How the Republican Party Stole the Nomination from Ron Paul

How the Republican Party Stole theNomination from Ron Paulwordpress.comjuly 31 2012If you follow mainstream election coverage,you might think Mitt Romney has coasted toan honest, easy, well-deserved Republicannomination. Unfortunately for Republicanvoters, nothing could be further from the truth.The primary process has been an all-outslugfest and many of the delegates Romneyhas won may be the result of dirty tricks andeven election fraud. The following narrativeincludes links to reports, first-handtestimonials, and video evidence highlightingactions taken by the GOP to ensure a Romneyvictory, at the expense of fracturing the partyjust prior to the general election. Party leadersat the county and state level have changed or violated party rules, cancelled caucuses, changed votecounts, thrown out entire counties of votes, counted public votes privately, called-in the SWAT team,and inexplicably replaced Paul delegates with Romney delegates to block Ron Paul from winning thenomination.Iowa: Days before the caucuses, Paul held a commanding lead in the polls and all the momentum, withevery other candidate having peaked from favorable media coverage and then collapsed under theensuing scrutiny. Establishment Republicans, like Iowa’s Representative Steve King (R), attempted tosabotage Paul’s campaign by spreading rumors he would lose to Obama if nominated. Even though theIowa GOP platform reads like a Ron Paul speech, shortly before the caucuses, Iowa Governor TerryBarnstad told Politico , “[If Paul wins] people are going to look at who comes in second and whocomes in third. If Romney comes in a strong second, it definitely helps him going into NewHampshire”. The message from the Governor to voters of his state was: a vote for Ron Paul was a wasted vote. Huffington Post reported that Paul was ahead by one point over Romney and Rick Santorum in entrance polls conducted by Edison Media Research for the AP before the caucuses. For the first time ever, the Iowa GOP changed the final vote count to a secret location . After the caucus, results from 8 precincts (including those with colleges, in a state where Paul won 48% of the youth vote)

went missing. Interestingly, these were all precinctsRomney lost in 2008. In addition, GOP officialsdiscovered inaccuracies in 131 precincts. Thoughpolling in a comfortable first place, Paul finished third inthis non-binding straw poll, behind Romney andSantorum.Iowa originally reported Romney in first, Santorum in aclose second, and Paul third. After the recount,Santorum was named the winner with Romney insecond. No mention was given to how the recountaffected Paul’s vote count. Iowa GOP chairman, MattStrawn, later resigned and was replaced by Paulsupporter, A.J. Spiker and Paul went on to win themajority of delegates.Florida: The Florida GOP broke party rules by switchingto a winner-take-all state before the date allowed, whichfavors the candidate with the most money for advertising and attack ads. Senior Advisor to the RonPaul campaign, Doug Wead, claims this was done specifically to favor Romney.Nevada: There is bad blood between Paul’s supporters and establishment Republicans in Nevada. Thisdates back to 2008, when Convention Chair, Sue Lowden and her enlisted delegates got up and walkedout of the convention when it became apparent Paul’s supporters would claim a majority of thedelegates. She claimed she would reconvene at a later time, but instead approved the McCain slate ofdelegates. This year, Paul supporters expected shenanigans; so his State Chairman, Carl Bunce, plannedto win by outworking Romney. Just before the caucuses, he claimed to have “more IDs than Romneyhad votes in ’08″. This means through canvassing door-to-door and phoning voters, he had identifiedabout 25,000 voters committed to show up and vote for Paul.On caucus day, the media was denied access to most caucus sites and the few that were permitted werenot allowed to take photos. Others were even ejected from sites. This CNN clip shows GOP staffpreventing a Paul supporter from entering the premises to vote at a special caucus that was set up at thelast minute for Newt Gingrich backer, Sheldon Adelson. Here, participants were asked to sign anaffidavit (under penalty of perjury) stating they were Jewish and couldn’t vote earlier in the day due to“religious reasons”. CNN showed live coverage of votes being counted at this event, with Paulamassing nearly 60% of the votes. In some precincts in Clark County, the largest in Nevada, thenumber of ballots did not match the number of voters signed in at the caucus. Though votes were to becounted publicly, they were largely counted in private. The vote count was also inexplicably draggedout for several days, leading to a victory for Romney. Nevada State GOP Chairwoman, Amy Tarkanianresigned the day after the caucuses.Another interesting note is that Paul’s 2012 votes had doubled, tripled, and more than quadrupled his2008 votes in every state leading up to the Nevada caucuses, yet Paul received only 88 more votesthere. Of all the places for this to occur, Nevada, the country’s most libertarian state; is the last in whichanyone would expect this.In spite of these irregularities , Paul won 22 of 25 state delegates and replaced state party officials withPaul supporters. Romney supporters then formed their own state party, called “Team Nevada”. TheRNC then bypassed the official state party in order to organize for Romney and send all funds to TeamNevada.Colorado: Romney supporters were caught passing out fake Ron Paul slates at the state convention.

The RNC has not investigated or even commented on the matter.Minnesota: Doug Wead, claims the state party instructed members not to vote for any delegates underage fifty because most young delegates support Paul.Missouri: WXIX Cincinnati’s Ben Swann covered the fiasco in St. Charles County. TemporaryChairman, Eugene Dokes, started the meeting by banning video recording devices, a first for this event.Robert’s Rules of Order require the temporary chairman to accept nominations and elect a conventionchairman to run the event. Instead, he appointed a chair of his choice. The crowd immediately eruptedwith booing. Shortly after, Dokes adjourned the meeting without the required two-thirds majority,called the police on attendees, and left. In adherence to state rules, Paul supporter, Brent Stafford, alongwith one of the top parliamentarians in the state, reconvened in the parking lot and attempted to resumethe event. Shortly after, the SWAT team arrived and arrested Stafford, who was following state partyrules. Dokes later admitted on talk radio that he and other state party officials deliberately broke therules to prevent Paul from winning.Maine: Ben Swann reported on shenanigans in Maine . Even though only 84% of votes had beencounted; State GOP Chairman, Charlie Webster, declared Romney the winner over Paul by less than200 votes. Hancock and Washington Counties hadn’t voted yet because Webster cancelled the caucusesdue to an impending snowstorm, promising they could vote later and their votes would be counted. Thesnowstorm never occurred and he later reneged on his promise, telling voters in those counties theirvotes would not be counted after all. Washington County was Paul’s strongest in the state in 2008.Though other states with close outcomes held recounts, this was never a consideration for Maine.At least one of the counties that did vote claims the state party recorded its tallies incorrectly. MattMcDonald, pastor of a small community church in Belfast, was nominated as the chairman of hiscaucus. He says the state instructed the caucus chairmen not to read any of the vote totals aloud, butrather to send the results straight to Augusta without a public reading. McDonald made a motion tochange this rule, and it was approved unanimously. McDonald says 22 voters showed up, resulting in 8votes for Paul, 7 for Santorum, 5 for Romney, and 2 undecided. When he called the votes into Augusta,he was told they already had the results and the totals read 9 for Romney, 5 or Santorum, and 2 forPaul. When McDonald told her the tally had been counted publicly, he says “her voice changed and shesaid…we’ll record this”. Doug Wead claims, “On every occasion, the votes that were lost were RonPaul votes and the person responsible for reporting them were Mitt Romney supporters…in one casethe votes were actually transferred from paper to…a computer and the lady doing the transfer was aMitt Romney person”. To date, these tallies have not been corrected and Romney is still credited withthe straw vote win while the media continues to report that Paul never won a state contest.Arizona: The Examiner’s Kevin Kervick reports “ballot stuffing, rule violations, and improper votecounting that occurred behind closed doors” at the convention. In addition, Paul supporters allegethreats of physical violence from Romney supporters.Michigan: Doug Wead reports, ” Michigan, unlike any other state…had a special party rule forbiddingany precinct delegate vacancies from being filled at county conventions until after the state delegatesand alternates were chosen. In other words, countless Ron Paul supporters attending county conventionwere forcibly blocked…because they weren’t elected precinct delegates in 2010-long before the RonPaul 2012 campaign began”. Wead also claims “documented instances in multiple counties wherecounty party officials “edited” the state delegation lists after the county conventions adjourned”.Wyoming: A commenter on Paul supporter website, DailyPaul.com, explains how members of theRepublican Executive Committee (all Romney supporters) illegally cast votes in the delegate selectionvote.

Washington: At the state convention , a Ron Paul delegate claimed bubble ballot sheets were withheldin King County’s district 36. He also claims the 37 th district caucus was forced to conduct the meetingoutside because Chairwoman, Lori Sotelo, was irritated when a Ron Paul supporter was elected to runthe caucus, instead of her choice.Ben Swann interviewed a voter in Pierce County, Washington; who claims the local Republicanleadership passed out what they called a “unity slate” to voters and said it represented an equaldistribution of delegates committed to Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich. The plan was to organize toblock Ron Paul supporters, who outnumbered the other candidates’ supporters, from receiving thelion’s share of the delegates. The Republican leadership prevailed.Alaska: In spite of last-minute rule changes and violations of party rules, Paul supporters oustedlongtime state chairman, Randy Ruedrich, and voted-in Paul supporter, Russ Millette. Ruedrich thentried to sabotage the state convention and transferred all of the state party’s $100,000 to the localCapital City Republicans in Juneau, effectively bankrupting the party now controlled by Paulsupporters.Georgia: This video shows GOP Chairwoman, Sue Everhart, at the Athens Clarke County GOPmeeting admitting “shoddy treatment of the Ron Paul people at that [2008] convention” and publiclyapologizing. She presents the rule book that she helped to write and claims it won’t happen again. Thevideo then shows the actual convention and party leaders breaking those rules to force their pre-selected slate of delegates and prevent Paul’s supporters from electing their own. Party leaders thenadjourned the meeting illegally and ran out of the meeting.Massachusetts: Paul won 16 of the 27 delegates selected so far in Romney’s home state. In addition, heswept all 6 from Romney’s home county. As a result (for the first time ever in the state), delegates wereasked to sign an affidavit stating ” I certify under the pain and penalty of perjury, that on the first ballotat the 2012 Republican National Convention, I will affirmatively Vote for Mitt Romney, the winner ofthe 2012 Massachusetts Presidential Primary.” The state GOP then covered up Romney’s embarrassingloss by invalidating ballots and ousting the Paul delegates.North Dakota: Ben Swann reports the selection of delegates was unfair: the GOP handed out pre-printed ballots with a slate of delegates with 60% of them being Mitt Romney supporters in a statewhere he won only 26% of the vote.Oklahoma: Kevin Kervick of The Examiner reports that the Oklahoma convention had to be moved tothe parking lot because Robert’s Rules were ignored, delegate credentials were not verified, aconvention chair was never appointed, motions made from the floor were ignored, the Chairmanillegally elected a slate of Romney delegates, and the convention was closed without a two-thirdsmajority vote. Consistent with Robert’s Rules, Paul supporters reconvened in the parking lot to electdelegates. Paul supporters have now filed a law suit to ensure their delegates will be seated.Virginia: Doug Wead claims “at a district convention, they coaxed the Ron Paul delegation outside andthen locked the door. The pastor of the church that was hosting the event was, himself, locked out”.U.S. Virgin Islands: Ron Paul won his first caucus, only to have the GOP take down the straw voteresults from their website showing Paul the victor with 29% over Romney’s 26% and replaced with anote from the party claiming Romney won because he won more delegates. Paul’s Official CampaignBlogger, Jack Hunter, explains how every other contest determined the victor by the straw vote, exceptthe one straw vote Paul won.Alabama: An inexplicable gap exists between Paul’s popular vote count and his delegate vote count.This is odd because voters choose both on the same day and on the same ballot. Alabama RepublicanParty rules state that voters can only vote for one candidate and then must choose between his

delegates. Statewide, Paul received only about one-third as many votes as his delegates. This meansvoters chose another candidate, but selected Paul’s delegates. No other candidate’s totals showed asimilar pattern.Louisiana: Ben Swann reports a clash between theold Louisiana State GOP leadership and newly-elected leaders who support Paul. Old Chairman,Roger Villere, angered attendees with last-minuterule changes the night before the convention. At thestart of the convention, Villere attempted torecognize the former Chair of the Rules Committee,who had been voted out the night before. When newChair, Alex Helwig, rose to address the delegation;Villere instructed security (comprised of off-dutyShreveport Police) to remove him . They arrestedhim for trespassing and broke several of his fingers.Next, an overwhelming majority elected a newConvention Chair, Paul supporter Alex Helwig.Members then turned their chairs to face Helwig,with their backs to Villere. In desperation, Villereinstructed the police officers to remove the duly-elected Herford. They did so and dislocated his hipin the process, sending him to the emergency room. The reconvened group followed state party rulesand went on to elect a majority of Paul delegates, which the state party later replaced with its own slateof Romney delegates. The Paul campaign has appealed to the RNC, but it is unlikely that the RNC willreinstate the Paul delegates.Oregon: This YouTube video shows establishment Republicans in Congressional District 4 attemptingto steal the ballot box and leave the premises when it became apparent the Ron Paul supporters were inthe majority. A Paul supporter is chased away from the ballots and claims he was accosted by anestablishment party member.Wisconsin: MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell reports Romney violated state campaign laws by bribingvoters with free subs.In other states, Paul supporters claim vote-flipping occurred with electronic voting machines. Onceabout 40% of votes are reported, there is typically little variation in the final numbers. However onseveral occasions, at about 40% Romney’s trajectory “flipped” with the leader, which was often Paul.Austin Election Judge, Anne Beckett, has come forth publicly to claim she witnessed this firsthand.Baseless allegations or a few isolated incidents may not be cause for concern, but there is enough videoevidence in this report to disturb anyone who cares about fair elections. Rule changes, disregard forexisting rules, cancelling elections, running off with ballots, secret vote counts, throwing out votes,threats, physical violence, and arbitrary replacement of delegates are activities unbecoming of ademocratic society. Whether you’re a Ron Paul supporter, or even a Republican, is irrelevant. That theRepublican Party will seemingly stop at nothing to ensure their selected candidate is the nomineeshould be deeply troubling for all Americans.http://www.infowars.com/

How the Republican Party Stole the Nomination from Ron Paul

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