Thread: Ron Paul on the Issues

Is Ron Paul Really Dropping Out?

By W. James Antle III • May 15, 2012

photo: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Is Ron Paul running for the GOP presidential nomination and conceding it at the same time? There has been a great deal of confusion since the Paul campaign released a strategy document saying that while they are bowing out of the primaries, the fight for delegates goes on all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

“Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination,” campaign chairman Jesse Benton acknowledged publicly for the first time. “However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond.”

This kind of talk elicits sneers from those who think of politics purely in horse-race terms. The Christian Science Monitor claims Paul’s influence “may be more symbolic than practical.” Even the libertarian blogger Doug Mataconis concludes, “it’s unclear what Paul’s supporters think they are going to accomplish here.”

To answer that question, it is useful to ask another: What would have done more to advance the Christian right’s goals in 1988 — Pat Robertson somehow seizing the presidential nomination or his supporters winning party leadership positions all over the country? It is easy to forget now that the Robertson forces were viewed as disruptive at the time. They denied delegate slots to longtime party regulars, including sitting congressmen and Republican elected officials. To the extent that party leaders were willing to tolerate them at all, they wished these religious conservatives would simply vote Republican and then go home.

Sound at all familiar? By the mid-1990s Robertson’s supporters were integrated into the state and national party structure. The Christian Coalition played a key role in setting the Republican agenda. Ron Paul’s supporters are using similar tactics, though they hope that unlike the Christian right they will change the party more than they are changed by it.

To be sure, some of the influence Paulites hope to have on the party platform is symbolic. Yet in politics, symbolism and substance can sometimes be mutually reinforcing. The GOP adopted a strong pro-life platform plank partly because of an influx of antiabortion activists into the party. But the platform language itself played a meaningful role in defining Republicans as the pro-life party.

It is easy to imagine Paul having a similar influence over the party through its platform, perhaps by identifying the GOP with auditing the Federal Reserve or demanding more specific spending cuts than likely nominee Mitt Romney has dared to offer.

But there is a lot of practical politics going on in the Paul movement too. Paul supporters are now state party chairs in Iowa, Alaska, and Nevada. They have made inroads from Maine to Louisiana. These gains do not evaporate the minute the presidential campaign ends.

Neither do Paul-inspired liberty candidates who win their elections in down-ballot races. The careers of Rand Paul and Justin Amash, the most successful of dozens of Ron Paul Republicans to have sought office since 2008, are ultimately more important to the party’s future — and perhaps the country’s — than any credentials fight in Tampa. Critics who insist that the movement is simply a cult of personality around one man focus on colorful eccentrics at rallies (admittedly not few in number) while ignoring the Paulites’ increasingly effective practical political involvement. Ron Paul supporters are starting to do the very things that are required to have a more lasting impact.

That’s not to say that Paul and his backers don’t face dilemmas at the convention. Relations between Ron Paul Republicans and the mainline variety have always been contentious. Just recently, Paul supporters booed Romney’s son at the Arizona state GOP convention. If the Ron Paul forces make the Tampa convention look like the Democrats’ Chicago 1968 — or even CPAC 2010, when Paulites heckled Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld — it will set back their cause.

But there is also the risk of being co-opted, bought off with rhetoric and reduced to a few talking points about nation-building or the Fed. Even George W. Bush was willing to pretend he was for a “humble foreign policy” for one election. The Christian right’s price of admission was unquestioning support for some of the party’s more worldly goals.

The Paul campaign realizes both problems. In a conference call with reporters, chairman Jesse Benton said, “We are doing everything in our power to work with our supporters to make sure decorum and respect are the name of the game.” And while they appear to be ruling out an endorsement for Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, they haven’t rallied behind Romney yet.

As long as Romney remains open to preventive war with Iran, Paul shouldn’t endorse him. But he can urge his supporters to work within the Republican Party and he can also state his honest opinion that Romney is a nice man. That might come close enough to an endorsement for Paul to be able to speak about real limited government and a noninterventionist foreign policy in a meaningful convention timeslot. He may even be permitted to pass the torch to his son on national television.

The name of the game is changing the Republican Party. Anything that takes Paul’s supporters out of the party or leads them to surrender to the GOP status quo is a defeat. Even if Romney is the nominee rather than Paul, anything that keeps the momentum going in favor of the GOP’s constitutional transformation is a victory for the Texas congressman.

W. James Antle is associate editor of The American Spectator and a contributing editor to The American Conservative.

Is Ron Paul Really Dropping Out? | The American Conservative

Ron Paul Fights Indefinite Detention

Lest we forget that despite still running for president (Something this story gets wrong. Seriously, how are they going to spin this once we get to Tampa?), Ron Paul is still fighting for our constitutional freedoms on Capitol Hill. Reports National Journal:

Rep. Ron Paul has joined the next battle over terrorism-detainee rules.

The Texan made a surprise appearance at a House press conference in support of a bipartisan amendment to the defense authorization bill, which hits the House floor today, that would ban indefinite and military detention of anyone captured on U.S. soil, regardless of citizenship.

“I do not believe a republic can exist if you permit the military to arrest American citizens and put them in secret prisons and be denied a trial,” Paul argued.

The amendment, cosponsored by House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., with the support of Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., promises to reopen the decade-long debate over whether to prosecute terrorism suspects in federal civil courts or within the military…

Paul, with just a bit less fire than he showed in this year’s presidential debates, asserted that if 9/11 planner Khalid Sheik Mohammed had been tried the same way the World Trade Center bombing terrorists were tried in 1994, he could have received a death-penalty conviction “10 years ago.”

“The system works; we should not be so intimidated,” Paul said. “This cannot stand.”

The good news is a federal judge in New York has ruled this to be unconstitutional. The bad news is most of the people on Capitol Hill don’t care one wit about the Constitution.

Ron Paul Fights Indefinite Detention*|*Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign CommitteeRon Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee

rEVOLution Infinite: Thoughts on a Money Bomb Thursday

I had the opportunity to talk with some young Ron Paul supporters yesterday who were helping various liberty candidates across the country. These people, too, were from all over the country.

Most importantly, such supporters are all over the country. A lot of people seemed to like my statement from Monday’s video about media incompetence: That the mainstream media understands how to cover a conventional campaign, a horserace if you will, but does not understand how to cover a movement.

This is painfully true. Seriously, what other campaign that is supposedly “over” according to the MSM, is still fighting to win delegates, state-by-state and will have a massive presence—and voice, and message, and influence—at the national convention?

Ron Paul is speaking at Minnesota’s GOP convention Friday. He will be at others. Is Rick Santorum speaking at any upcoming Republican state conventions? Is team Newt Gingrich fighting for delegates in caucus states? Has the Tim Pawlenty Revolution continued to take the nation by storm?

And has Santorum, Gingrich, Pawlenty or any other Republican candidate—including Mitt Romney—inspired their supporters from all over the country to travel thousands of miles to work feverishly in support of similar-minded candidates?

No. Hell no.

The supporters I met yesterday—20, 21 years old maybe? 18-19 perhaps?—were all part of a movement that is just getting started. They realize this too. It’s in their gut. It’s in all our guts. This remains true no matter how stupid or incompetent the MSM might be in understanding it.

Not long after this meeting, I learned that Senator Rand Paul’s budget—which cuts four federal departments and balances in five years—received 16 votes yesterday. Last year, Sen. Paul’s similar budget received only 7 votes.

If not for Ron Paul and his supporters, Rand Paul would not be in the U.S. Senate.

Sen. Paul would be the first to admit this. Without Rand, there wouldn’t be a hardcore fiscal conservative in the U.S. Senate (with apologies to exceptions like Mike Lee and Jim DeMint) pushing for the kind of cuts Ron Paul has always said must happen.

Without Sen. Paul’s leadership, that 7 vote wouldn’t have turned into 16 this time around.

Will it double again next time? 32? 64? All you need is a majority. Will the Paul legacy finally usher in the serious fiscal conservatism this country so desperately needs? Will Justin Amash lead a similar charge in the House, joined by even more Ron Paul Republicans in 2012, 2014 and beyond? Will this exemplary constitutionalist leadership have the grassroots cheering, transforming the entire Republican Party and conservative movement?

Or will the thousands if not millions of young people who’ve been inspired by this campaign, the last campaign, and this overall movement, continue working for liberty and supporting liberty candidates for the rest of their lives?

Might they become the next generation of libertarian and conservative leaders in both the public and private sectors? The next Justin Amashs? The next Peter Thiels or Peter Schiffs?

What does our future hold? This revolution—in attitudes, possibilities, voter demographics, electoral procedure, party philosophy, political realignments, anti-government cultural shifts—really is just getting started.

And it all started with Ron Paul. And this campaign is as crucial as ever precisely because all of this doesn’t end with Ron Paul

rEVOLution Infinite: Thoughts on a Money Bomb Thursday*|*Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign CommitteeRon Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee

STAND for LIBERTY ~ Money Bomb

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Prayer for Ron Paul

Submitted by Redgyl on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 00:36

Hi, all ye who wish to participate. I know some of us pray frequently for the good Doctor. I just feel that having a special united prayer on Ron Paul's behalf would be a wonderful thing.

We don't know what's going on in the campaign, but I have faith that if we stay the course, we will have success. We need divine help at all levels of involvement, and I'm sure Ron Paul needs the most help right now.

Prayer for Ron Paul | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012

Iraq, Afghanistan vets to hand back medals at NATO summit

Submitted by goldenequity on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 13:30
Current Events

Iraq, Afghanistan vets to hand back medals at NATO summit

Iraq, Afghanistan vets to hand back medals at NATO summit
"We, Afghanistan and Iraq veterans from around the country will converge in Chicago on May 20 to ceremoniously return our medals to NATO generals," according to the blog. "We were awarded these medals for serving in the Global War on Terror, a war based on lies and failed policies. This endless war has killed hundreds of thousands, stripped the humanity of all involved, and drained our communities of trillions of dollars, diverting funds from schools, clinics, libraries, and other public goods."

The group will convene at 10 a.m. for music and speeches and at 3 p.m. march to the convention center where the NATO meeting will take place to return the medals, according to the intinerary.
If they are unable to hand their medals to NATO officials, they will toss them toward the convention center, MSNBC reports.

Iraq, Afghanistan vets to hand back medals at NATO summit | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012

In Arizona, Corruption and Incompetence on a Breathtaking Scale!

Submitted by inspirit on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 11:38
Daily Paul Liberty Forum
Arizona

FUBAR in the extreme, this basically invalidates the whole convention as far as votes go. The machines were not accurately tested or certified and the programmer was running the program all while counting the votes at the same time. This should invalidate the entire day. They were not sealed at all. Tom Morrisey and his entire crew should resign NOW! This is Corruption and incompetence on a scale that is just BREATHTAKING.
This is from Pepper who was in the tally room observing the ballot counting.

May 12, 2012 AZ GOP

Part 1
Pepper Draper

I am from CD4 and an Elected Delegate. There was much pandemonium prior to us being dismissed to go into our designated area where we would conduct Caucus business. I am pretty sure that has been covered well, by others, so I will just briefly mention what happed the first time we were dismissed. The Delegate report was supposed to be announced by Steve Kohut and accepted unanimously by the delegates, but Steve only called for the CD leaders to go to the side so, he could speak to them and then walked away without giving us the delegate report. Tom Morrissey came to the microphone and dismissed us. Once half the audience were gone, someone started to yell a “point of order” that the delegates had not been accepted and therefore no business could be conducted. It was acknowledged that happened, but it took 45 minutes before everyone got word and came back to the floor.
Once we were seated again, the delegate report was announced by Counties and “points of order” were being yelled (there were no microphones in the middle or back, only in the front) that the delegate count was incorrect. There was commotion about it, but then the delegate count of 1147 was accepted and we were once again dismissed to conduct Caucus business.
Prior to me going to my caucus, I saw the gentleman who was yelling for “point of order” and asked him why he was doing that. He said that Coconino County had been announced as having 11 delegates when they had 19. If that was not corrected the delegate election in that county would have been thrown out because they would have had more votes presented than what was allotted. Wow! Glad that someone caught that and had it corrected.
When we were finally dismissed into our Caucuses, we were given our first Ballot to choose our A Delegate and Alternates. The ballot itself was in alphabetical order except for the first name, which was out of order with an asterisk beside it.
When the vote was taken, the ballot box was taken down, but I do not know by who or if it was even escorted by a representative from each campaign. I did ask if there were Ron Paul witnesses present while the ballots were being counted and I was told by just some member of the caucus that as far as they knew, no one was present. This greatly concerned me.
When the results came back, Steve Peirce had won the A Delegate spot with Joan Lewis and one other Ron Paul supporter winning the alternate positions. When the Chairman asked Joan if she would accept, she asked who had voted for her, no hands went up. Then the other person also asked who had voted for him, with the same result. Upon looking at the ballot, the two names that the Ron Paul Supporters knew we had voted for, was one below the delegates who had been announced as the winners.
Joan demanded a hand count, which they finally did consent to do, but I do not know who performed that hand count. Prior to the results of the hand count, the Chairperson initiated the second ballot for the B Delegate and Alternates. Another “point of order” was motioned that we did not know the results of the first election and therefore we did not want to vote until those results were in. The Chairperson over-rode the “point of order” and had us vote for the B Delegate and Alternates anyway.
When they returned, the chairperson acknowledged that the name, Steve Pierce, which had been placed at the top with the asterisk, caused the program to read the ballots incorrectly and the two people, Patricia Lewis and Gianluca Zanna, whom we did vote for, were elected. This changed who the Ron Paul supporters would have voted for on the B Delegate and Alternate ballot, so another “point of order” was made because the results changed our plan. Another “motion” was purposed that the second ballots be discarded and we receive a new ballot. There was a second on the “motion” and the Chairperson finally gave in after having the Parliamentary and Thayer Verschoor come up to consult. The Romney people just was getting disgusted because they were convinced that Romney already had the nomination so why were we wasting time. Joan Lewis said to the man who made the comment, that “nothing has been decided yet and if it’s a done deal, why not do it honestly?”
We then had to wait about an hour maybe longer before, we received the new ballot. At this point when I went up to place my ballot in the box, I saw only one man who was counting the ballots and I immediately said I was going to be the second counter and witness, which he agreed. I knew this man was not a Ron Paul supporter and there was no way I was going to allow only one person as counter. At the end of the count, we both insisted that we escort the ballots to the counting area, which the chairperson agreed to do. We then took the ballots and turned them in the same direction and did a recount to verify our 117 ballot count with 2 voided, which our numbers agreed. After we did this, both of us insisted that we stay with our CD box, since there were others ahead of ours waiting to be counted. I was impressed with this man that he had the same concerns that I did.
We both watched CD7 and CD5 being counted. The man, who I now know as George Teagarden (sp) was scanning the ballots into a scanner that looked like your average day scanner, only fast. He was having issues with the scanner and the computer program. He would type things in and make comments about what a late night he had the night before and so he was very tired. At the time, I did not know what he was typing and still don’t, but it is my guess that one of the issues he was having was with rejected scans because that was also an issue that happened on the following Monday. However, his typing things in and doing things looked more like entering data vs what I saw needed to be done to rescan a ballot.
There were a few Ron Paul supporters as well as Romney Supporters viewing the process. I however seeing that the ballots were not being hand counted and verified started asking questions about, “How do we know the results are correct?” I then insisted that my CD be hand counted. Thayer Verschoor had been coming in and out of the room and at one point he turned to the man next to him wearing a Romney sticker and whispered loud enough for me to hear that, “he was sick of these (expletives) Ron Paulers and why can’t they just leave it alone and let us get on with it?” I then turned to Thayer (whom I have known for at least 15 years) and said, “Thayer, you have to understand with everything that has gone on this morning with the all the CD why we would want accuracy, I should think you would too.” He then asked me what I was talking about and I replied “with just what happened in CD4 with the delegates being shifted up and I heard this happened in other CD’s as well” He then said “Okay” and backed away.
One Ron Paul supporter by the name of Brett Rayno was asked by John Laurie to observe while the papers were being scanned, that happened during CD7 and part of CD5. During this time, it had been determined to proceed with the “At Large Votes.” Several people asked, including Romney supporters how they could proceed with the At Large Votes when the CD had not been fully determined? Thayer said, “What does it matter? Don’t you think that if the person doesn’t win the CD nominations that they would prefer to be “At Large?” A few people took that answer as reasonable; however, I did not as it does change strategies especially since there were still three CDs left to count how those names could be changed out before the election was concluded.
Brett needed to leave for a little while so, I took over the watch in the front of the computer table that was within the cordoned off area. When CD5 was finished, Gary Pearce, Kenneth Biehl and Kelsea Easton had been declared the winners for the B Delegates and Alternates. I asked those from CD5 who were present if they wanted this hand counted and verified? There was one woman, who was a Romney supporter, who said that she felt that all of the CD’s should be hand verified and with myself suggested how this could be done, by setting up tables and having witnesses from each CD and camp read the ballots, mark the totals of each on a separate paper and compare the printout to the hand count. However, the other CD5 members declined and so she was alone on the issue. Not being in her CD, I did not know if I could push the issue and I was afraid to push too hard since I was pushing for my CD, lest I be kicked out. Brett came back at that time, so I went back around the cordoned off area to watch the rest being scanned.
I also noticed that once the ballots were scanned there was no one from either campaign who was verifying the computer generated tallying before they were sealed in an envelope with the ballots. The only one who was even signing on the envelope was not from Ron Paul and as far as I know, he worked with the GOP.
CD4 was now being scanned and I told George, and the another man who was helping him, that we (myself and the man who helped me count) wanted to hand count the CD4 ballots. George then told me that was “impossible because we needed a clean room and no writing tools were allowed.” I then explained to him that I knew that was not true since I have been a witness to ballots being counted in an election and what is needed are witnesses from each party. It is also necessary that you have writing tools to mark down the ticks for each candidate to verify numbers. He ignored that and any suggestion to hand count ballots.
During this time, another woman, I think her name was Marla, who works for the GOP came to me and asked me why I wanted these counted and I explained again. She then said “if they are going to be counted we needed an elected official to be present,” So, she went and got another man, who then started to question me on why I wanted them counted.
At this point, they asked for Shawn Dow and John Laurie, so I went out to get them. When they came in, Thayer Verschoor had words with them in the corner to the right of the counting table. John Laurie then came over and asked me what was the problem and what I wanted to do? I explained again and John told me that he appreciated me and to “hold their feet to the fire.” John then went back to where Shawn and Thayer were and told him something. At that time, I saw Thayer grab Shawn Dow’s arm, kind of lift it and pushed Shawn back a few steps, while he was angrily saying something to him. When he had him stepped back, he let go and then proceeded to point in my direction and continue to speak to him. I did not hear what was said, but I could tell it was not nice. I later told Shawn I was sorry for getting him in trouble and he just laughed and said that he had been being yelled at all morning.
While I was watching what was going on with Thayer and Shawn, the elected official kept trying to ask me “why do you need to count these ballots? Who are you to be able to count them? If they let you guys count them, then anyone can demand to count the ballots…where does it end?” He was trying to make me feel like I had no right to demand these ballots be verified and that I was going to cause mayhem, but I would not relent.
At this point the scans were done and the man helping George told me that “if you want these counted, you have to first get Thayer’s permission to have these run again, if the numbers don’t match, THEN you can have them hand counted.” The issue with this is that it would not matter if their numbers matched or not because the program could have been the one to incorrectly tally the votes. That could not be verified without a hand count. The other issue is that them knowing that I was perusing the issue could change things to make it look like the other CD had to be right because George was at the computer typing things..so who really knew?
The man with me from my CD (he was actually a Gingrich Supporter) told me that he would support whatever I wanted to do. So, when the numbers came out, the top two people were Ron Paul supporters, I looked at my CD member and said, “these two names are Ron Paul supporters, I am perfectly willing to hand-count these to verify, but I am going to leave this in your court since they are demanding a rescan in order to do it.” He then said he was satisfied and then left. I looked at the elected official who was a Romney Supporter and asked him what he wanted to do, with some trepidation said, “It’s fine” and walked off.
Then, while CD6 was being scanned, the At Large ballots were being brought in and placed to the left of the counting table in a corner. Thayer was sitting next to me a short distance talking to George. I asked him if he needed help turning the ballots around so that they could be prepared to be scanned? His reply was, “NO. My people are going to take care of that.” I was afraid to push too hard so, I toggled between watching CD 6 and the “At Large Votes” to see if anyone was going to be standing guard over them, since there were people going in and out (not Ron Paul people, but other people I could not identify except many of them had Romney stickers on). I stood there for about 20 minutes watching and these ballots were left unsecured while people were walking around. At that point John Laurie came back and said he had some relief for me, but if I could come back in awhile, that would be appreciated.
After about 30 minutes, I came back in and there were three Ron Paul Supporters so, I asked them if someone wanted to leave, but they declined. I was concerned about having too many people back and having the media distort what was going on. However, I was also concerned that they might not know what to look for, but I left anyway.
By this time, they had also been doing the National Committeeman and Committeewoman voting. Before they came back with the results, they told the delegates present, that if there were a “run-off” they would mail the ballots to the delegates. That was “booed” and “points of order” were being made that this business needed to be done that night.
A little while later they came back and stated that, “we did not have a quorum and would have to be adjourned.” This also received “ boo’s” and “points of order” were made, demanding a headcount to finish up the business, but they refused. There were other “points of order being made that we didn’t need a quorum, but again there was nothing. At this point several Romney Supporters left, bringing the numbers down even further from the long wait times we were being subjected to.
Finally, they came back with the results that Karen Johnson had over 300, Geise was over 200 and the other was over 100 votes. Just by these counts alone we knew that there could have been a enough delegates to finish up the NCW elections. Tom Morrisey announced that there would be a runoff and then declared that the Convention to be adjourned, a man popped up front and made the motion and a second, the gavel came down “adjourned” without a 2/3 present “aye” vote. Tom Morrisey left the podium.
A man from Tucson, went up to the microphone to make a motion to dismiss Tom Morrisey and a new Chairman be instituted. The Security was trying to keep him from speaking and additional security guards were standing on the sideline. However, a motion, a second and a majority of “aye” only one “nay” removed Tom Morrisey. David Fitzgerald was nominated, a second and a majority of “aye.”
Then David called for a vote on National Committee Chairwoman to be Karen Johonson, all in favor say “aye” (aye) all opposed say “nay”(silence) David declared Karen Johnson the winner.
There were several Romney supporters still present and I overheard many of them across the aisle saying “we got more done in 5 minutes than what was accomplished in 5 hours!”
At this point we were told we had to leave, which we all did peacefully and reconvened out at the “BecomeaPC Booth.” There was no riot, no one causing trouble, but the police were called to tell us if we did not leave, we would be arrested. Therefore, we quickly, took down everything and left the parking lot.
Part 2
Ballot Counting on May 14th 2012
Part 2
I was the first to arrive at the AZ GOP Headquarters at about 12:45. When I saw that there were others coming, I went in with them and sat in the front row. Thayer Verschoor came over to me and sat down by the Computer. He stated to us that they were only allowing two supporters from each campaign to be present. I replied to Thayer “this decision was ridiculous since we had all been present the entire day waiting for these results.” He said that those were the rules.
About that time, Shawn Dow came in and sat in the front with me. Thayer reiterated that there would only be two allowed to be present. Shawn stated we would follow their rules. Shawn obviously was one of the two and the other had to be Brett R. who was present when the ballots were sealed and he signed them. When he arrived, he stated to me that he was fine with me staying if I wanted to once he opened the ballot box. I asked him what measures were taken to secure the votes and he said “it wasn’t much, just taping up the box and signing it.” This of course gave concern for me since, what prevents tape from being lifted off and laid back down on a plastic container?
What is amazing to me is that there were no better provisions made for securing ballots than a plastic container? When the GOP left the building that night after the votes, did they not think how important it would be to secure the ballots and insure that if there were any challenges to the results, that they could show that there was no tampering? Boxes with 3 locks could have been secured, giving each party a key that only could be opened when all three were together. Even more simple than that, specially made envelopes that could hold all of the ballots with secured tape and signatures from both parties and the GOP, but a plastic container? This is just one evidence of complete incompetence on the AZ GOP.
Back to the events of the day, the two witnesses from the Romney Campaign were not yet present, but several Ron Paul Supporters were in the room. When Nathan Sproul and a woman that I am assuming is from his office, named Meagan entered the room. The first thing Nathan said in a sharp and loud voice was, “We agreed that there was only going to be two present from each campaign, I am NOT going to be in this room with Ron Paul Supporters!” I said to him, “We are going to wait outside and follow the rules, we were only waiting for you to arrive.” I quickly gathered everyone up and we went outside. About 15 minutes later Brett R. came out and told me to go in, which I did.
When I got in there Shawn Dow was in the front row, while Nathan and Meagan were in the second row to the left of where I sat in the front row.. The first thing that happened was that George started on the far right scanner and computer (which was referred to as computer 2) to scan the Alternate (At Large) Ballots page two.
This becomes tricky because there were two pages with the delegates names front and back. Each name was assigned a number, but on both pages they started with the number one instead of continuing on page two with the next number leaving from page one. When it was time to merge documents, that were numbered exactly the same on both pages, there was a program issue that George had to “fix.” This was actually discovered the day before while I was in the counting room and a woman asked George how they were going to know which number was for who? George put his hands on his head and gasped! He said he was going to have to write in the program how to differentiate the two.
Once the document “training” was done by George on the computer 2, a young man named Laddy was the one filling the ballots into the scanner and pressing the continue button. At ballot number 216, we had our first “ballot refusal” which followed by pages 217, 218, 300, 303, 306, 308, 309, 310, 313, 315, 317, 319, 329, 330, 412, 415, 416, 419, 595, 596 for a total of 21 ballots rejected. When each of these ballots were rejected, George had to come and look at them. The first problem came when the ballots scanned half of one and half of another. The final total of ballots for this batch was 596.
While, Laddy was loading the scanner for the first scans page 2, George was “training” computer 1 for the Alternates (At Large) Ballots page one. These ballots actually scanned easily the exception for page 409 and the total ballots were 611.
However, two different times during the first scan of the page 2, somewhere in the 300’s some of the ballots fell on the floor after being scanned and Laddy picked them up and put them on the scanned pile rather than putting them back in their original place. After the scanning was done, both parties wanted to know about the refused ballots because when then totals were calculated, there was a very close number between delegates. Those ballots could determine who would actually be the alternates. George explained that we could find the refused ballots in the computer, match them up with the actual ballot and then rescan them. I said that there were ballots that had fallen on the floor and put on the pile and thus they were not in the right order, Laddy agreed that did happen twice which now complicated things a bit more. George then said that they were within about 10 and so we could find them. George started to go through them, but then asked if there was anyone who wanted to count them, I suggested that he count out a stack of 50 and then he could use that as a guide for counting out 50’s and would be within a page or two. When he realized that it would be “too hard” to find the out of order ballots, he said we should scan them again. Which we began all over again.
On the second run, ballots 106, 107, 110, 201, 240, 243, 301, 338, 362, 363, 365, 372 were now rejected, however these were marked with a yellow sticky and ran again. Each one that was rejected was verified by myself and Meagan and then was accepted by the computer program.
Once these were scanned, George went through a long process of manipulating the computers trying to merge the two documents together to get election results. Throughout this process he kept saying how “tired” he was and now that he had these documents he could “go in and write/correct the program errors.” I asked him several questions that I was not sure of:
1. Did the ballots’ results get sent to elections headquarters (like the state ran elections) or are the ballots’ results calculated in the computer program?
a. His answer was that the results were calculated in the program
2. Who wrote the computer program?
a. His answer was that he wrote it and it was a work in progress
3. When did he write the program and when was it tested?
a. His answer was that he was still working on it late into the night on Friday night, the night before the Convention. He also said that he was still testing it on Saturday.
This should raise several eyebrows when securing and verifying voting accuracy. First, he was the programmer, so he could be the one to manipulate anything in the program at any time, which he did, which is evidenced by the admission on Saturday that the asterisk and the name being moved up on the CD Ballots caused the votes to shift. Someone who did not have access to the program should have been the one to scan and then calculate. However, this would have required successful testing which brings us to the second issue. The program was not even tested successfully before the actual elections took place. They were not certified by either Campaign prior to the election and even if they had been, the programmer could have changed the programming any time he chose.
Finally, when he was ready to print the results, the calculations showed that there was a tie between two Romney delegates and one Ron Paul delegate. Nathan suggested that we have Thayer draw the names out of the box. Shawn said he needed to go and consult with Headquarters. While he was outside, I said that I was not comfortable with Thayer doing the choosing and if Shawn agrees to do this, I would suggest that Laddy, be the one to draw the names, since he was honest about the ballots falling and making sure we were told when there was an error. I felt at least we could somewhat trust him. Nathan said that Laddy worked had worked for him, but I said, I still trusted him more than any other person in the office. When Shawn came back, there was no decision made about the drawing because there was another issue that had arisen with the Delegates that were scanned on Saturday night.
When we asked George what the problem was he said that he had only programmed it to calculate the first 160 ballots and he could not certify the results! It was then determined that those ballots that were already scanned, had to be verified. Thayer went into the locked room to find the ballots. He was looking around the room, going through plastic tubs, while Laddy was standing at the door, shaking his head in disgust. When he finally found them and brought them out, the ballots were not sealed. I said to Thayer, “You guys didn’t seal the votes?” he did not respond to me and kept his head down, but Laddy looked and me and mouthed the words, “NO.” Several times throughout the day, Laddy had given me looks that said “what was going on was unbelievable!” When he opened the plastic container, he did not know which ballots were page 1 and which was page 2 of the A Delegate Ballots. They also had lost a couple of the pages of the print out. It took about 10 minutes to figure out what everything was…page 1 and page 2.
George spent another 45 minutes or more reprogramming or whatever he was doing as he was typing away in the computer. In the meanwhile, Shawn decided that we would do the drawing and took my suggestion that Laddy be the one to draw. The Romney people in the room was saying things to him like, “remember don’t draw the name that would allow for Iran to get nuclear weapon’s” Laddy’s comment was, “NO COMMENT!” then they would say, “Don’t grab the name that would allow for the legalization of all drugs including heroine and LSD” and Laddy would reply “NO COMMENT!” I really admired this young man. I know he supported Romney, but I felt that he was honest. The new order was now Middleton at position 19, Davis at 20 and Ron Paul Delegate Anna Larson at 21.
George was finally ready to run the already scanned program internally and while running it, these following numbers came up with a rejection on A Delegates Page 2: 116, 117, 118, 324, 354, 545, 723, 724, 725, 726, 727, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 735, 736, 738, 740, 743, 744, 745, 746, 749, 751, 754, 757, 758, 759, 761, 762, 765, 766, 767, 768, 769, 771, 772, 773, 774, 775, 776, 777, 778, 779, 781, 782, 784, 785, 786, 787, 788, At this point he did not tell me that there were others that had been rejected until 803, then he said, “Forget it! I am stopping it, there are probably a 100 votes that are messed up!” He then looked at my paper counted up what I had written and said “Ya, probably a hundred…. we have to rescan.” We do not have a total since he stopped the scan, but based on what we alredy had it was most likely true that we had around 100. He would later dispute that and say it was a “SWAG” (Sxxx Wild Axxx Guess) We do not know if we would have had a hundred or not, but at this point we had 54 that had defiantly been rejected.
He then ran the scanned ballots for A Delegate (At Large) Page 1 in an internal overview within the computer program with pages 94 and 898 that had failed for a total count of 898. He declared this a clean scan and prepared to merge the documents together to calculate the results. Once they were printed, Nathan was confused at what the report was showing so, one of the ladies who worked in the office, I believe she was the same one who questioned George the day before about how we would know which numbers were going to be correct because of the double numbering, was trying to help him understand the printouts. She did state that they had changed the format for the print out for page 1 and page 2. Shawn had stated to Thayer that he wanted page 1 and 2 scanned again and Thayer did not answer in regards to page 1 that George had declared clean. How were we to know if that were true because the ballots had not been secured.
Once the A Delegate (At Large) page 2 was correctly identified, Laddy and George started to feed them into the scanner again. This time pages 119, 212, 553, 554, 885, came up as rejected for being backwards and were ran through at the end of each section that they were rejected from. When they were ran, the total was 900 ballots.
After George combined these he started calling off numbers of total votes cast. First he stated there were 4698. Then immediately stated there were a total votes cast of 15, 809. Then he said the first reading was 15, 806, then again the second reading was 15, 808, then a third 15, 809. Then he finally said, “when I run this fourth one, that should tell us which one is the accurate count,” it came back as 15, 809 and that was his final Votes Cast count. I tried to identify what exactly that number meant especially because we only started the day off with 1147 voters. However, he did not makes sense on this issue for me, so I have no idea where that number comes from.
George then took the two pages of information and combined them on the first computer. He then calculated the results and made a print out, which did not show a significant difference in the top 20. After some discussion between Nathan and Shawn privately, they both knew there was a problem because Nathan stated that with a 100 page error there should have been a significant difference, but it was only a 4 vote change. At this point I was not sure exactly what either of them were looking for, but clearly there was a problem.
While Shawn was outside talking to Headquarters, there was being some discussion going on about George forgetting to add one of the Romney names and said that if George had done that there would not be an issue. George apologized for the mistake. I stated again that Shawn wanted page 1 scanned again, and George said that he was not going to scan the ballots again, that he was putting his foot down. When Shawn came back in I told him what was said and he asked George if he was “refusing to rerun the scans?” To which, he said “yes, because there was no point, it ran clean.” Then Shawn asked him if he would email all of the results to him and he agreed to do that. Lee Miller, the GOP Attorney (?) quickly interjected stating “they were property of the GOP and that no he would not be emailing them.” Then George said he “should have consulted with the Attorney first.” Then Thayer clarified that “yes it was possible to email them, but no he would not be emailing them.” From what I took of that is they refused to give the results of the tally’s to the Ron Paul Campaign.
Now, the situation became clear when Nathan said to George that it “was clear that there is an anomaly in the program because statistically, if there were a hundred votes missing, each of the top people should get an additional 20-40 votes. With a 50 ballot error, there should be an additional 12-15 for the top go-getters,” but they didn’t so, it was obvious to all of us that there was clearly a calculating error. Romney had all the delegates, but the last one and Nathan reiterated again that if George had added the name, this would not be an issue. However, the last Delegate who was Matthew Papke, had more votes than the guy than the Romney Campaign had to write in. Nathan then began to ask where do we go now? Shawn went outside to confer with Headquarters and while he was out a discussion ensued. So, I asked them to hold on while I get Shawn. I went outside and called him in.
Once Shawn was in, Nathan began to lay out the situation of what had happened during the day and asked Lee what the ramifications would be if the Ron Paul Campaign challenged this in Court? Lee stated something to the effect that it would not go anywhere. Nathan then began to tell us that if the Paul Campaign wanted to waste more of his( Nathan’s) time, that was fine but the result will be that we would lose all of our delegates because they will mail out an A Ballot and a B Ballot and we would lose. It was in our best interest to take the one Delegate and the Alternates because it was obvious from the convention that we did not have the votes.
Looking at the results myself from the two different printouts, the numbers were all over the place. On one Matthew Papke had very little votes on the next he was the top go getter. The other issue is that I know that the Ron Paul campaign as a majority voted for the slate we had been given. There might have been a few off here and there who may not have gotten the text, but overall the numbers for the slate for Ron Paul should have been very close and they were not, they were all over!
At this point, Thayer was putting names upon the whiteboard for the CD winners and there was discussion that there were errors. I did not have time to write down just because things were starting to move fast to a close. However Nathan repeated his threat and then said he was going to leave. I quckly said that the ballots needed to be sealed before any of us leave here. He said that he “trusted the GOP to seal them up and take care of it” and I said “I didn’t.” Thayer agreed to have them sealed and another guy got some duct tape and started to seal them. I signed them and Shawn told me that if I signed them I would have to be present in order to have them open, which I agreed to do.
I also stated that I did not feel this was an adequate seal since anyone can take tape off of a plastic container, but it will have to do.
An issue for me was that I wanted the ballots hand counted to verify those numbers, but that fell on deaf ears. The numbers that were generated after all the computer manipulation by George were never verified by a hand count.
Another observation was that the Romney people came and went as they pleased. They were not even paying attention to what was going on. If it had not been for me watching and explaining what was going on they would have been lost. The lack of concern for the integrity of this election was appalling.
Side notes: Conversations
I had different conversations with Thayer throughout the night, but I asked him why it was that after the first ballots came back wrong didn’t he just have the CD’s hand-count the ballots? He mouthed the words, “George insisted on running them through the scanners.” Personally, I do not believe this because Thayer seemed to be the one running things. Everyone had to ask him for permission for something. I am aware of a delegate who had a personal conversation/confrontation with Thayer asking him who authorized the asterisks on the ballots? Thayer did admit to him that he did. Even if that were true, at some point someone in the AZ GOP office could have over-ridden that thought and suggested he figure out what happened instead of continuing to use a program that was clearly in error. Why not say that openly where George could hear what was said? Instead he mouthed the words which tells me that he was not truthful.
On the same subject of the “electioneering” that was being done with the Romney endorsement, George brought it up and Nathan quickly said that he had offered the Paul Campaign to put their endorsement on the ballots but we refused. Shawn calmly said that, “campaigns have different ethics, we did not feel it ethical to add our endorsement to the ballots.” Nathan got furious and said, “Shawn it is uncalled for to call my ethics into question!” Shawn replied “I didn’t call your ethics into question, I simply stated that campaigns have different ethics and we did not agree that should be done.” George immediately said he never should have brought it up and Nathan huffed out of the room. George said, “If it was up to me, I never would have done that, personally.”
Throughout the day, the Romney Team kept making accusations against the Ron Paul supporters. It was like they were trying to goad us into an argument, but neither of us took the bait. There was only one time, after a few hours of this nonsense, when another guy came into the room and started talking about how he had tried to guard the stage, but the guy pushed passed him and how physical and rowdy the Ron Paul supporters were. Then Meagan asked him how many people were arrested? I then said, “No one was arrested; there was no need for it. We left the building peacefully and wasn’t pushing Romney people.” She then jumped on that and said that she had witnessed several people pushing and getting physical. I told her that I video-taped it and I never saw anyone pushing other people around. At that point I realized I needed to be quiet and just said “I should not have said anything, but you certainly do not know the art diplomacy.” I was not there to have a debate on what happened. I have plenty of complaints about the behavior of the Romney people and the GOP, but this is not where it was to be done. All that was important was that we get the ballots counted, which I believe should have and still should be hand counted, because the results are not reliable. I did not leave there knowing that what was calculated was accurate. In fact, after seeing the results, I was even more convinced there was a problem because the Ron Paul Supporters voted the slate, the results did not reflect a unified vote. A few votes off here and there is possible, but not the way I remember seeing the votes.
The other issues that I found ridiculous was that Nathan insisted that there were only two Ron Paul people in the room, yet multiple Romney people came in and out throughout the day and were present in the room. Early on, David Fitzgerald came in to talk to Tom Morisee in his office and Nathan swore and said that “if one more Ron Paul person walks through that door (which no one but myself had come in) he was leaving!” It was appalling to watch individuals act and behave so rudely to get their way.
Voting Accuracy Issues:
1. There was no testing of the ballots prior to the Convention by bot Romney and Paul witnesses to ensure the program was calculating correctly and we still do not know that.
2. There were no procedure in place to hand count the ballots for verification of accuracy.
3. Security for the ballots was anything but secure. Plastic containers with tape is unacceptable.
4. Ballots that should have been secured, by at least the tape, was left in an easily accessible container.
After having seen the delegates list that the AZ GOP put out, it does not reflect what was even printed out on Monday night. It is as though they have hand-picked who they wanted. Its shameful!
These are just some observations, I hope I have covered everything. If there is anything that needs clarification, please let me know.
Sincerely yours in liberty
Pepper Draper

In Arizona, Corruption and Incompetence on a Breathtaking Scale! | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012

"Ron Paul: A New Hope" - Dare You Be Ron Paul?



Congressman Ron Paul is the leading advocate for freedom in our nation's capital. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Paul tirelessly works for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. He is known among his congressional colleagues and his constituents for his consistent voting record. Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill. He makes it clear that his principles will never be compromised, and they never are."

Ron Paul Endorsed by South Dakota State Rep. Jon Hansen

Submitted by cevans93 on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 16:13
Ron Paul 2012
South Dakota

Ron Paul was just endorsed by a State Rep. in South Dakota:

"Young conservative leader says, “Ron Paul’s consistency and integrity goes unmatched in today’s political environment.”

LAKE JACKSON, Texas – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul was endorsed today by South Dakota State Representative Jon Hansen (R-Dell Rapids).
Serving his first term, the conservative upstart Rep. Hansen represents South Dakota’s 25th House District encompassing Hanson, McCook, and Minnehaha counties. His committee assignments include Judiciary, and Transportation. In addition to being an elected official and candidate for re-election, Rep. Hansen serves as a Republican Precinct Committeeman.

Rep. Hansen prides himself on being the youngest current serving member of the South Dakota State Legislature and is particularly proud to count himself among The Mount Rushmore State’s many young Ron Paul supporters.

In making public his endorsement of the 12-term Congressman from Texas, Rep. Hansen offered the following statement of praise:

“Ron Paul’s consistency and integrity goes unmatched in today’s political environment.

“As a state representative in South Dakota, I know Ron Paul understands the proper role of the federal government, and will restore the proper constitutional balance of power between Washington, the states, and the people.

“I truly believe Ron Paul has the heart of a servant, looking to the best interest of all Americans rather than to his own self-interest.

“To restore our country to its constitutional foundation, promote life, support the free market, fix our monetary system, and end war, we must elect Ron Paul for President in 2012.”

Born in Yankton and now residing in Dell Rapids where he attended Dell Rapids High School, Hansen worked his way through classes and obtained a degree in business administration. He plays an active role in his community, including past service as president of the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce. As chamber president, Hansen led through tough budgetary times, balancing the budget without sacrificing initiatives that promote local business and converting some activities from money-losing ones to budget-neutral ones.

During his last year in the legislature, Hansen assisted in balancing the state budget without raising taxes or taking from reserves, increased local control for school districts, and helped to reform election law.

Hansen holds deeply to his faith, his principles, and his values. Currently residing in Dell Rapids, he and his wife Sheila just welcomed their first born son into their family."

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Ron Paul Endorsed by South Dakota State Rep. Jon Hansen*|*Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign CommitteeRon Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee

Ron Paul Endorsed by South Dakota State Rep. Jon Hansen | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012

Georgia State Convention - May 18-19th - 31 more Delegates for Ron Paul on tap!

Submitted by Eskimo on Wed, 05/16/2012 - 10:59
Events
Georgia

The Georgia State Convention is this Friday and Saturday, May 18-19th.

First time poster here...

Although not a state the official Ron Paul campaign is actively pursuing, there are a lot of patriots here poised to do something amazing: attempt to send all 31 Delegates from the State Convention to Tampa to vote for Ron Paul. If we do so, it will be the biggest upset win for Ron Paul of the entire campaign.
Our numbers going in are close, so we need every single Ron Paul supporter in Georgia to be there, even if just as a guest. We have a great strategy and some great folks we're running as Delegates. Even if we don't take all the Delegate and Alternate slots, we'll pick up a few. Our biggest issue now is getting everyone to the convention - hundreds of miles for some people, expensive hotel rooms, etc (GA is a big state). But we're doing it. We're very organized and VERY motivated.
What's amazing about this is that we're smack-dab in the middle of Newt Country. Neocon Central. With one of the strongest Establishment GOPs in the nation. And we're poised to pull a coup!
If you'd like to join us as a Guest, please do! Tickets are $75 at the door (online registration is closed).
Schedule link:
2012 Convention Schedule | Georgia Republican Party
Convention location:
400 Fourth Street, Columbus, GA 31901
Everyone (Delegates/Alternates/Guests) must be registered by 2:00PM on Friday or 10:00AM on Saturday
The convention is close to Alabama, so perhaps we can get our Southern Neighbors to join our fight for freedom!
Wish us luck! Give us advice! Come visit and encourage the peeps we plan to send to Tampa!

Georgia State Convention - May 18-19th - 31 more Delegates for Ron Paul on tap! | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012