Iowa officials dismiss report of problems with vote count in caucuses

Republican Party officials in Iowa are shooting down reports of a problem with the vote-counting in Tuesday’s caucuses that could overturn the results.

A voter in Appanoose County told an Iowa TV station Thursday that he sees a 20-vote discrepancy between the results he wrote down from his caucus and what the Iowa Republican Party reported — a discrepancy that might give Rick Santorum a victory.

{mosads}“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,” Edward True told KCCI TV. “Not Mitt Romney.”

True, who said he’s a Ron Paul supporter, said at his 53-person caucus meeting, Romney received two votes. According to the Iowa Republican Party’s website, Romney received 22 votes from that meeting.

But Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Straw released a statement Thursday night saying, while there is a two-week certification process, “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.”

Santorum on Thursday evening told Fox News’ “On the Record” that he had spoken with Straw and “there was one county where there was a 20-vote mistake in my favor, but there was a 21-vote mistake vote in Romney’s favor. So it actually netted out to what I understand is a one-vote difference.”

The Iowa caucuses were one of the closest elections in years, with Romney and Santorum switching first-and second-place spots throughout the night, before Romney was finally proclaimed the winner around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Santorum, who surprised observers with his late surge, said the final result in Iowa doesn’t matter, as “this was a tie. And we came from, you know, 4 or 5 points two weeks before the election and ended up with 25 points.”

— This story was last updated at 8:24 a.m.