Newly Certified Iowa Caucus Totals Show Rick Santorum with a 34-Vote Lead over Mitt Romney; But Cannot be Declared the “Winner” Due to Missing Results – 1/19/12

News is out this morning that certified vote totals in Iowa show Rick Santorum now with a 34-vote lead over Mitt Romney in the January 3, 2012 Iowa Caucuses. But officials say they cannot declare Santorum the “winner” because results from 8 precincts cannot be certified because they are missing:

WASHINGTON POST: Republican front-runner Mitt Romney’s narrow lead in the Iowa caucuses disappeared when officials certified the vote count, a Republican involved in the process said Thursday, but former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum cannot be declared the winner because of irregularities in some precincts.

Instead of leading by eight votes, Romney ended up trailing former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum by 34 votes–29,839 to 29,805, the Republican said. The reversal was first reported by the Des Moines Register, which said results from eight Iowa precincts are missing “and will never be recovered and certified,.”

The certified vote totals from Jan. 3 caucuses will be formally released by the Iowa Republican Party Thursday morning at 8:15 Central time (9:15 in Washington). They will be available for inspection by representatives of the candidates at 9 a.m., Iowa GOP officials said in a statement, and by reporters two hours after that.

More than 122,000 votes were cast during caucuses in 1,774 precincts, meaning that the margin of victory — regardless of who won — was only a fraction of a percent. . . . Read More

So, the two will have to be satisfied with a virtual tie in the 2012 Iowa Caucuses.