An Iowa man, Edward L. True, 28, claims caucus votes in Iowa were miscounted and that Senator Rick Santorum may be the winner as opposed to Governor Mitt Romney.
On Thursday evening, Iowa station KCCI-TV in Des Moines reported a vote counter in Appanoose County discovered an inconsistency between the number of the 50 votes he had monitored and what the Republican Party of Iowa had recorded. "When Mitt Romney won Iowa by eight votes and I've got a 20-vote discrepancy here, that right there says Rick Santorum won Iowa," said True. "Not Mitt Romney." True said he helped count the votes and kept a record to post to the Ron Paul Facebook pages. He noticed the error when he looked at the state GOP website. A spokeswoman with the Iowa Republican Party did not address True's assertion, but said that True was not a precinct captain and, “has no business talking about election results.”
Santorum heard of the discrepancy while campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday. When asked for his reaction by a Huffington Post reporter, Santorum said, "We were ahead and they told us that 20 votes were undercounted for Romney and that's what changed it. So, I'm not surprised to hear that. We will see what happens."
In the meantime, a southern Iowa supporter of Texas Representative Ron Paul has filed a notarized statement claiming former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is the real winner. True has informed the Republican Party of Iowa of the 20-vote error in Appanoose County. If a recount reveals the accuracy of his claim, then Santorum would be the winner with 30,007 votes to 29,995, rather than 30,015, for Romney. The spokeswoman said Thursday that the party will have no further comment until the county-by-county results are certified, a process which could take a couple of weeks. True, who said he hopes the discrepancy is a simple mistake, said he was told the same by the Appanoose County GOP chairman and when he contacted the party headquarters. State Party Chairman Matt Strawn did not respond immediately to a request for a comment.
“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,” Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford told KCCI. “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.”
If the error is confirmed, critics of the caucus process and those envious of Iowa’s pre-eminent role in the primaries, could use it to attack the integrity of the process. The party recognizes that precinct leaders have wide latitude in how votes are cast and counted. In the party’s defense, almost as soon as caucuses were adjourned Tuesday, a discussion began about the various methods of casting and counting ballots.
Reference: USA Today
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