KMEG 14 - News, Weather, Sports for Sioux City and Siouxland | New Caucus Count: Santorum Over Romney

New Caucus Count: Santorum Over Romney

(SIOUX CITY, IA) Iowa has officially named the winner of the Iowa Caucus and the name may surprise you. Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum thought he came just eight votes short of a win in Iowa. The official results say differently.

The Iowa GOP said Rick Santorum actually won the state's Caucus over Mitt Romney by 34 votes, according to the certification process results.

Both a Santorum supporter and a business professor said they wish the state's party would have named him a solid winner. Nevertheless. people run the Iowa Caucus, not machines.

"We want every vote to count. That's what Republicans believe," said Linda Holub, a Rick Santorum supporter.

On Caucus night in Iowa, it took hours for news stations to finally announce Mitt Romney won, but it turns out they were wrong.

"It makes a difference because people in South Carolina are looking at Mitt winning, too and thinking oh, he's the inevitable candidate and even if I want Rick Santorum, I don't have a chance. Well, it's just not true," said Holub.

Morningside college professor Sam Clovis doesn't think Santorum's late win is enough to change the race.

"Unfortunately I don't think it's going to benefit him any because he's gone through the New Hampshire primary and the South Carolina primary's on Saturday. We already have a lot of late breaking news on that," said Clovis.

The face of the Hawkeye state's Republican party said there is always room for improvement.

"We put in new reporting systems. Some reporting systems were online with a secure web base reporting system. Others, we had a call center that received calls from precincts. We'll take a look and see which one of those two worked best," said Iowa GOP Chairman, Matt Strawn.

Voters aren't taking the process lightly.

"I would hope those people who were in charge of those caucuses are never in charge of them again. I mean that's very irresponsible and it hurts everybody," Holub said.

"What would have happened if Santorum had been declared the winner that night? And he would've gone to New Hampshire. He might not have won New Hampshire, but he certainly would've picked up a boost," Clovis said.

As for counting every vote, that didn't happen. Out of more than 1,700 precincts across Iowa, eight precincts were not included in the final GOP tally. Two of them are in nearby counties: one in Pocahontas and the other in Emmet county. 

Clovis expects the Republican party to make a strong effort to have a tighter process in place. Plus, if President Obama wins re–election, we could be looking at both parties caucusing making 2016 even more complicated.