Brian4Liberty
01-11-2012, 12:39 PM
All across the media, especially on the television news channels, the significance of Mitt Romney winning both Iowa and New Hampshire is being touted and discussed. Many pundits and analysts are saying that the race is essentially over, as the candidate who wins both of these States is always the eventual nominee. With hours of time to fill while doing live coverage of the elections, the television personalities may say anything, no matter if it's important or trivial, but is the story of a double win meaningful?
Stories such as the following are commonplace:
Mitt Romney stormed out of New Hampshire Wednesday with a historic achievement under his belt, having scored back-to-back wins in the first two nominating contests,... (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/10/new-hampshire-republican-primary/)
The media narrative of Romney winning both Iowa and New Hampshire does serve to create a perception of inevitability and momentum. This can have a distinct effect on future votes. But is that perception false? Did Romney really win in Iowa?
After the close of vote counting in the Iowa Caucuses, a person who attended one of the Precinct Caucuses was surprised to find that the 2 votes for Romney at his Caucus had turned into 22 votes. Obviously an error of some kind had been made. The story was confirmed by other officials:
The dispute originated when a caucusgoer, Edward True, said in an affidavit that Mitt Romney had been recorded as receiving 22 votes in his precinct, called Washington Wells, when he had in fact received just two votes there on caucus night.
...
The Des Moines Register reported on Friday that Lyle Brinegar, the chair of the Republican Party in Appanoose County, agreed with Mr. True’s account of the vote count and disputed the total listed by the state party.
A third person, Terri Haub, the precinct secretary, also agreed with Mr. True’s account, The Des Moines Register reported.
The alleged 20-vote discrepancy could have potentially swung the victory to Rick Santorum, who trailed Mr. Romney by eight votes statewide based on the state’s initial count. (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/iowa-will-not-change-caucus-result-from-disputed-precinct/)
So enough votes to sway the election in the favor of Rick Santorum were in dispute, but officials assured everyone that the certification process would iron out the details, and that other errors occurred which offset those specific errors identified in Washington Wells. That is a bit vague, and would certainly not hold up under an IRS Audit. Will the final Iowa Certification show us where the errors occurred and what the new counts are? We can only hope at this point. The following is the latest information from Matt Strawn, Chairman of the Iowa GOP:
“Appanoose County has submitted all its required Form E’s for all precincts in Appanoose County,” Mr. Strawn wrote in an e-mail to The Times, referring to the form by which the Republican Party of Iowa certifies its votes on a county-by-county basis. “Now that we have all the county’s forms at Iowa G.O.P. HQ for the two-week certification process, my statement from Thursday night still applies: While we will not comment on specific precinct vote totals during the two-week certification process of 1,774 precincts, the results of the Appanoose County precincts will not change the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.”
...
"The final, certified vote totals will be based on the Form E’s.” (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/iowa-will-not-change-caucus-result-from-disputed-precinct/)
So the current situation is that even though the results from the precinct in question have now been certified, those results will not be revealed "during the two-week certification process". Which raises an obvious question: will they be revealed when the certification process is complete? Inquiring minds want to know.
Meanwhile, the media narrative of the inevitable Romney nomination due to first place finishes in both Iowa and New Hampshire will continue, during the two week certification process, and possibly beyond.
Seconds after the polls closed tonight Fox News called the New Hampshire Primary's winner as Mitt Romney. They also said that his victory would be substantial. This makes Romney the first non-incumbent to win both early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. No candidate has ever gotten the Republican nomination without winning one or the other. No other candidate, except a sitting president, has ever won both. (http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-columbus/romney-first-to-win-both-iowa-and-new-hampshire)
Mitt Romney’s one-two punch in Iowa and New Hampshire makes him nearly unstoppable,... (http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20220111romney_all_but_seals_it/)
His expected victory in next Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary would make him the first Republican other than an incumbent president to win Iowa and New Hampshire back-to-back. That would be a huge achievement, propelling him forcefully into the rest of the primary season and quite possibly ending the Republican race well before the first big round of elections on Super Tuesday in early March. (http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-mitt-romney-poised-to-make-history-20120104,0,5677464.story)
To be continued...
The final results are in: Rick Santorum wins Iowa
Over two weeks of "money, momentum and media" for Mitt Romney, effecting voting in New Hampshire, North Carolina and Florida (many people in Florida have already mailed in their ballots). This a major bombshell.
And in Summary:
The fact is that the Iowa Caucus process was terribly flawed, for the following reasons:
- Most importantly, the Iowa GOP recklessly and erroneously announced a winner in a race that was too close to call.
- 8 Precincts were disenfranchised.
- "Typo errors" were discovered in 131 precincts.
- It took over two weeks for an official certification in a race that was too close to call. In a too close to call race, this should have occurred in days, if not hours.
Stories such as the following are commonplace:
Mitt Romney stormed out of New Hampshire Wednesday with a historic achievement under his belt, having scored back-to-back wins in the first two nominating contests,... (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/10/new-hampshire-republican-primary/)
The media narrative of Romney winning both Iowa and New Hampshire does serve to create a perception of inevitability and momentum. This can have a distinct effect on future votes. But is that perception false? Did Romney really win in Iowa?
After the close of vote counting in the Iowa Caucuses, a person who attended one of the Precinct Caucuses was surprised to find that the 2 votes for Romney at his Caucus had turned into 22 votes. Obviously an error of some kind had been made. The story was confirmed by other officials:
The dispute originated when a caucusgoer, Edward True, said in an affidavit that Mitt Romney had been recorded as receiving 22 votes in his precinct, called Washington Wells, when he had in fact received just two votes there on caucus night.
...
The Des Moines Register reported on Friday that Lyle Brinegar, the chair of the Republican Party in Appanoose County, agreed with Mr. True’s account of the vote count and disputed the total listed by the state party.
A third person, Terri Haub, the precinct secretary, also agreed with Mr. True’s account, The Des Moines Register reported.
The alleged 20-vote discrepancy could have potentially swung the victory to Rick Santorum, who trailed Mr. Romney by eight votes statewide based on the state’s initial count. (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/iowa-will-not-change-caucus-result-from-disputed-precinct/)
So enough votes to sway the election in the favor of Rick Santorum were in dispute, but officials assured everyone that the certification process would iron out the details, and that other errors occurred which offset those specific errors identified in Washington Wells. That is a bit vague, and would certainly not hold up under an IRS Audit. Will the final Iowa Certification show us where the errors occurred and what the new counts are? We can only hope at this point. The following is the latest information from Matt Strawn, Chairman of the Iowa GOP:
“Appanoose County has submitted all its required Form E’s for all precincts in Appanoose County,” Mr. Strawn wrote in an e-mail to The Times, referring to the form by which the Republican Party of Iowa certifies its votes on a county-by-county basis. “Now that we have all the county’s forms at Iowa G.O.P. HQ for the two-week certification process, my statement from Thursday night still applies: While we will not comment on specific precinct vote totals during the two-week certification process of 1,774 precincts, the results of the Appanoose County precincts will not change the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.”
...
"The final, certified vote totals will be based on the Form E’s.” (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/iowa-will-not-change-caucus-result-from-disputed-precinct/)
So the current situation is that even though the results from the precinct in question have now been certified, those results will not be revealed "during the two-week certification process". Which raises an obvious question: will they be revealed when the certification process is complete? Inquiring minds want to know.
Meanwhile, the media narrative of the inevitable Romney nomination due to first place finishes in both Iowa and New Hampshire will continue, during the two week certification process, and possibly beyond.
Seconds after the polls closed tonight Fox News called the New Hampshire Primary's winner as Mitt Romney. They also said that his victory would be substantial. This makes Romney the first non-incumbent to win both early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. No candidate has ever gotten the Republican nomination without winning one or the other. No other candidate, except a sitting president, has ever won both. (http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-columbus/romney-first-to-win-both-iowa-and-new-hampshire)
Mitt Romney’s one-two punch in Iowa and New Hampshire makes him nearly unstoppable,... (http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20220111romney_all_but_seals_it/)
His expected victory in next Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary would make him the first Republican other than an incumbent president to win Iowa and New Hampshire back-to-back. That would be a huge achievement, propelling him forcefully into the rest of the primary season and quite possibly ending the Republican race well before the first big round of elections on Super Tuesday in early March. (http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-mitt-romney-poised-to-make-history-20120104,0,5677464.story)
To be continued...
The final results are in: Rick Santorum wins Iowa
Over two weeks of "money, momentum and media" for Mitt Romney, effecting voting in New Hampshire, North Carolina and Florida (many people in Florida have already mailed in their ballots). This a major bombshell.
And in Summary:
The fact is that the Iowa Caucus process was terribly flawed, for the following reasons:
- Most importantly, the Iowa GOP recklessly and erroneously announced a winner in a race that was too close to call.
- 8 Precincts were disenfranchised.
- "Typo errors" were discovered in 131 precincts.
- It took over two weeks for an official certification in a race that was too close to call. In a too close to call race, this should have occurred in days, if not hours.