Iowa’s Republican governor says there are “lessons to be learned” from the muddled results of Iowa’s 2012 Caucuses.
Iowa GOP officials released the results to The Des Moines Register on Wednesday and then to the rest of the media this morning, showing Rick Santorum ahead of Mitt Romney by 34 votes.
Vote tallies from eight precincts were not submitted on the proper form and forms from about 100 precincts were improperly filled out. During an interview with KGLO Radio in Mason City late this morning, Branstad stressed that the precinct caucuses are run by volunteers.
“Some people maybe called in the results, maybe threw away the paper and didn’t realize how important it (was),” Branstad said. “In normal years, the margin would have been big enough it would have made no difference, but I think there’s some lessons to be learned. We just, we take this very seriously and we need to perfect the process.”
Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn issued a written statement this morning, but Strawn is not responding to requests for an interview.
(Reporting in Mason City by Bob Fisher of KGLO Radio)