Supporters of GOP presidential contender Ron Paul have adamantly asserted that the election is being stolen from their candidate of choice. Prior to the start of the primary process, Texas Congressman Paul won numerous straw polls and broke records with campaign contributions, boasting passionate grassroots energy that helped build a momentum unparalleled by any other contender. But one by one as the caucus results began to be unveiled, Paul’s supporters declared that Ron Paul’s position has been usurped by the establishment candidates. Dr. Paul remained relatively silent on the issue until this week, when he told his supporters that he was very suspicious of the outcomes of caucuses.
“Quite frankly I don’t think the other candidates get crowds like this, and we get them constantly,” Paul said to reporters, after he had spoken to yet another crowd of over 2500 supporters in Missouri. “You would get the perception that we would be getting a lot more votes. Sometimes we get thousands of people like this and we’ll take them to the polling booth, yet we won’t win the caucus,” he commented, adding, “A lot of our supporters are very suspicious about it.”
When Paul was informed that Rick Santorum won the Kansas caucus, he remarked, “That reminds me of a picture I just looked at. I had four thousand people and he had a hundred and fifty. So who knows.”
The Congressman did not wish to elaborate on his suspicions, but did say, “It’s just instinct and hearsay stories, verbal stories that you hear and the kind of things that we heard about up in Maine.”
“They said we can’t have a recount because they just write these numbers down on pieces of paper and then throw them away afterwards. So it’s that kind of stuff that makes you suspicious,” Paul noted.
For some critics, the Iowa Caucus was a clear-cut example of this. As noted on the Daily Paul, Ron Paul was “winning by 1 percent over Mitt Romney and 7 percent ahead of Santorum” during CNN’s “entrance” polls. Once the vote grew to 11 percent, however, the vote was “flipped” and Ron Paul moved to third, where he stayed for the rest of the night.
According to the American Action Report, the voter fraud in South Carolina was a bit more rampant. First, the machines by which the votes were cast in South Carolina were programmed by a company that has been found guilty of criminal behavior in the past.
Following the South Carolina primary, the American Action Report notes:
The Internet is buzzing with talk that 953 posthumous ballots were cast in the recent South Carolina Republican Party primary. Actually, this news item was based on a letter that S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson wrote to U.S. Attorney two days before the primary. He wrote that 953 such ballots had been cast in “recent elections.” Additionally, he wrote that 4,965 ballots had been cast by voters who were no longer qualified to vote because they had moved from the state. We’re talking about a total of 5,918 illegal ballots. Wilson was concerned that this may also happen in the 2012 Republican Party primary.
Newt Gingrich was declared the winner of the South Carolina primary, but the irony is that in the days leading up to the primary, Gingrich’s support seemed to be rather lightweight. Prior to the South Carolina primary, Gingrich was forced to cancel an event in Charleston due to lack of interest, as reported in the video The Ron Paul FIX is in, while Ron Paul was able to attract over 1,000 supporters in the Holy City.
Meanwhile, poll watcher Christopher Lawton reported a number of suspicious irregularities at precincts across South Carolina.
The final results in Nevada were suspicious as well, just based on the trends leading up to the primary. In every other state primary, Ron Paul doubled his tally from 2008, except for in Nevada, which showed Ron Paul receiving just a few hundred more votes than he did in 2008.
“Ron Paul who took second in Nevada in 2008 with 6,087 votes, only increased his support by 1.4% to just 6,175 in the 2012 results, despite all of the excitement, all the money spent, which was a lot more,” reports Money Trends Research. “In fact, the Paul campaign had brochures and volunteers almost knock on every door in Nevada this time around. Nevada is also very fertile ground for a candidate like Ron Paul[:] many people in Nevada just want to be left alone by the government, Ron Paul opposes taxing tips, seeing that they are not really income, but gifts, you would think this would go over real well in Las Vegas.”
For Paul’s supporters, it seemed difficult to understand how Mitt Romney won the Nevada primary in a landslide when Ron Paul’s campaign dumped massive amounts of money into that state, while Romney hardly did any campaigning there at all.
What is also suspicious about that primary is that Mitt Romney was declared the winner before votes from Clark County — the largest county in Nevada — were counted. And in the only precinct where the vote count was aired from Clark County — the one wherein the special religious caucus was held — Paul dominated Romney, 183 to 45. That precinct held the demographic that would have been the least likely to support Ron Paul, orthodox Jews and conservative Christians, and yet Paul’s victory was massive.
“Many had watched the results being tabulated live on national TV just as this author had,” writes Mark Wachtler. “We all saw Ron Paul’s overwhelming victory in that part of Clark County. It’s unimaginable to believe that in the same county, a candidate could win overwhelmingly when the votes were counted live on TV, but lose so badly when the votes were counted by the Party establishment behind closed doors.”
Many skeptics questioned the major delay in counting all the precincts in Nevada as well as the sudden transition from current news coverage of the event to earlier coverage, seemingly without cause. Lew Rockwell writes:
When CNN shut down its election coverage after Ron won the Adelson caucus, there was no explanation, just a confusing switch to earlier coverage. We still do not know the results for approximately half the votes in the state. I believe Ron came in a solid second, at least, beating Newt and threatening Rom. And who knows, he might have done better than that. We can be pretty sure there are shenanigans going on, because the MSM is not questioning the unprecedented delay.
This is by no means evidence that voter fraud took place in Nevada, but it is certainly enough to raise questions.
But for most skeptics, the greatest example of possible voter fraud through the GOP primary race can be found in the state of Maine.
Prior to the day of the primary, Ron Paul led the other candidates by a large margin. As the final votes were being tallied in Maine, his campaign optimistically announced, "Only 194 votes [statewide] stand between Paul and a first place victory," RonPaul 2012 blogger Jack Hunter pointed out in a post after the media declared Romney the winner. "Washington County is a stronghold for Paul and has yet to report. It might be a week before we know the final outcome there and Washington County is expected to yield 200 votes or more."
Unfortunately, the Washington County caucus was canceled in anticipation of a possible snowstorm, even as the weather forecast for that county predicted just 3-5 inches of total accumulation for that day, a dusting by Maine standards. Other counties, where the caucuses were not cancelled, were predicted to have upwards of six inches of snow.
“That’s right. A prediction of 3-4 inches — that turned into nothing more than a dusting — was enough for a local GOP official to postpone the caucuses just so the results wouldn’t be reported tonight,” spokesman Gary Howard wrote in an E-mail to supporters, adding that even the local Girl Scouts’ meeting survived the weather.
Meanwhile, Maine’s state GOP Chairman Charlie Webster later stated that any of the later caucuses would not be counted in the vote totals. "Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement," Webster told the Associated Press February 11. "Their results will not be factored in. The absent votes will not be factored into this announcement after the fact."
The New American’s Thomas Eddlem reported:
The cancellation of the Washington County caucus alone among Maine caucuses scheduled for February 11 has led many Paul supporters to suspect electoral shenanigans by the Republican establishment to deny Paul a state victory. That Washington County would vote heavily in favor of Paul was well-known, and Paul was widely seen as the only credible threat to Romney.
Maine’s results are so questionable that even the mainstream media is questioning the final results. Even left-wing pundit Rachel Maddow came to Ron Paul’s defense.
Still, Paul remains confident that he will garner the delegates he needs, and that is the most important part of the process.
“We’re getting a lot of delegates, and the delegates are what counts,” said Paul.
