This doesn't help my attitude, folks.
"Did Ron Paul Win The Louisiana Caucus?"
"Did Ron Paul Win The Louisiana Caucus?; Complications and botched ballots have led many to believe that the Congressman actually came out as the top candidate on Tuesday"
by Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Friday, Jan 25, 2008
The Ron Paul campaign issued a statement yesterday charging the Louisiana GOP with failure to properly determine voter eligibility, and calling on the LAGOP to count all the ballots submitted in the caucus:
“The failure of the Louisiana GOP to properly determine who was and wasn’t eligible to vote threw this entire process into disarray,” said Ron Paul campaign manager Lew Moore. “The party needs to correct this mistake by counting all the votes immediately, and releasing the results.”
The LAGOP released "preliminary" results of the caucus on Late Wednesday with a carefully worded press release staing that "Delegate candidates endorsed by US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appear to have won more state convention delegate positions than any other presidential slate at the Louisiana Caucuses."
This gave the impression that McCain won the caucus with Paul in second. But as the party then had to explain, due to its own mistakes, some 500-650 voters over five different districts were forced to file provisional ballots which could change the outcome of the entire election.
As the Ron Paul campaign statement makes clear, party officials admitted that caucus locations relied on a voter list dating from November 1, 2007 despite the fact that under caucus rules, voters had until November 30, 2007 to register as Republicans. The Louisiana Secretary of State reported that a huge 2,709 Louisiana residents registered as Republican between November 1, 2007 and November 30, 2007.
Many Ron Paul supporters had not changed parties by the 1st but had done so by the 30th deadline.
This also meant that many state-certified Ron Paul delegates that were on the ballot were forced to file a provisional ballot despite the fact they were pre-approved as delegates.
To add insult to injury, the LAGOP also changed the extremely complicated rules at the last minute to allow other candidates to file more delegates. The original deadline for filing delegates was January 10 and at that time Ron Paul had the largest number pledged to him. The party then changed the rules to give other candidates two more days to file delegates.
It is still unknown how many delegates Ron Paul has won (it is rumored to be between five and ten) but the 500-650 provisional ballots could swing another 20 or so national delegates Ron Paul's way. Somewhere in the region of 30 delegates out of Louisiana would put the Congressman in second or third nationwide, meaning the caucus has a massive significance.
Also of significance is the fact that McCain did not actually "win" the caucus. The "Reagan delegate slate", otherwise known as the "Pro-Life/Pro-Family delegate slate" won the majority of all delegates -- all of whom are uncommitted to any candidate, which is a story in itself.
A party source from one of the precincts in Louisiana has also stated that more than a few of his acquaintances were actually recorded for more than one candidate. Some were on handbills for McCain, Romney, and Uncommitted. This overlap can be seen on the following handbills featuring the various "slates."
Click on above link to story to see handbills photographs.
There are also rumors circulating that some people on the McCain ticket didn’t even know they were on it and claim they don’t support McCain.
All this combined with the fiasco over the provisional ballots means that to declare McCain the frontrunner in Louisiana is a bizarre move given the amount of votes that still need to be tallied and questions that still need to be answered there.
Given that there are 105 delegates and McCain did not win the majority and there are still another 20 or so up for grabs from provisional ballots, if Ron Paul could total 25 and the Pro-Life/Pro-Family delegate slate won over 55 then Ron Paul could have tied or even won the Caucus.
This is why the Paul campaign is so disgruntled with the events of the last 48 hours concerning Louisiana, and so should be the voters there given that their election process is clearly festooned in bureaucracy and general confusion.
Of course, if we do see a significant swing when the results are officially announced it will matter little to a mainstream media that was both too lazy and too inept to report on the caucus in any depth in the first place.
Despite the Louisiana Republican Party having provisionally declared Ron Paul the number two candidate in the state yesterday, the corporate media virtually ignored the announcement."
They ignore us, I ignore them.
And I'm much happier for it!
