Seems Rick Santorum won Iowa, not romney. Only thing I can think of is that to many Floridians moved to Iowa. Coming soon from your nearest mathematically challenged repubs, cuts to education.

Problem is not so much the counting, as the process.

The ballots are paper, and votes are counted by hand at each caucus location, certified by the local caucus officials and then called in.

What you get caucus night that is reported is what the people at the headquarters wrote down...not what was actually certified on paper at each local caucus location. What you are seeing now for a large part is the error prone part of that process...people noting a different number at the call in than what was certified on the official tally form.

That said, it also appears there are 8 precincts where those official forms have not been found/turned in as they are supposed to have been.

 

-----signature-----

So if I understand it correctly there are missing ballots? The repubs really do not want Romney to win do they.

At this point, there are 1776 precincts certified out of 1774 total precincts. The problem is that there appears to have been no official Form E's filled out for those precincts/and or that they did not make it into state headquarters by the deadline.

You start with everyone voting by a paper ballot, and turning them in. The votes are then counted in public view at the precinct, and the vote totals certified by the precinct chair and secretary. Those vote numbers are supposed to be recorded on an official Form E, and signed by both the precinct chair and secretary, and can be looked over by any supporter at that point for accuracy again of the numbers.

It is those officially signed Form E's that have not turned up for the 8 precincts.

So while those 8 precincts were counted caucus night because the numbers were called in, the certification process goes by the official Form E's. Without them, the 8 precincts can not be certified.

So ultimately the problem lies with the 8 precincts who did not either fill out the official forms certifying the results, or in not ensuring they got to party headquarters by the deadline.

 

-----signature-----