuses because results from eight of 1,774 precincts could not be located for certification. But of the votes that could be reviewed by the party, the officials said, Mr. Santorum finished narrowly ahead of Mr. Romney.
Mr. Santorum moved quickly on Thursday to declare victory and dismissed the suggestion that a clear-cut winner could not be determined. He will argue to voters in South Carolina, aides said, that the result shows that he is the best-equipped candidate to emerge as a conservative alternative to Mr. Romney.
“The history books will read that the winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2012 is Rick Santorum. That’s the bottom line,” Hogan Gidley, an adviser to Mr. Santorum said in an interview Thursday. “This just goes to prove what we’ve been saying: We can take it right to Mitt Romney with a fraction of the resources and beat him. We can do the same to Barack Obama.”
The missing precincts represent enough votes to swing the election in either direction, the officials said, so Mr. Strawn will announce that a clear winner cannot be certified. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity until Mr. Strawn makes his announcement, said the decision was not made to avoid embarrassing Mr. Romney, who is moving closer to the Republican nomination, but rather was the only option after a thorough review of the votes that could be located.
A party official confirmed that the certified results found that Mr. Santorum received 29,839 votes and Mr. Romney received 29,805 votes.
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source has more about this frothy development.
Mitt Romney’s eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses will be rescinded on Thursday, following a two-week review by the state’s Republican Party that found that Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes ahead of Mr. Romney, two party officials confirmed.
Matt Strawn, chairman of Iowa’s Republican Party, is set to announce at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time that an actual winner cannot be determined in the caucuses because results from eight of 1,774 precincts could not be located for certification. But of the votes that could be reviewed by the party, the officials said, Mr. Santorum finished narrowly ahead of Mr. Romney.
Mr. Santorum moved quickly on Thursday to declare victory and dismissed the suggestion that a clear-cut winner could not be determined. He will argue to voters in South Carolina, aides said, that the result shows that he is the best-equipped candidate to emerge as a conservative alternative to Mr. Romney.
“The history books will read that the winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2012 is Rick Santorum. That’s the bottom line,” Hogan Gidley, an adviser to Mr. Santorum said in an interview Thursday. “This just goes to prove what we’ve been saying: We can take it right to Mitt Romney with a fraction of the resources and beat him. We can do the same to Barack Obama.”
The missing precincts represent enough votes to swing the election in either direction, the officials said, so Mr. Strawn will announce that a clear winner cannot be certified. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity until Mr. Strawn makes his announcement, said the decision was not made to avoid embarrassing Mr. Romney, who is moving closer to the Republican nomination, but rather was the only option after a thorough review of the votes that could be located.
A party official confirmed that the certified results found that Mr. Santorum received 29,839 votes and Mr. Romney received 29,805 votes.
_____________________________________
source has more about this frothy development.
executivehpfan 19th-Jan-2012 03:51 pm (UTC)