start. along with ashleigh banfield. so we had a classic moment happen on air. we were trying to figure out, there were some votes missing, what was happening. and so it all came down to one county. in this nail-biter, it all came down to clinton county. wolf blitzer, bless his heart, the energizer bunny of politics, was on the air for, what, 1,000 hours. 1,000 hours last night. and he got a telephone conversation wh the two women who are essentially responsible for figuring out the mess. they ve been at this for a very long time. so these are not novices. these women know what they re doing. edith pfeiffer is the clinton county gop chair woman and carol is the president of the clinton county republican women. and he got both of them on the phone. yeah, listen to this. we ve got two women calling in we ve actually called them from clinton county from the republican party in clinton county. edith, can you hear me? yes, i can. carolyn is with you as well? question.
yes. i received a call from about 12:20 from the state central committee asking if i knew how to get ahold of someone from 2-2. at that time they gave me a name, and i tried calling because it s late here. they were in bed. and the chair was also in bed. i needed information, so i came to edith s home and pounded on the door and woke her up and got her up. ward 2, precinct 2. who won? mitt romney won with 51 votes. rick santorum and ron paul tied with 33 votes each. so that s 51 to 33. if this is the missing precinct, wolf, add it up there, mitt romney wins by 20-something votes. what s the total for clinton county, romney, santorum, paul? oh. are they correct? i haven t done i oh, god,
clinton county was trying to find out where some of these votes were. and it was critical because we re talking about an eight-vote win. the two women sweet ladies who were trying to figure out what this debaucebacle was, if isn t enough for you to come back and listen to their conversation with wolf blitzer, it s edith and carol coming up. they said maybe they should do a little show for them, right? dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there s a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o s made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol.
because they were waiting for the results is what i was told by the party. and so i came to wake up edith who didn t answer her phone. you ladies don t have any fresh coffee brewed, do you? no, but i think i m ready for it. guess what? joining us now on the phone, edith and carolyn. let s give them a big round of applause. let me start with edith. edith, thank you so much on behalf of all of us, on behalf of the american people, we want to thank you for clearing up this mystery. tell us how you feel right now, edith. i am just overwhelmed with all of this. you re trending worldwide apparently on twitter, i just learned from ali velshi. are you big on the twitter? not so good. and i got an ipad for christmas, but i don t know how to work it yet. would you ladies like to be the co-anchors of a new cnn program, cnn after dark ? cnn after dark.
30,015 votes. and rick santorum, 30,007. if you do the math, it is eight votes that separated them. and as ashleigh s been saying, you should always exercise your right to vote. that last precinct, we had to wait until they reported in order to get to these numbers. it was back and forth and back and forth. like 2 1/2 hours ago. the whole cnn team has been here. in fact, i m still wondering if they re putting their shoes back on. i saw wolf, john king, gloria borger. we asked them to say. they re, like, huh-uh. most pious among the voters would be me. i m a new american so i am so thrill when had i get a chance to vote. and i can t stress it enough today. today s results tell you, america, vote. here is the fabulous des moines register front page. of course, they go to print before they even knew what the decision was. split decision, yes. but there was a clear winner on the left-hand side of your screen. the clear winner by eight votes. mitt romney over rick santorum. go