So Much for Romney’s Iowa Win

Well, as it turns out, former Senator Rick Santorum may have beaten Mitt Romney in Iowa’s Republican presidential causes vote, after all--but we will never be 100 percent confident of those results. As The Des Moines Register reports,

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.

“How, exactly, does Iowa maintain a system in which results from eight precincts simply vanish?,” wonders Steve Benen of Washington Monthly. “I don’t know, but I hope folks will keep this in mind the next time state officials insist they’ve earned the right to go first until the end of time.”

READ MORE: “Oh, by the Way, Mitt Probably Lost Iowa,” by Steve Kornacki (Salon); “He-Said He-Said: Santorum and Romney Camps Trade Barbs Over Iowa ‘Concession’ Call,” by Eric Kleefeld (TPM); “R. Money: Can Romney Overcome His Wealth and Connect with Middle-class Americans?,” by John Dickerson (Slate).