Thread: Florida GOP Official Threatens Ron Paul Straw Poll Voter wit

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Florida GOP Official Threatens Ron Paul Straw Poll Voter with Violence

She was shocked when REC chairman Tony DiMatteo answered: "It�s too bad for you, and if you start any trouble you will be hurt.�
by Colette von Hessen
(Libertarian)

http://www.nolanchart.com/article355.html

Florida GOP Official Threatens Ron Paul Straw Poll Voter with Violence
The Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee planned to hold a straw poll on the night of the CNN-sponsored Youtube Republican debate in St. Petersburg. In October the REC Board announced the straw poll and advised its members that only 1,200 tickets would be available and sold for the straw poll. Anyone would be allowed to vote in the straw poll as long as they were over 18 years of age and held a Florida driver's license. They were also told that they should snap up the tickets quickly if they were interested in participating in the poll since the committee anticipated a large voter turnout.

Ron Paul supporter and Pinellas County REC member Sophie (last name withheld for privacy) of Clearwater, Florida was concerned about the limited number of tickets available and was considering purchasing a block of tickets that she could then individually resell to other Paul supporters. She telephoned the local REC office and spoke with a Marilyn. She asked about the possibility of buying tickets in bulk. The woman advised her that she could purchase a block of 50 tickets. Later Marilyn contacted Sophie and informed her that she would be able to purchase as many tickets as she would like. Sophie then purchased several hundred tickets and resold the prepaid tickets to fellow Paul supporters. In the end she managed to resell about 2/3 of the tickets she had bought.

Once at the straw poll, Sophie and others noticed that Mitt Romney supporters were voting for their candidate dozens of times each. The St. Petersburg Times would later document this in an article. Sophie was upset that the rules she had been told were not the rules after all. On Thursday, the day after the debate, she called chairman of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee, Tonoy DiMatteo to inform him of the misdeeds that had occurred at the straw poll. She was shocked when he answered: "It's too bad for you, and if you start any trouble you will be hurt." (WatchSophie's account of the incident here.)

Obviously upset by the incident, Sophie called her local Meetup group organizer, Paul Bourgeois, who said that Romney even had 5-year-old kids voting in the straw poll. Paul had, at an earlier time, discussed the rule changes with Tony. Mr. DiMatteo made it very clear to Paul that he and Sophie had not better take this any further or else.

If you would like to call or write Tony DiMatteo (who is, perhaps not surprisingly, a Giuliani supporter) and let him know that you will not stand for this criminal activity, have at it:

Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee

Tony DiMatteo (Chairman)

727.539.6009


pinellasgop@verizon.net

This Tony character sounds like (you goin be swimmin wit the fishes).

I watched the video of Sophie and the meet up group, what bothers me most is the voting machines.

This is what we have to look forward to in the 2008 election. If we don't get rid of these Diebold or touch screen voting machines before the election, we have no chance of an honest election. We need a paper trail.

Whoever you vote for will not have a chance. The powers that be will put in who they want.
If someone in Bulgaria can get into my computer and plant a virus, thats with Virus protection and a firewall. What makes you think your vote is safe here.

This is a tragedy that has happened before and believe me will happen again unless we do something. So far I have heard very little recently about the voting machines. Let's not wait until after the election.
This is the election that counts.

Originally Posted by Darlene

This Tony character sounds like (you goin be swimmin wit the fishes).

I watched the video of Sophie and the meet up group, what bothers me most is the voting machines.

This is what we have to look forward to in the 2008 election. If we don't get rid of these Diebold or touch screen voting machines before the election, we have no chance of an honest election. We need a paper trail.

Whoever you vote for will not have a chance. The powers that be will put in who they want.
If someone in Bulgaria can get into my computer and plant a virus, thats with Virus protection and a firewall. What makes you think your vote is safe here.

This is a tragedy that has happened before and believe me will happen again unless we do something. So far I have heard very little recently about the voting machines. Let's not wait until after the election.
This is the election that counts.

And you can bet the are already working on ways to do just what ever they want.
It just happend here with a stack of votes left not counted again... So the whole thing has to be re done.

you all need to understand Florida.... it is wild down here. You just have no idea how bad it's become

Did you watch the video about the Texas straw poll?

That's just ridiculous.