“doing something that intentionally skews the results may not always be illegal but it is never really honest.”
I see your point, but to play Devil’s advocate, one could also characterize get-out-the-vote efforts, negative advertising or other tried-and-true tactics to win an election as “skewing” the results that otherwise would occur. I don’t view those as “dishonest”: just playing the game by the rules set by others etc.
That said, I can understand your point that if public polling shows single-digit support, that is a better reflection of “true” voter sentiment than the results of a straw poll where the rules allow multiple voting. But electoral returns do not always follow the polls either and to do the degree they deviate, it could be because of some of the tried-and-true tactics I just cited. Given that no other candidates are insisting that their supporters limit themselves to one vote where multiple votes are legal, I would say Ron Paul would be shooting himself in the foot by unilaterally taking the high road on this issue.
I agree, however Paul supporters take this to a much higher level. Just consider how long he has been in the spot light and the relatively small amount of support he actually garners. I like most of what he stands for but he is not a serious contender for anything other than a congressman.