Even though Mitt Romney swept both Arizona and Michigan on Tuesday, the official word from Michigan is that Romney and Santorum will split it’s 30 delegates evenly. How bad of news is that for Romney?
I have already argued that Romney needed a win which gave him both the popular vote and the delegate win in Michigan. It turns out he only accomplished one of the two. This could spell trouble for Romney going forward into Super Tuesday, but only if Rick Santorum hits this point hard and fast and doesn’t let up on it until Super Tuesday is over.
Luckily for Romney, I doubt Santorum will do this because he is focusing on Ohio now. Yes the momentum game matters, but it took Michigan over a day to let everyone know that the delegate race was a tie there so the momentum went to Romney. That hurt Santorum, just like the Iowa caucuses delayed announcement that Santorum had won over Romney hurt Santorum.
If I were Santorum, I would be very upset at the system. The only way to get faster, accurate results is to roll out electronic voting machines nationwide. Combine that with internet voting and you could have instantaneous results as soon as polls close. If that system were already in place for these elections, the momentum for Santorum would have been much different and the front runner may very well be him instead of Romney. Too bad…
