The results for the caucuses and primaries are usually declared within a few hours, but these are sometimes amended at a later date.
An extreme example of this is the 2012 Iowa caucus where Mitt Romney was mistakenly given a double-digit lead over his Republican co-runner Rick Santorum, and the result was amended sixteen days later to show that Mr Santorum had, in fact, won.
However, the reality is that the Iowa caucus chooses just one per cent of the delegates who will go on to vote for the presidential nominees.
So it could be argued that the result is not nearly as important as the opportunity to gain positive media attention, and that exceeding expectations is the best outcome, regardless of where the candidate comes.
Many hopefuls will build their strategy around this notion, for example it could be argued that Ted Cruz coming second by a small margin would be of less benefit than Marco Rubio coming comfortably third, because of the expectations already placed upon them.
