Ron Paul wins Washington County (Maine), but not by enough

[jpak]

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Washington-County-caucus-has-begun.html

EAST MACHIAS – Ron Paul won Washington County and Hancock County's much-anticipated caucuses today, but not by enough to overturn Mitt Romney's controversial victory in Maine.

An announced attendance of 306 voters crammed into the cafeteria at Washington Academy in Washington County this morning, a week after the original caucus had been postponed due to snow.

Paul won today's contest easily with 163 votes, compared to Romney's 80, Santorum's 57, Gingrich's four. Two voters were undecided.

He also won Hancock County's caucus, nabbing 41 votes compared to Romney's 16.

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[KamaAina]

1. There's still Waldo County

a Paul stronghold, where the results were initially reported as zero.

[izquierdista]

4. Where's Waldo?

[madinmaryland]

8. On the roof of Rmoney's car.

[Firebrand Gary]

2. Does anybody have a state total without Waldo Co? n/t

[OnlinePoker]

7. From Wiki

A controversy nicknamed "Where's Waldo?" centered around 17 towns in Waldo County holding a joint caucus whose preference ballots were tabulated and submitted on time but not included in the final preference tally by the state GOP. These votes included 43 for Paul, 41 for Santorum, 35 for Romney and 18 for Gingrich--not enough by itself to change the statewide winner, but enough to reduce Romney's margin of victory.[

[sarcasmo]

3. I would be willing to bet Paul won Maine. When this election was held magic undies had the

steam engine rolling and the party didn't want that steam to let up. If Paul would have been declared the winner, the clown car would have been a bigger mess than it already has become.

[grantcart]

19. Ironically he could end up with all of the delegates

The caucus stage is the easy stage to be followed by County Conventions and the State Convention.

At the state convention the credentials committee has the power to unseat minority groups and give the whole thing to the majority.

The Paul campaign has indicated that in all of the caucus states they have leaveraged their caucus numbers to control many county and state conventions and that they will get a lot more delegates than people realize.

[Iliyah]

5. And you would be right

Paul did win Maine, just like Frosty won Iowa. The GOP establishment know who they want. Comes convention time, Ron Paul will "sell" his delegates to Mittens.

[KamaAina]

16. Who's Frosty?

Frothy won Iowa. Google it.

[quakerboy]

18. I don't get that one

By what I see it seems more likely that Mittens won Iowa. What I saw seems to indicate that the on the spot counts done in front of witnesses said Mittens. It wasn't until they disqualified several counties and "recounted" behind closed doors that frothy came out ahead.

[valerief]

6. Yeah, but how many votes did the turnip get? nt

[mrmx9]

9. Updated figures incl Waldo have been issued by Maine GOP - Mitt has now won by about 120!

After having spent a week checking their mailbox for the 'spam' emails -containing the results which had been missed - the Maine GOP released updated figures including Waldo County and Waterville last night. Those were the places identified by MSNBC as being missing.

http://www.mainegop.com/2012/02/maine-republican-party-releases-presidential-preference-updated-results/

The updated figures actually boosted Mittens lead to about 230 - so by my estimate now Romney has 'won' the Maine caucus by about 120 votes including Washington and Hancock. Not sure if we can trust the results - but those will be the official numbers I expect.

Its interesting that despite there being over 300 caucuses held in Maine Mitts victory margin broadly equates to his lead in just 3 locations - Kennebunkport where he won by 40 votes over Paul (56 to 17), Kennebunk where he won by 29 to 5 and Cape Elizabeth where Mitt beat Paul by a huge 80-17. If those 3 places out of 300 are excluded then Paul got more votes.

I do find it odd that Kennebunkport - with 4,000 residents - cast 73 votes and Cape Elizabeth with only 9,000 cast 124 but Waterville (which Paul won easily) with 16,000 residents cast only 29 in total? But it must be true - as the GOP says so!

[KamaAina]

10. Kennebunkport?

That sounds vaguely familiar. Where have I heard that name before?

[NWHarkness]

11. Bush family compound

[KamaAina]

15. I know that.

I left out the thingy.

[mrmx9]

12. Perhaps the Bushes and the Kennedys rigged the Maine caucus for Mitt?!

Not sure why the town likes Mitt so much - but I am sure the Bush connection will have the conspiracy theorists talking!

[magical thyme]

13. Waldo County is a little north of Lincoln and Knox Counties

On the coast, Waldo runs from Lincolnville to Belfast to Winterport. It's just south of Hancock County (Ellsworth/Bar Harbor) and inland is also just south of Bangor.

[janet118]

17. Colby is in Waterville . . .

that is odd.

[mrmx9]

22. Yes -odd so few Colby students turned out!

I was surprised at those votes from Waterville. Colby is a liberal arts college with 1,800 students that gets given awards by Amnesty International.

You might think it was prime territory for Paul to get lots of votes - as there was no Democratic caucus. Yet only 29 people in the whole of this town of 15,000 people (incl 1,800 Colby students) turned out in the caucus. It doesn't seem possible!

But I know the Maine GOP chair has been taking out lawsuits to stop college students in Maine voting so perhaps they just felt too intimidated to vote!. The more I learn about Charlie Webster the more you understand how this whole sorry mess occurred - he just doesn't seem like a decent guy at all.

http://mainecampus.com/2011/09/07/gop-chair-college-students-skew-elections/

[Mkap]

14. The local KKK must of shown up to vote for Ron Paul

[Ter]

24. "Must of" is improper English

It's "must have."

[pinto]

21. Thanks for the updates all. I was wondering how it went down.

[DallasNE]

23. Romney Gained 45 Votes In The Statewide Canvas

Just those votes represent an 8.5% error rate in the original reporting, which is huge. Plus, no recount is possible. We knew Romney would benefit from this and increase his lead to an insurmountable amount, which has happened. To say that this stinks to high heaven is to put it mildly. One presumes that there were also adjustments to the Santorum and Gingrich totals meaning the error rate was actually higher than 8.5%. This makes Iowa Republicans look like honest brokers (and the Iowa GOP Chair was forced to resign).

[mrmx9]

25. Should Maine GOP Chair Chair be investigated for election fraud - like the 200 students he accused?

Charlie Webster last year asked the Maine Secretary of State to investigate over 200 students studying in Maine for voter fraud - because he said they may have voted twice

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/09/22/325703/as-gop-cracks-down-on-student-voters-study-finds-zero-student-voter-fraud/

However it turned out there was not a shred of evidence of wrongdoing by anyone - and the Maine taxpayer had been forced to pay for this silly investigation.

"After a two-month investigation into possible voter fraud by college students and noncitizens, Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers said Wednesday his evidence showed that none of the students committed fraud and only one noncitizen voted in Maine.

Nevertheless, Summers said his investigation confirmed his belief that Maine’s election system is “fragile and vulnerable,” and he vowed to submit legislation in January to fix some of the problems"

Someone should report Webster for election fraud - because there seems to be a lot more evidence he is complicit than the students he got investigated by the Maine police.

[MaineDem]

26. Since this was a Party-run straw poll and not an election I think this is a bit premature

I think Charlie Webster should not be Chair of the Maine GOP but, as someone in another thread pointed out, he is a gift that keeps on giving to the Dems. Like the Governor. Although Maine people are being hurt by their actions.

Republicans in the state are not happy at this mess. They're airing their family linen in public and it's interesting to watch. I'm waiting for the implosion.