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Could Ron Paul Still Win Maine?
(FiveThirtyEight/The Caucus) – Losing the Maine straw poll, even after the fact, would be unfortunate for Mr. Romney, former governor of nearby Massachusetts, since he is locked in a struggle right now in Michigan, his home state, with Mr. Santorum.
In Maine, party rules allowed a winner to be declared last week, even though several towns had not voted yet and their votes would not be counted in the total.
But then the caucuses in Washington County were postponed because of bad weather. That meant that the votes from an entire county would not be included in the final tally.
Charlie Webster, the state’s Republican chairman, initially said that Washington County’s absence from the total vote would not matter because in 2008, only eight people in the county had voted for Mr. Paul. But the Paul campaign and others protested vocally, saying the decision was undemocratic.
In addition, it turned out that the results of some caucuses that were held last week — most of those in Waldo County, for example — and were expected to be included in the total had not been counted either. (Waldo County’s problem was attributed to a clerical error.) This only added to the outrage, much of it directed at Mr. Webster and the state party.
h/t Blog for Arizona
- Maine GOP adds missing caucus votes, but won’t release updated vote count
- Pressure mounting for GOP caucus reconsideration
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
