This is the ultimate story for Romney-haters, isn’t it? Flipping 20 votes from Mitt to Santorum changes nothing on the ground, from the number of delegates they’ll get to the harsh reality of the polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Just doesn’t matter at all — unless you’re so anti-Mitt that the thought of seeing a win yanked from his grasp like candy from a baby fills your heart with a sour, schadenfreudean glee. Then it matters a lot.

On the other hand, if you’re superstitious about the fact that no Republican’s won both Iowa and New Hampshire in a contested campaign since Gerald Ford, then this actually makes things nice and simple for Mitt in NH. He’s about to blow out the Iowa winner by 20 points! Exit quotation: “‘A win is a win,’ one aide kept repeating to nobody in particular.” Click the image to watch.

Update: NYT stats guru Nate Silver: “The story on Romney getting extra votes as a result of a typo looks credible IMO. Romney did very badly in other precincts in that county.”

Update: Go figure. From Johnny Dollar:

Icymi, Santorum told Greta a few min ago that a 21 vote undercount cancelled out his 20 vote undercount so Mitt ends up winning by 9 votes.