Mitt Romney defeated Ron Paul by 194 votes last Saturday in the Maine Caucus. This victory still appears in doubt because Washington County cancelled its caucus due to weather and several counties who scheduled their caucuses for after February 12 have not had their vote totals included. Even worse, some counties that did caucus did not have their totals listed in the final count.
Now, a full recount is unlikely because these caucuses are run by the Republican party within the state of Maine, rather then the national Republican party. Maine is largely a beauty contest where results are non-binding in terms of selecting delegates--that’s a second state run process.
Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2012/0215/Should-Ron-Paul-demand-a-new-vote-count-in-Maine.
If I was a Republican, I would be embarrassed. This is the second caucus state officials may have screwed up. This makes the party look incompetent on some level. This is the party that wants to unseat President Obama, but yet screws up their nominating process in at least one, if not two states.
This has serious repercussions for voters, why should anyone go to a caucus or primary, if the state party apparatus can make such a mess of things? Voters want to know that their vote matters and the results are tallied accurately.
Without this, the party opens itself to conspiracy theorists, who would claim some pro-Romney agenda. I am not touching that one.
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