Rick Santorum: Iowa caucuses still "not yet decided"

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Friday that the results of the Republican caucuses in Iowa have "not yet been decided" and that he could still be declared the winner in the January 3 contest that Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won by just eight votes.

At a campaign stop in Rock Hill, Santorum said, "Iowa has not yet been decided. The idea that Mitt Romney has won Iowa is still very much an open question that will be decided in two weeks as they go through the certification of those numbers and those numbers are changing.

He didn't suggest he would win, just that the outcome was still in doubt. "I just throw that open to you," he said. "This idea that this is a fait accompli that Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee, or that Mitt Romney is on a roll, let me assure you ladies and gentleman, South Carolina has a lot to say about that."

After narrowly defeating Santorum in Iowa, Romney went on to win the New Hampshire primary handily January 10, firmly establishing him as the front-runner for the GOP nomination heading into the January 21 primary in South Carolina.