It’s conventional wisdom in Republican circles here in South Carolina that if Mitt Romney wins the state’s primary this Saturday — having already won in Iowa and New Hampshire — he’ll be the GOP presidential nominee. But what if Romney did not actually win Iowa? That could change the calculation considerably. And there is a very real chance that the Republican Party of Iowa will announce this week that Rick Santorum, and not Romney, won the Iowa caucuses. Results released on caucus night — actually, at 2 the next morning — showed Romney won by eight votes, 30,015 to Santorum’s 30,007. Many observers assumed that those results were final, especially when party officials said there would be no recount. But the results were not final.
Even though there is no provision for a recount in the party caucuses, state GOP rules do require that the results be certified, which is nearly the same thing. That certification process began the day after the caucuses and is expected to wrap up this week, yielding a final, official vote tally. On caucus night, party officials in each of Iowa’s 1,774 precincts were required to fill out what is known as Form E. The form contained the official count for each candidate in the caucus. It was signed by precinct officials on caucus night and witnessed by representatives of the various campaigns. It is the official vote total for each precinct caucus.
… The final numbers will be different from those released on caucus night. One campaign source says the vote count as of midday Monday showed Santorum ahead by 80-something votes. If that number holds through certification of the last precincts, Santorum will win. Of course, there is always the possibility that some of the final precincts will contain discrepancies that put Romney back on top. It’s just not clear.
What is clear is that the certification process has changed vote totals in the past. In 2008, for example, early unofficial results showed Mike Huckabee winning the GOP caucuses with 40,841 votes. Huckabee’s official, certified total turned out to be 40,954. Likewise, Mitt Romney’s unofficial 2008 total was 29,949; his certified total was 30,021. Those were small changes that did not affect the outcome of the ’08 race. If similar changes happen this time, the winner could be different.
Full Article: York: Final count could show Romney lost Iowa | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner.