The Republican Party of Iowa is mum on a report that 20 votes were mistakenly given to Mitt Romney in an Appanoose County precinct at Tuesday night’s caucuses. Edward True, a Ron Paul supporter who overlooked the ballot counting process at his precinct, said that Romney received two votes, not the 22 that are shown on the Republican Party of Iowa’s precinct results database.

Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI asked the Republican Party of Iowa to comment, but party officials have refused to do so.  If the vote total is wrong as Mr. True suggests, then Rick Santorum is the winner of the 2012 caucuses, not Mitt Romney.

A spokesperson for the Republican Party of Iowa told KCCI that since Mr. True is not a precinct captain or county chairperson, he has no business talking about the election results.  That shouldn’t matter since every campaign is allowed to have a person over see the counting of the ballots as well as the right to monitor the call to the tabulation center.  If True was an observer on caucus night in his precinct, then he is well within his rights to question the results.

An official with the Iowa GOP said that he was aware of True’s allegation and that the Republican Party of Iowa was already in the process of certifying all of the state’s nearly 1800 precincts.  The Iowa GOP has 14 days to certify the results and they do expect to find errors such as transposed numbers and other irregularities.  Not until all of the precincts are certified will we actually know how close the race actually was or whether or not Santorum actually won the race.

Photo by Dave Davidson – Prezography.com

Statement from Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn Regarding Appanoose County Caucus Results

Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn statement regarding Appanoose County caucus results:

“Iowa GOP rules provide for a two-week certification process for each of the 1,774 precincts.  The Iowa GOP will announce the final, certified results of the 2012 Iowa Causes following this process. Out of respect to the candidates involved, party officials we will not respond to every rumor, innuendo or allegation during the two week process.  That said, Iowa GOP officials have been in contact with Appanoose County Republican officials tonight and do not have any reason to believe the final, certified results of Appanoose County will change the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.”