2012 United States presidential election in Maine: Difference between revisions
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===Later caucuses not counted=== |
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The postponement of the caucuses in certain precincts has generated some controversy due to the voting margin between Romney and Paul in the official straw poll, for which the postponed caucuses will not be counted. In particular, the postponement of caucuses in [[Washington County, Maine|Washington County]] was criticized by the Paul campaign given what they expected to be a good performance in the county. John Tate, the campaign manager for Ron Paul, sent an e-mail to supporters declaring the situation an "outrage" and questioning the decision to postpone due to a snow storm. Paul spokesman Jesse Benton also stated the campaign was confident Paul would control the delegation from Maine at the national convention.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/210153-ron-paul-not-conceding-maine|title=Rep. Ron Paul not conceding Maine vote|publisher=The Hill|first=Josh|last=Lederman|date=February 12, 2012}}</ref> Although the caucus vote is only a "beauty contest" and does not affect the delegates awarded, the Ron Paul campaign will not cede the vote but will await the results of votes from remaining precincts throughout February 12–18. |
The postponement of the caucuses in certain precincts has generated some controversy due to the voting margin between Romney and Paul in the official straw poll, for which the postponed caucuses will not be counted. In particular, the postponement of caucuses in [[Washington County, Maine|Washington County]] was criticized by the Paul campaign given what they expected to be a good performance in the county. John Tate, the campaign manager for Ron Paul, sent an e-mail to supporters declaring the situation an "outrage" and questioning the decision to postpone due to a snow storm.<ref name=TateEmail00>{{cite web|url=http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2012/02/11/ron-paul-campaign-comments-on-maine-caucus-results/ |title=Ron Paul Campaign Comments on Maine Caucus Results|publisher=RonPaul2012.com|accessdate=February 17, 2012}}</ref> Paul spokesman Jesse Benton also stated the campaign was confident Paul would control the delegation from Maine at the national convention.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/210153-ron-paul-not-conceding-maine|title=Rep. Ron Paul not conceding Maine vote|publisher=The Hill|first=Josh|last=Lederman|date=February 12, 2012}}</ref> Although the caucus vote is only a "beauty contest" and does not affect the delegates awarded, the Ron Paul campaign will not cede the vote but will await the results of votes from remaining precincts throughout February 12–18. |
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Maine Republican State Chairman Charlie Webster said, "Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement," and "Their results will not be factored in. The absent votes will not be factored into this announcement after the fact."<ref name=abcFouhyPeoples00/> Ruth Summers, vice chair of the Maine GOP, made a similar statement.<ref name=BDN00>{{cite web|url=http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/11/politics/maine-gop-chairman-says-mitt-romney-wins-caucuses/?ref=regionstate |publisher=Bangor Daily News |title=Maine GOP chairman says Mitt Romney wins caucuses |author=Eric Russell |date=February 11, 2012 |accessdate=February 13, 2012}}</ref> |
Maine Republican State Chairman Charlie Webster said, "Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement," and "Their results will not be factored in. The absent votes will not be factored into this announcement after the fact."<ref name=abcFouhyPeoples00/> Ruth Summers, vice chair of the Maine GOP, made a similar statement.<ref name=BDN00>{{cite web|url=http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/11/politics/maine-gop-chairman-says-mitt-romney-wins-caucuses/?ref=regionstate |publisher=Bangor Daily News |title=Maine GOP chairman says Mitt Romney wins caucuses |author=Eric Russell |date=February 11, 2012 |accessdate=February 13, 2012}}</ref> |
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 Results by county. Orange indicates a county won by Romney, gold by Paul, green by Santorum, and grey indicates Washington County where most of the voting has yet to occur (See: Results). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Maine |
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 2012 U.S. presidential election | |
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| Democratic Party | |
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The 2012 Maine Republican caucuses are being held between Sunday, January 29, and Saturday, March 3, at various locations throughout the state of Maine. The Maine Republican Party is encouraging all municipal committees to hold their caucuses between February 4 to February 11, though each committee is free to choose a different date.[1] The first caucus was in Waldo County on January 29[2] and the last one will be in Hancock County on March 3.[3] The party will conduct a non-binding Presidential straw poll at the caucuses. After 84% of precincts completed voting, the results of the straw poll were made public after 6:20 p.m. on Saturday, February 11, while some caucuses are postponed to after February 11 and are thus not going to be counted for the poll.[1][4] The straw poll is not binding on delegate allocation, which is decided after the poll vote is finished.
Process
Like most Republican Party caucuses, there are two components to the Maine caucuses. First, delegates are elected from among the attendees to represent them at the state convention, to be held Saturday–Sunday, May 5–6, 2012. Candidates generally provide slates of delegates to voters who are interested in supporting them, and voters can ask prospective delegates whom they support for president. Then, a straw poll, called a presidential preference ballot, is taken of the individuals in the room. The results of this vote are transmitted to the media, which uses the information to report the opinions of Maine Republicans to the public; and to assign delegates to the candidates, although the aforementioned state convention is what determines who actually goes to the Republican National Convention. No delegates from Maine are pledged to any candidate.[5]
Results
As of February 11, at 7:15 p.m. local time, 98 precincts (16.3%) have yet to report. Forty-seven of those precincts are in Washington County, where a snowstorm caused the caucus to be rescheduled to February 18. Maine Republican caucus results, by County-Municipality (PDF)
As of February 14, 177 towns in Maine have not reported any results.[6]
| Maine Republican caucuses, 2012[7][8] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Projected delegate count | |
| AP [8] |
CNN [9] | |||
 Mitt Romney
|
2,190 | 39.2% | 11 | 11 |
| Ron Paul | 1,996 | 35.7% | 10 | 7 |
| Rick Santorum | 989 | 17.7% | 0 | 3 |
| Newt Gingrich | 349 | 6.2% | 0 | 0 |
| Others | 61 | 1.1% | 0 | 0 |
| Unprojected delegates: | 3 | 3 | ||
| Total: | 5,585 | 100.0% | 24 | 24 |
Controversies
Missing caucus results
The Washington Post wrote on February 12, "Party officials announced at the end of the Riverton Elementary School caucus [for Portland] that there had been a discrepancy in the final tally of state delegate ballots, and that they had received 19 more ballot sheets than they had the green index cards that voters turned in when they took their ballots." About 50 delegate candidates had given ten-second speeches for themselves, and "only a handful" had been for candidates other than Paul. That vote was to choose 73 delegates, but the overage of ballots caused the vote to be voided in accordance with party rules.[10][11][12]
A controversy nicknamed "Where's Waldo?" centered around 17 towns in Waldo County holding a joint caucus whose preference ballots were tabulated and submitted on time but not included in the final preference tally by the state GOP. These votes included 43 for Paul, 41 for Santorum, 35 for Romney and 18 for Gingrich--not enough by itself to change the statewide winner, but enough to reduce Romney's margin of victory.[13] Waldo County GOP Chairman Raymond St. Onge said the results were sent to the state party on February 7 and that as of February 14 he had not received an answer from the Maine GOP as to why Waldo County’s results were omitted.[14][12] Members of the Waldo County GOP Committee voted "by a strong majority" on February 14 to recommend a censure of Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster for his handling of the caucuses.[15]
Waterville is in Kennebec County, and its preference ballots, too, were not counted into the statewide total, despite being cast before the deadline. Ron Paul had won there (21-5) as well.[12][16]
On February 15, the Maine Republican Party added additional votes accidentally omitted from Saturday's caucus results, but said they wouldn't release the updated results publicly.[17]
Later caucuses not counted
The postponement of the caucuses in certain precincts has generated some controversy due to the voting margin between Romney and Paul in the official straw poll, for which the postponed caucuses will not be counted. In particular, the postponement of caucuses in Washington County was criticized by the Paul campaign given what they expected to be a good performance in the county. John Tate, the campaign manager for Ron Paul, sent an e-mail to supporters declaring the situation an "outrage" and questioning the decision to postpone due to a snow storm.[18] Paul spokesman Jesse Benton also stated the campaign was confident Paul would control the delegation from Maine at the national convention.[19] Although the caucus vote is only a "beauty contest" and does not affect the delegates awarded, the Ron Paul campaign will not cede the vote but will await the results of votes from remaining precincts throughout February 12–18.
Maine Republican State Chairman Charlie Webster said, "Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement," and "Their results will not be factored in. The absent votes will not be factored into this announcement after the fact."[20] Ruth Summers, vice chair of the Maine GOP, made a similar statement.[21]
Washington County GOP Chairman Chris Gardner, a Romney supporter, said he had not expected that delaying the caucuses would cause his county's preference poll to be disregarded, and said that that would be "extremely disheartening". He said, “We will proceed next Saturday. We’ll have our vote and we are going to submit it to the state party for them to reconsider.”[20] He also said, "The fact of the matter is we're going to hold our vote, we're going to announce the results and the media can do its own math," and "Regardless of who wins, those votes need to be counted and that's what we're doing."[22]
Numerous Maine Republicans and local observers have commented on the inclusion of the preference ballots from the delayed caucuses.[23][14]
In a February 12 New York Times blog entry, Nate Silver questioned whether counting the postponed caucuses could help Paul win, and he stated, "Just 113 votes total were cast in [Washington] county in 2008, and only 8 of those were for Mr. Paul."[24] In that entry Silver linked to an online putative copy of the tally of the 2008 Maine Republican preference ballots supporting his claim.[25]
Charlie Webster was interviewed about the controversy for over seven minutes by Boston-based radio host Howie Carr on or before February 13. He said the "... county folks met with the town folks ... and decided that for safety reasons ... they would ... cancel it." Webster said 113 votes were cast in Washington County in 2008 and that obviously there would not be enough votes February 18 to change the statewide outcome. He said the state committee would decide whether to count the votes from the postponed caucuses. He said that the rules, namely the 5 PM February 11 deadline, were made known to the towns ahead of time, also that Paul was poorly advised to claim in his speech that Washington County was a Paul stronghold. Webster did not join Carr when baited to characterize Paul supporters as "almost a cult" or ones who "like pot". Webster said there was reluctance to have Paul and Romney return to campaign for the few remaining votes and indicated that the committee probably would not add the new votes to the state results.[26]
Recount
USA Today reported on February 15 that Jesse Benton, Ron Paul's national campaign chairman, said Paul "isn't going to press for a recount in the Maine caucuses". Benton called a recount "irrelevant" since Paul would receive a "strong majority" of Maine's delegates.[27] However, an email sent by the Maine GOP to county and town chairs asked for totals to be resubmitted, signalling a recount.[28]
See also
- Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012
- Republican Party presidential debates, 2012
- Results of the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries
Notes
- ^ a b "Maine G.O.P. 2012 Caucus Information". Maine Republican Party. January 16, 2012.
- ^ "Most Waldo County Republicans to caucus on Feb. 4". Waldo VillageSoup. January 27, 2012.
- ^ "2012 Hancock County Republican Regional Caucus Districts". Hancock County Republican Committee. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "Maine Republican Delegation 2012". The Green Papers. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "How Republicans Will Express Presidential Preference In Maine" (PDF). Maine Republican Party. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 12, 2008.
- ^ http://www.mainegop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/me_gop_caucus_results.pdf
- ^ "Maine Republican Caucuses". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ a b "Maine Republican Caucuses". USA Today. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "Republican Caucuses". Election Center 2012. CNN. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
- ^ Sonmez, Felicia (February 12, 2012). "Maine caucuses provide a window into Ron Paul delegate strategy". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ Jean Carbonneau (February 12, 2012). "A Report from Maine". Lew Rockwell's Political Theatre. LewRockwell.com. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ a b c Grier, Peter (February 15, 2012). "Should Ron Paul demand a new vote count in Maine?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ "Waldo County mostly missing from official Maine GOP results".
- ^ a b Russell, Eric (February 14, 2012). "Pressure mounting for GOP caucus reconsideration". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ Russell, Eric (February 15–16, 2012). "Waldo County Republicans call for censure of state GOP chairman after caucus controversy". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
- ^ Wyler, Grace (2012-02-16). "Ron Paul Is Secretly Taking Over The GOP — And It's Driving People Insane". Business Insider. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ Nelson, Steve (02/15/2012). "Maine GOP adds missing caucus votes, but won't release updated vote count". The Daily Caller. Retrieved 02/16/2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^ "Ron Paul Campaign Comments on Maine Caucus Results". RonPaul2012.com. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
- ^ Lederman, Josh (February 12, 2012). "Rep. Ron Paul not conceding Maine vote". The Hill.
- ^ a b Fouhy, Beth; Peoples, Steve (February 11, 2012). "Maine GOP Chairman Says Romney Wins Caucuses". Associated Press/abcnews.go.com. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
- ^ Eric Russell (February 11, 2012). "Maine GOP chairman says Mitt Romney wins caucuses". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
- ^ Glenn Adams. "Maine GOP: Romney win will stand for now". AP. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ Russell, Eric (February 13, 2012). "Maine GOP caucus process faces criticism". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
- ^ Nate Silver (February 12, 2012). "Could Ron Paul Still Win Maine?". Five Thirty Eight: Nate Silver's Political Calculus. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
- ^ "Caucus Tally Report" (PDF).
- ^ "Charlie Webster Interview on Howie Carr about Rigged Caucus - 2-13-2012". Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ Camia, Catalina (February 15, 2012). "Ron Paul isn't going to ask for Maine recount". USA Today. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
- ^ Mak, Tim (16 February 2012). "Maine GOP recounting caucus votes". politico.com. The Politico. Retrieved 16 February 2012.