GOP Straw Poll Shenanigans at the State Fair?

The big news about Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair will be that Mitt Romney got 40% of the vote.

But the bigger news would have been that libertarian, anti-war Republican presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul came in 2nd.

Incredibly, who had how many votes was visible by the folks running the straw poll…and others.

At 3:30 a Ron Paul supporter saw the totals. His candidate had 151 votes. He was in second place.

Fred Thompson was in third place at 148 votes.

Although the party rules said the polls would be open from 11 AM to 4 PM, an announcement was made that, because of the rain, the polls would be kept open until 4:30.

Does that sound like what the Democrats do in St. Louis?

Then someone in authority said the polls would close at 4:15.

But at 4:08, the voting ended.

I guess the Establishment folks must have been able to round up enough votes to push Thompson ahead of Paul.

When I listened to Channel 7’s Andy Shaw at 5, he said that Romney had won with 40% of the vote.

I asked my source who got how many votes. He said the GOP didn’t release numbers, just percentages.

I find no results on the party web site.

Being able to trust the vote counters is essential to making a democracy work.

A lot of the new folks who came to Republican Day are leaving with a bitter taste in their mouths.


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