A member is one who has registered at Free Republic. A Non-Member has not. Both can vote in polls at FR.
I write software. I created something years ago I called the “Poll-I-Nator” that went out and voted in polls. The differential you see between member non member is something like what I made. Takes a load more effort to register, then vote, etc than run something that registers thousands and thousands of fake votes. The diff between member and non-member is something like what I made. Most of the member votes are fake as well. After FR had an impact in politics, many many moles signed up.
There were lamestream media polls turned by the tool I made using just one computer and one internet connection. It is so easy to do.
Ron Paul is a joke, and he is designed to tank the GOP.