Mitt Romney wins Wyoming caucus vote

By Chris Good | ABC News

 

Mitt Romney has won Wyoming's presidential caucus vote, a series of county straw polls that took place over the last three weeks.

With 39 percent, Romney finished ahead of Rick Santorum (32 percent), Ron Paul (21 percent) and Newt Gingrich (8 percent). The Wyoming GOP released the final results Wednesday night.

Like Iowa's presidential caucus vote, Wyoming's is not binding and will in no way affect the state's 29 delegates.

Wyoming's caucuses, however, took place over the better part of a month: Counties were allowed to hold their precinct caucuses over a wide range of time, and the first county voted on Feb. 9. If Iowa's caucuses rendered a snapshot of public sentiment in that state, Wyoming has supplied a pinhole exposure.

More media attention will likely be paid to Wyoming's county conventions, held March 6-10, which will directly elect 12 delegates to the Republican National Convention, and to its April state convention, which will elect another 14 delegates. None of those delegates will be allocated (or "bound") to any presidential candidate, though each will have to announce support for a particular candidate or "undecided."
Only 2,108 total votes were cast in Wyoming's precinct caucuses - far fewer than were recorded in any state's GOP primary or caucus so far. Nevada, the next smallest event, saw more than 30,000 Republican votes.
Also like in Iowa, the precinct caucuses served another function, besides recording a presidential-preference vote: electing delegates to Wyoming's later conventions. If Romney's win tonight is any indication, he'll receive more backing than his competitors from Wyoming's unbound national delegates at the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., this August.