Finally, the votes are counted

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has won the 2007 Iowa Republican Party’s Straw Poll. 

About 14,000 votes were cast Saturday and 31.5 percent of them were for Romney. 

Second place went to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who captured 18.1 percent of the Straw Poll vote. 

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback finished third, with 15 percent. 

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo was in fourth with 13.7 percent.

Fifth place went to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who pulled in 9.1 percent. 

Sixth went to Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor who said he had to finish first or second or he’d drop out of the race.  Thompson got 7.3 percent. 

Former Tennessee Senator/Hollywood actor Fred Thompson came in right behind Tommy Thompson, with 231 votes. 

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in the eighth position, with 183 votes. 

California Congressman Duncan Hunter was ninth with 174 votes.

Arizona Senator John McCain got 101 votes and finished next to last. 

The last place finisher was Chicago businessman John Cox, who received 41 votes and finished 11th.

The Straw Poll results were announced about an hour and a half later than expected.  The Iowa GOP brought in 18 optical scanning machines to tabulate the ballots, but one malfunctioned.  Party officials had to hand-count about 1500 ballots.

A total vote tally of 14,000 is underwhelming and much lower than party officials had predicted.