The Iowa GOP’s chairman and executive director gave all the details to Jennifer Jacobs of The Des Moines Register yesterday. Rick Santorum finished 34 votes ahead on Mitt Romney, but eight precincts didn’t report results. (That’s a surprise to at least one of the county GOP chairs involved who was contacted this morning.)
The Iowa GOP emailed the rest of the media at 8:17 a.m. this morning with less complete results than were provided to The Register, which you can read below. The Iowa GOP’s Headquarters is locked and no one is answering the door. Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn is not responding to a request for an interview. I’ve talked with folks from Romney’s & Santorum’s Iowa campaigns, though, and will be back later with their commentary.
Des Moines, IA – The Republican Party of Iowa today released the final, certified vote totals of the January 3 Iowa Caucus presidential preference vote. The final, certified vote totals represent 1,766 of the state’s 1,774 caucus precincts, and reflect a record-breaking 121,503 Iowans who participated.
2012 Iowa Republican Caucus Certified vote totals (1766/1774 precincts certified)
- Rick Santorum – 29,839
- Mitt Romney – 29,805
- Ron Paul – 26,036
- Newt Gingrich – 16,163
- Rick Perry – 12,557
- Michele Bachmann – 6,046
- Jon Huntsman – 739
- No Preference – 147
- Other – 86
- Herman Cain – 45
- Sarah Palin – 23
- Buddy Roemer – 17
Total (1766/1774) 121,503
Certified vote totals were unavailable for eight of Iowa’s 1,774 precincts. Full, certified vote totals per precinct are available online at www.iowagop.org.
“Just as I did in the early morning hours on January 4, I congratulate Senator Santorum and Governor Romney on a hard-fought effort during the closest contest in caucus history,” said Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn. “Our goal throughout the certification process was to most accurately reflect and report how Iowans voted the evening of January 3. We understand the importance to the candidates involved, but as Iowans, we understand the responsibility we have as temporary caretakers of the Iowa caucuses.””
As Strawn noted during the January 4 announcement of unofficial caucus night vote totals, Iowa GOP rules provided for a 14-day period by which each of Iowa’s 99 counties were required to submit a Form E document from each of the caucus precincts within the county. The Form E document is the official record of the presidential preference vote in each of Iowa’s 1,774 precincts. The deadline for county Republican officials to submit the Form E documents was 5 p.m. (CST) on Wednesday, January 18. Following Wednesday’s deadline, Iowa GOP officials were able to certify results from 1,766 of the state’s 1,774 precincts.
Strawn noted that a hallmark of the Iowa caucuses is the openness and transparency within which the proceedings occur. Not only do voting Iowans and presidential campaign representatives have the opportunity to observe the vote counting in each of the state’s precincts, but each presidential campaign had senior campaign officials in the Iowa GOP’s official tabulation center on caucus night.
Strawn indicated this openness and transparency will continue during the post-certification period as the Iowa GOP will be making the precinct caucus Form E documents submitted during the certification process available for review to both presidential campaign officials and members of the media.
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
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