Did Santorum Win Iowa?

A new story made headlines yesterday--just one day before the New Hampshire primaries--suggesting that Rick Santorum may actually have won the Iowa caucuses instead of Mitt Romney. According to an affidavit signed by Edward True, who helped count votes for the Appanoose County caucuses, the state GOP misreported the numbers from his county by 20 votes, incorrectly giving Romney 22 votes instead of the 2 votes he actually received.

Since Romney won the Iowa Caucuses by just 8 votes over Rick Santorum, the final totals would have Santorum winning the state by 14 votes over Romney. The GOP is currently undertaking a two-week vote certification process to audit all the reported numbers. If the vote totals show Santorum as the winner, very little would actually change in the primary fight since Iowa does not award convention delegates based on the Caucus outcomes but rather through a complicated delegate selection process at the county and state conventions. Santorum may only win bragging rights for his victory, but that may be hollow as well considering the Iowa Caucuses have failed to produce the eventual winning candidate in three of the past five elections.