Maine GOP recounting caucus votes

[MaineDem]

The Maine Republican Party, under fire from Ron Paul supporters for its mishandling of the state’s recent caucuses, is now re-canvassing counties and municipalities to recount vote totals.

POLITICO obtained an email from the State Republican Party asking local chairmen to send them the vote totals from their local straw polls.


“County Chairman & Town Chairman,” an email written by a state Republican Party staffer reads. “We are reconfirming the totals from the Presidential Preference Straw poll. Can you please EMAIL ME the totals from your towns. For County Chairman if you are emailing the total for your entire county can you please list the towns that are included.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72989.html?fb_ref=.Tz1pTbwoAFU.like&fb_source=home_multiline

This is getting more and more bizarre.

This is a new story; not a rehash of earlier reports.

[annabanana]

1. bye bye mittens

just sayin'

[jpak]

4. Bye Bye Maine GOP

yup

[Angry Dragon]

2. Republican Voter Fraud -------------- Where republicans a re not even safe from each other

VFP - Voter Fraud Party

[KurtNYC]

5. Hey democracy is all fun and games until the wrong guy wins

Maybe they should just admit that they count votes like golf scores.

[Uncle Joe]

15. I doubt it was voter fraud, this was election fraud.

GOP = EFP - Election Fraud Party.

The mythical voter fraud BS is their attempt to take attention away from the very real problem of election fraud.

[Firebrand Gary]

3. Do they double down and give Romney more votes or tell the TRUTH that Ron Paul actually won?

I thought we had a few bumps in 08, but this is all out stealing an election for one guy. We all should be concerned about this. If they are willing to manipulate their primary election, you can bet they would do it again in the general.

[elleng]

8. Damned concerned!

At least there's all this monkey business on the record now, so if/when we accuse them of trying to steal the General, it won't be from out of the blue, and we can insist the 'professional' Dems DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

[still_one]

14. Why doesn't Paul contest it? That says a lot about him, and his lack of respect for his supporters

[Jim Lane]

21. I don't blame the victim, even when the victim is a racist whacko

Ron Paul probably had to make a pragmatic decision -- how much money for lawyers etc. to take on the GOP establishment in Maine, through what might be a protracted court fight, for a pretty small reward, versus what that money could do in states that haven't voted yet.

His goal is to get the maximum number of delegates. He has limited resources and has to prioritize. I've been ripped off by various businesses (I'm currently most steamed about the thieves at Hewlett-Packard), but I simply decided it wasn't worth pursuing.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. (a) they did hold recounts for some areas that had voted

which seems to indicate that his campaign did contest something (though Paul lost a few votes by it, in the end)
(b) they are holding the caucuses in the remaining areas
(c) it's non-binding anyway, and the Paul campaign says it does a lot better at actually getting its supporters chosen as delegates to the next round, which is what counts:

After casting votes for their preferred presidential candidates, caucus-goers in Maine have the option to leave before the delegate selection process begins. Under the caucus system, delegates selected in each area then move onto another round — which could be a county caucus or a district caucus or even the state convention. The number of steps differ by state. In Maine, the process moves on to a district/state convention — held simultaneously within the state convention.
...
"It's naive of us to think that there's no transference of presidential preference through this process," he says. "But it's (also) naive of us to think — at least with the Republican presidential process in 2012 — (that we have) a firm grasp on how that's actually translating from one step to the next. ... The assumption going into this is that the number of delegates moving forward is going to be close to proportional to the number of votes in the straw poll vote. But there's nothing in most of these state party rules that requires that."

That's a loophole in the process, he says, that Paul's supporters are using strategically.

"They will stick around and be very regimented in making sure that their supporters gobble up as many of those delegate slots to the next round of this process (as they can). And that very greatly increases their chances of pushing folks through to the national convention," he says. "The straw poll is only for show, essentially."

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/16/146980708/unlocking-the-mysteries-of-delegate-selection

[sarcasmo]

28. +1

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. GOP = the gang that couldn't count straight.

(Though, in fact, there were some rural counties (where Ron Paul was expected to do better) where the caucus was postponed due to a possible snowstorm...)

[elleng]

7. Not COULDN'T but WOULDN'T count straight.

And those rural counties to which you refer have not yet held their caucuses. Will they be counted when they do?

[rocktivity]

9. I'd think twice about relying on Politico

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002317146

So I'll include this link instead, and CUE THE VONAGE THEME!


rocktivity

[MaineDem]

17. It's not just Politico

Local press has copy of the email, too.

[think]

10. And blatant election fraud goes unreported by the MSM. Get use to it

so when it happens to the Democrats in November you don't expect anyone to give a shit. The truth is the MSM is owned by the MIC and they just don't give a fuck about democracy.

[still_one]

13. That is why they want to control the internet, so they control information /nt

[annabanana]

18. It HAPPENED to the Democrats

2000 . . . 2004

nothing new here

[think]

19. I remember and that's why I'm concerned. The Brook's Brothers Riot

topped it off. The GOP stops at nothing and will stoop to any level to win:

Context of '9:00 a.m. and after, November 22, 2000: Florida County Halts Manual Recounts; Election Board Proceedings Disrupted by ‘Brooks Brothers Riot’'

This is a scalable context timeline. It contains events related to the event 9:00 a.m. and after, November 22, 2000: Florida County Halts Manual Recounts; Election Board Proceedings Disrupted by ‘Brooks Brothers Riot’. You can narrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. The lower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higher the scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.

~snip~

November 7, 2000: Two Heavily Democratic Precincts in Florida County Fail to Register Votes for President in Large Numbers
Hundreds of thousands of voters in Miami-Dade County go to the polls to cast their votes for president. Two of its precincts, 255 and 535, are over 88 percent Democrat and over 90 percent African-American. The 20 punch-card machines designated for the two precincts were tested beforehand and certified as working properly, but in the hours before the polls open, a worker at Precinct 255 does a test and finds that seven of the 10 machines do not accept punch-card votes for president. Precinct clerk Donna Rogers will later claim that no one tells her of the problems with the machines, but by the end of the day, 113 of the 868 ballots cast do not register a vote for president. Of the votes that do register in the precinct, over 99 percent of them go to Democrat Al Gore. At Precinct 535, six of the 10 machines fail to register votes for president during test runs. Of the 820 ballots cast in this precinct, 105 do not register a vote for president. Gore wins over 98 percent of this precinct’s votes. The 13 percent “discarded ballot,” or “undervote,” rate for these two precincts is by far the largest in Miami-Dade.

~snip~

More:

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a112200miamihaltrec

Sorry for venting....

[DFW]

11. So? How long could that take, after all?

Only about 47 people voted. It shouldn't be a very suspenseful process.

[Brother Buzz]

22. That's about right after they toss the out-of-state Paulbot college student ballots

[still_one]

12. That the corporate media in general is not reporting this only demonstrates who the corporate media

support, along with the "establishment" in the republican party

Iowa was handled in a similar way, except by all accounts, Paul probably won Maine by a large number of votes over Romney

[MarkCharles]

16. Maine? Iowa? No difference !!!!

I wonder if Maine will have their Republican Party leader resign over this as happened in Iowa.

I can only wish it were so.

[Ian62]

23. Maine GOP chairman forced to backtrack

"due to the number of complaints" from Ron Paul supporters and "death threats"
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/maine-gop-chair-target-of-death-threats-as-ron-paul-supporters-demand-justice

There is expected to be a much higher turnout than normal in Washington county tomorrow because of all the controversy.
There have already been reports of erroneous vote counts filed in official GOP results. All in favor of Mittens.
A lot of districts that did vote by 11th Feb deadline had all zero's - guess what, they seem to have a majority of Paul votes.

Mittens had a wafer thin majority of 194 - probably half that has already gone.
So if Washington shows a majority of say 110+ for Paul, the result will be overturned.

Going to be interesting tomorrow.
It would be DEEPLY embarassing for Mittens and GOP if he loses another 1 like Iowa. lol

[MaineDem]

24. Now the state GOP is saying some od the results may have gone to their spam folder

They're blaming their email system. But they didn't say it was definite; just a "possible" answer for why they didn't report everything. Sure...

[Redstate Bluegirl]

25. From NYT

"Turnout on Saturday in rural Washington County is likely to be much higher than it would have been last week and could be chaotic. Because this is the only county voting — and the margin needed for victory is known — supporters of both Mr. Romney and Mr. Paul could be galvanized to flood the caucus sites. (Mr. Santorum and Newt Gingrich did not actively compete in the state, and trailed in the straw poll.)"

Link here http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/romneys-victory-in-the-maine-caucuses-is-at-risk/#

[yellowcanine]

26. The GOP can't even run a state caucus and they want to run the country.

GOP = Keystone Cops Party

[sarcasmo]

27. Sounds like Paul won and the republicans wouldn't let that happen.

[MaineDem]

29. Live updates from the GOP caucuses in Hancock and Washington counties

BDN reporter Tom Walsh is covering the final GOP caucuses in Maine today as Republicans in Washington County and parts of Hancock County declare their preference for a presidential nominee.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/18/politics/live-updates-from-the-gop-caucuses-in-hancock-and-washington-counties/?ref=relatedSidebar

[MaineDem]

30. Washington County's votes:

Paul again bested Romney more than 2:1 with 163 votes to Romney's 80. Santorum got 57, Gingrich 4 and 2 were undecided.

Paul picked up more earlier from Hancock County but still not enough to give him the "win."

But this means nothing. No delegates were selected. No delegates were allocated. Maine GOP will have to come up with another vote at the convention in June. That WILL count.