Jim Robinson
Posted on 02/15/2012 11:44:31 AM PST by TitansAFC
AUGUSTA, Maine — Pressure is mounting on the Maine Republican Party to reconsider its weekend declaration that Mitt Romney won the state’s caucuses, at least until all votes have been counted.
The Maine GOP announced Saturday that Romney narrowly edged Ron Paul, 39 percent to 36 percent, in a nonbinding presidential preference poll taken during the caucuses. The margin was fewer than 200 votes.
A number of communities were not included in that poll because they had not held their caucuses by the deadline spelled out by the state party.
Washington County Republicans postponed their caucuses, originally scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11, because of a pending snowstorm and will now meet this Saturday. Other communities across the states also have caucuses scheduled for this weekend and later this month.
All along, state GOP officials said communities knew that their votes would not be included in the final results if they did not hold their caucus by Feb. 11.
However, a review of the town-by-town results released Saturday by the Maine GOP suggests that some communities that had caucused prior to Feb. 11 were not counted. Nearly all Waldo County towns held caucuses on Feb. 4 but those towns were blank in the results released by the state party. Additionally, Waterville held its caucuses ahead of time but were not included in the results.
Waldo County GOP Chairman Raymond St. Onge said the results were sent to the state party on Tuesday, Feb. 7. He said those results probably would not have changed the outcome but was disheartened the votes were not included.
St. Onge said he spoke to party officials late Tuesday about why Waldo County’s results were omitted.
“They said it was a clerical error,” St. Onge said. “I’m going to believe them because there were other errors that occurred. I don’t think it was intentional because our results wouldn’t have changed the winner.”
Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said Monday that including all caucus votes likely would not change the outcome of the state’s preference poll. Asked whether the party would consider updating the result to include all communities, he said that is up to the state party committee, which meets next month.
Some big names already are urging the party to reconsider.
“I think it’s not surprising that there would be very strong objections to the notion that our votes wouldn’t count in Washington County,” Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, said Tuesday. “I’ve made known my position that those votes should count and the [GOP] chair said he would take that request to the state committee.”
L. Sandy Maisel, professor of government at Colby College and a Democrat, said the perception seems to be that because the Maine Republican Party establishment largely supported Romney, it was selective when tallying the results.
“It sure looks like they counted what they wanted to count,” he said.
Paul supporters have taken to Facebook to generate interest in Maine’s remaining caucuses. Even Paul supporters in New Hampshire are planning a get out the vote effort in Washington County’s biggest towns this weekend.
In 2008, only 113 Republicans caucused in all of Washington County, according to Webster, and only eight of those voters supported Paul.
But Maisel said that’s not the point. Even if the results don’t change, the party needs to acknowledge that perception is louder than reality at the moment.
“I think this is a red flag to people that want to be part of the party organization because that organization doesn’t seem to exist,” he said. “They came up with a bad process and then decided ‘we can get some publicity.’”
Maisel said he thinks the caucus process should change but doubts that it will.
“To have a beauty contest preference poll makes no sense,” he said. “They should be electing delegates who are pledged to a candidate.”
Raye said he believes that although the Maine results are nonbinding they matter “in the court of public opinion.”
He also said he fully expects record turnout at the Washington County GOP caucuses this weekend.
What? No mysterious truck driving around Maine with caucus results. :-)
It appears Ron Paul got the same treatement Santorum got in Iowa.
Go Ron Paul, go Maine! ahem
Romney needs better flying monkeys. This is the second state his minions messed up.
Regardless of the eventual outcome, it looks like they quit counting votes when they got the winner they wanted—Romney.
I thought Iowa was a fluke, but now that it’s happened a second time, it looks like there is a deliberate vote fraud going on to by the GOP establishment to help Romney.
Really, how else do you explain a state not even counting all of the votes in an election?
How can they declare a winner without counting all the votes? Eventually all the votes have to be counted or it’s blatent voter fraud. This is pure GOP establishment pulling out third world tricks to get Romney elected against the will of the people.
The Maine GOP establishment should be arrested for this fraud.
Better keep a close eye on Michigan since our attorney General is running the Romney campaign here.
“It appears Ron Paul may yet win Maine!”
He probably will, those counties were supposed to be his strongest.
Ron Paul, Coulter’s second choice.
“It appears Ron Paul got the same treatement Santorum got in Iowa.”
Yes, that’s true, but this process is exposing the slimy underbelly of the GOP. That the party “leaders” have decided who they want the candidate to be and are working at warp speed to make that happen irrespective of what registered Republican Party members think or want. So how is this much different than the RAT party? The only good I see coming from this is that it has been clearly exposed to most Republicans, but it remains to be seen if they will decide to do anything about it. Maybe after the country goes bust, they will want to take a look! And we cluck about how stupid the average RAT is. We need to look in the mirror.
This might be why some of the GOP-e seems more comfortable with the Democrats than the Tea Party Republicans.
From my perspective, they’re both losers.
Wait, what?
See, saved y’all from the trouble of counting the rest of those nasty votes.
I dunno. It sounds like nobody turned out.... what a pathetic turnout.
Looks like Texas might not even hold a primary, we might have state party RINO’s choose our delegates
It doesn't matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes.Joseph Stalin
Wait 'til you see the Virginia Primary turnout.
They should certainly count all the caucuses which took place in the correct time period.
The should certainly not count caucuses which are happening after the election is over.
I am ambivilant about the caucus that had to be canceled because of weather. In any real election, stuff happens, and they don’t let us come back a week later to vote because of weather. On the other hand, we have had polls kept open an hour or two for weather or other reasons. On the third hand, that almost always happens because liberal complain and get special treatment.
But it would be absurd to take an election that is done, and have a new caucus now when only one candidate is crazy enough to still be fighting for the results, and count them as if they were the same as all the votes from people who came out in the bad weather of the week and voted for their candidates.
Of course, all of this is for a non-binding preference poll. I really am getting to hate caucuses, at least they way they are run — they make a mockery of the right to vote, and nobody seems to be able to run them without it looking like corruption is rampant.
Dang RINOs cheat just like their buds on the Left. RINO Romney can’t win a primary w/o cheating. Let’s blame it on Ron Paul.
I thought Republicans were hunted to extinction in that state decades ago. Learn something new everyday
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