Maine GOP Stole Maine Caucus Vote From Ron Paul

You have to check out this YouTube clip of a local Fox News affiliate report on the disastrous Maine caucus vote last weekened, which the state GOP's chairman declared had been won by Mitt Romney by fewer than 200 votes over Ron Paul. As it turns out, the vote announced by the chairman included only 84% of the votes cast. Votes that were scheduled to be taken in two counties were cancelled by the state party due to bad weather concerns that never materialized. The state's GOP chairman says those votes will not be counted in the statewide total announced last weekend because they missed the deadline. Among the statewide vote reported last Saturday, the votes cast in dozens of towns in Maine were registered as casting zero votes according to this report. The person who chaired the caucus at one of the towns registered as casting no votes told the news reporter that Ron Paul had won the caucus vote, and those votes had been sent to the state GOP to be included in the statewide count. Local caucus chairs were instructed by state party officials to keep the vote results under seal; however, the caucus voted to make their vote public, and the caucus chair did so by posting the final results on Twitter. When the caucus chair contacted the state party about the discrepency, he was told by a woman working for the state party that their votes had been received, but she gave a vote count that showed Romney a big winner, when he had in fact finished a distant third behind Paul and Santorum. The woman became silent when the caucus chair challenged the tally result. Other towns not counted in the statewide vote are also reporting that Paul won the vote in their caucuses. The state party has already revised the statewide vote count in light of complaints by Republicans throughout the state that the vote was rigged, but the party's chairman has said he won't publicly release the revised vote count until the state party meets next month after the Super Tuesday primaries when it won't matter. This is the exact type of shenanigans that went on four years ago in the Democratic nomination race where Obama operatives rigged caucus votes in a number of states. Obama won the 2008 Democratic nomination narrowly on the strength of the caucus votes. Hillary Clinton actually received more votes during the 2008 primaries, but thanks to stolen caucus votes, Obama won more delegates than her.

The Daily Caller has a separate report here on the Maine GOP's refusal to release updated caucus results.

The Maine Republican Party has added additional votes accidentally omitted from Saturday’s caucus results, state party chairman Charlie Webster told The Daily Caller Wednesday. But those votes won’t be publicly released.

“We don’t want any more drama,” Webster told TheDC. “I’ve already got death threats and 1,800 emails.”

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was declared the victor in Maine over the weekend, claiming a slim 194-vote lead over Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Paul supporters, however, expressed dismay over errors in tabulating vote counts in various localities, including several towns in Waldo County. That county’s Republican committee passed a motion of censure against Webster on Tuesday.

In addition to the missing votes, a caucus scheduled for Washington County on Saturday was postponed due to a forecast of snow. The Paul campaign insisted that it would have won the state had the vote not been pushed back, and the county’s GOP chair is advocating that its results be included in the ultimate tally.

The Paul campaign is expected to make a serious push for turnout in Washington County’s rescheduled caucus this Saturday.

“If Romney lost by 20 votes, would we be having this big discussion?” Webster mused.