On February 3, the Iowa Republican Party released the final, official tally from the February 1 caucus. Eight candidates have at least one delegate: Cruz 8, Trump 7, Rubio 7, Carson 3, Paul 1, Bush 1, Fiorina 1, Kasich 1. Under Iowa Republican Party rules, if at least two candidates are placed in nomination at the Cleveland convention, then all delegates must vote for the candidate they are pledged to, even if that candidate has withdrawn. Thanks to FrontloadingHQ for the link, and also for the information that the Iowa delegates are bound on the first ballot to the candidate they were elected to represent, even if that candidate has withdrawn.
“Cruz 8, Trump 7, Rubio 7, . . .” In Presidential elections it is the number of electoral votes, not popular votes, that counts. In the Iowa primary it is the number of delegates elected, not raw votes at caucus meetings, that counts. So, it appears that Rubio was not actually third but rather that he TIED Trump for second – of is it that Trump tied him for third?
Huckabee also secured a delegate.
Fiorina, Kasich, Huckabee, and Christie were all quite close and were entitled to 0.559, 0.558, 0.537, 0.527 delegates prior to rounding. If we represent the raw delegate allocation as a mixed decimal fraction, the total of all fractions was 6. This means the 6 final delegates would be awarded based on which candidates had the largest fractions.
Rubio, Bush, and Carson received the first three, while Fiorina, Kasich, and Huckabee received the next three, and Christie missed out.
The margin between Huckabee and Christie was 61 votes, or 0.033% (about 1/30 of one percent), or one in 3046 voters.
The margin between Paul, who also received one delegate, and Huckabee was 5136 votes, or 84 times the margin between Huckabee and Christie.
The allocation also illustrates several examples of the Alabama Paradox, where if Iowa had additional total delegates, some candidates could lose delegates. Though Christie was close to Huckabee, he would not get a delegate until 34 delegates were awarded, but would lose that one if 36 delegates were awarded. He would get it back at 37, but lose it at 40.