Ames Iowa Online Exit Poll - Ron Paul 81 % ?

[anabolicrhino]

AMES IOWA ONLINE POLL AS OF NOW

Sam Brownback
2.6% 124
John Cox
0.1% 3
Rudy Giuliani
1.5% 74
MIke Huckabee
7.0% 337
Duncan Hunter
0.4% 19
John McCain
0.6% 28
Ron Paul
82.7% 3996
Mitt Romney
2.5% 122
Tom Tancredo
0.9% 42
Fred Thompson
1.4% 70
Tommy Thompson
0.4% 19

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Paul's Online Support Put to Offline Test


Though he's bigger on MySpace, Rep. Ron Paul did work the Iowa crowds the old-fashioned way at the Iowa state fair. (AP).

Today's Iowa straw poll isn't merely a test for Mitt Romney, who leads in Iowa in the latest Washington Post/ABC news poll and has easily outspent the rest of the GOP field.

It's also a test for the Paulites -- the undeniably loyal and undeniably Internet-savvy followers of Rep. Ron Paul. Indeed, on the ground in Ames today, the first thing you notice are the Ron Paul signs everywhere: They were along one of the exits coming from Des Moines and as we approached the straw poll grounds, the more evidence of Paul supporters we saw.

Give Paul credit. He got his troops here early. But, how many of them can vote in today’s straw poll? The rules only permit Iowans to participate in the non-binding balloting, and first impressions suggest many of Paul’s supporters may not qualify.

In the parking lot where many of the Paul supporters are holding signs, we spotted as many out-of-state license plates as Iowa plates. Walking into the arena, we asked one of the Paul supporters how far he’d come to be here. “Houston,” he said. Passing two more, we asked, “where are you from?” “Kansas City,” one man answered. Pointing to his friend, he added, “He’s from Missouri.”

Paul registers low in the national polls, but he has an Internet following that is passionate in its support for the Texas congressman. His YouTube videos are the most viewed of any presidential candidate -- yes, more than Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. He has more MySpace friends than Romney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and former senator Fred Thompson combined. His online followers, many of them live-and-let-live libertarians, were essential to his second quarter fundraising haul of $2.37 million, which easily surpassed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback.

And the big question on many a online political operative mind is: Can Paul translate all that online enthusiasm into offline results?

Five months before the Iowa caucuses, the straw poll is a non-binding test of a candidate's organizational mettle. Voters are scheduled to pack Iowa State University's Hilton Coliseum, in summer heat, to show their support. Paul's Iowa operation lags behind Romney's, no doubt. Paul just opened his headquarters in Iowa on Thursday, and his aides said the 400 or so members of his Iowa Meetup groups have been working the phones, passing out campaign literature and stuffing mailers in recent days. "We don't have any lofty expectations," Jesse Benton, Paul's spokesman, said. "We just want to prove that we can run with the pack."

To some Republican online political operatives, it does look like the Paulites are running with the pack. Patrick Ruffini, former head of the Republican National Committee's online department, views Paul's chances in Iowa optimistically,

"I think Paul could place as well as second in the straw poll, if the enthusiasm that he's generating online translates to actual bodies on the ground," Ruffini said. "If it doesn't, then you might begin to question the effectiveness of his online support. I mean, if he can't translate it in Ames, then where can you translate it?"

 

[AE14]

funny if this turned into Paul v. Kucinich

 

[anabolicrhino]

Ronpauls Wife Takes Ill Morning Of Iowa Polls

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/2008-ames-or-bust/

Mr. Paul might have other things on his mind. We just received the following release from his campaign about his wife, Carol: “Carol Paul became ill this morning and was taken to an area hospital. She appears to have stabilized and is awaiting treatment. Dr. Paul is with her and will arrive at the Straw Poll when the situation permits.”]

I don't believe coincidences, but you already know that.

 

[The Paper Route]

great news

 

[spunkles182]

AMES IOWA ONLINE POLL AS OF NOW

Sam Brownback
2.6% 124
John Cox
0.1% 3
Rudy Giuliani
1.5% 74
MIke Huckabee
7.0% 337
Duncan Hunter
0.4% 19
John McCain
0.6% 28
Ron Paul
82.7% 3996
Mitt Romney
2.5% 122
Tom Tancredo
0.9% 42
Fred Thompson
1.4% 70
Tommy Thompson
0.4% 19

its a very biased poll.

 

[anabolicrhino]

its a very biased poll.

:wtf:

 

[spunkles182]

:wtf:

the only people that voted were visitors to the Tribune Web site. the sample is not indicative of the population.

 

[anabolicrhino]

Now I wonder which was the biased poll and which poll represented the people?

I guess we will never know?

Romney Wins Iowa Straw Poll As Expected


"Supporters of Paul had sought to block voting, arguing that vote- counting machines had fundamental weaknesses, but a federal judge refused to grant an injunction on Friday. The matter was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, which on Saturday upheld the ruling, said Matt McDermott, attorney for the Republican Party of Iowa."

" Announcement of the results was delayed for 90 minutes because a hand count was required on one of the 18 machines."


"Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has developed an Internet-driven following, came in fifth with 1,305 votes."

Strib Poll results
Nearly 6,000 visitors to the Tribune Web site voted in the very unscientific Strib Poll, selecting their favorite among 11 GOP candidates seeking to be the party's presidential nominee.

The poll was conducted Thursday through 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, closing on the day of the state Republican party's fund-raising Straw Poll.

Getting the largest number of votes on the unofficial Strib Poll was Ron Paul, with 4,809 votes or 84.5 precent of the 5,694 votes tallied.

Mike Huckabee received the secong greatest number of votes with 354 or 6.2 percent and third was Mitt Romney, who received 129 votes or 2.3 percent.

The remaining 8 candidates -- the same list as on the Iowa Republican Party's list for its Straw Poll -- finished in this order:

* Sam Brownback, 127, 2.2 percent
* Rudy Giuliani, 78 votes, 1.4 percent
* Fred Thompson, 75 votes, 1.3 percent
* Tom Tancredo, 45 votes, 0.8 percent
* John McCain, 30 votes, 0.5 percent
* Duncan Hunter, 22 votes, 0.4 percent
* Tommy Thompson, 21 votes, 0.4 percent
* John Cox, 4 votes, 0.1 percent

 

[spunkles182]

Now I wonder which was the biased poll and which poll represented the people?

I guess we will never know?

Romney Wins Iowa Straw Poll As Expected


"Supporters of Paul had sought to block voting, arguing that vote- counting machines had fundamental weaknesses, but a federal judge refused to grant an injunction on Friday. The matter was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, which on Saturday upheld the ruling, said Matt McDermott, attorney for the Republican Party of Iowa."

" Announcement of the results was delayed for 90 minutes because a hand count was required on one of the 18 machines."


"Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has developed an Internet-driven following, came in fifth with 1,305 votes."

Strib Poll results
Nearly 6,000 visitors to the Tribune Web site voted in the very unscientific Strib Poll, selecting their favorite among 11 GOP candidates seeking to be the party's presidential nominee.

The poll was conducted Thursday through 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, closing on the day of the state Republican party's fund-raising Straw Poll.

Getting the largest number of votes on the unofficial Strib Poll was Ron Paul, with 4,809 votes or 84.5 precent of the 5,694 votes tallied.

Mike Huckabee received the secong greatest number of votes with 354 or 6.2 percent and third was Mitt Romney, who received 129 votes or 2.3 percent.

The remaining 8 candidates -- the same list as on the Iowa Republican Party's list for its Straw Poll -- finished in this order:

* Sam Brownback, 127, 2.2 percent
* Rudy Giuliani, 78 votes, 1.4 percent
* Fred Thompson, 75 votes, 1.3 percent
* Tom Tancredo, 45 votes, 0.8 percent
* John McCain, 30 votes, 0.5 percent
* Duncan Hunter, 22 votes, 0.4 percent
* Tommy Thompson, 21 votes, 0.4 percent
* John Cox, 4 votes, 0.1 percent

i just meant that it was biased in the sence that sample population was only from the subset of the people that read that paper and the subset within that have internet access. whether the results were skewed by the bias; who knows. but the sample that they were representing as the population was biased. (but in their defense they also stated that)

 

[anabolicrhino]

Ron Paul SIgns Removed by Police at the Ames Straw Poll


Romney Jokes About Cheating in Poll

AMES: A Partial Recount Confirmed


AMES -- Mary Tiffany, an Iowa Republican Party official, confirms that at least one voting machine malfunctioned and that tabulators recounted at least 1500 ballots.

The state party rented optical scan machines from Diebold, a company at the center of several recent voting controversies. Recently, the state of California decertified Diebold machines for the 2008 election.

Yesterday, Iowans who support Ron Paul failed to get a judge to require a voter-verified paper ballot be used in today's straw poll. Separately, the state party told the Paul campaign that a full paper recount would cost $184,000.

Already, some Paul supporters are whispering about a challenge.

 

[Benderzzz]

Are you kidding????
a recount of a straw poll
come on

 

[anabolicrhino]

"IT'S NOT WHO VOTES THAT COUNTS, BUT WHO COUNTS THE VOTEs" -Joseph Stalin

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4946#comment-248645

There were 26,000 total Tickets sold for this event, yet there were only just 14,302 votes tabulated.

Now think about that for a minute.
26,000 people purchase tickets to go to a Straw Poll event, and yet we are to believe that 12,000 of those people couldn't even care less about the voting part? Just what were they there for?

This is not believable.
12,000 people went through all that trouble to get a ticket, drive a long distance, wrestle around with parking, or public transportation, and spent their whole Saturday away at a crowded and noisy event, and then did not even vote for anybody?
What were they there for again?

I don't buy it. This is not believable.
An Investigation is needed here.

I think what happened is that the Diebold E-Voting machines threw away votes --- as we also saw last year with the 2006 Florida-13 race and the NC-08 race (hurting the more liberal candidate in each race) --
And, these machines most likely threw away the votes that were intended for only the anti-Iraq, anti-War, anti-Central-Bank-monopoly, anti-Patriot-Act, anti-Empire candidate in the race, Ron Paul.

We all know that Ron Paul had a huge very visible and very vocal crowd of supporters there at the event, that were perhaps equal in number to, or at least in the same ballpark as Mitt Romney.

So, if, for example, the machine only registered 1 out of every 4 Ron Paul votes --- for Ron Paul himself --- and then threw the rest out, that would explain his much lighter than expected 1,300 vote total, and also explain some of the huge gap between ticket buyers (26,000) and the total people recognized as having voted (14,000) in the event.

Of course, it could even be worse than this (even more Ron Paul voters votes thrown away), thus robbing Paul of an outright victory in the Straw Poll.

I cannot prove that this specifically is what happened.
But the point is that, without a open, transparent, inspectible, verifiable (in real-time) voting environment, which is a requirement for any Democracy, we will never know here.

I know this, 26,000 get tickets to an voting event, and only 14,302 bother to vote-?? That dog don't hunt!

 

[Jet]

I'm getting so tired of all of these horribly falsified elections we keep having, and the complete ignorance of the public to actually look into it. No wonder so few people in this country vote, we need to fix this **** :hammer:

EDIT: Regarding the strall poll though, I believe a large amount of the people attending the event were from other states, and unable to actually take part in the vote, as stated earlier in the thread. Although I still feel 12,000 seems pretty ridiculous :think:

 

[anabolicrhino]

Just a little AMES STRAW POLL background as per Wikipedia

Format

The poll takes place amongst attendees of a fundraising dinner benefiting the Iowa Republican Party. The vote takes place after each candidate is given a chance to make a short speech to the attendees.

Non-Republicans are allowed to vote in the Ames Straw Poll. However, all voters must be 18 years of age, be legal residents of the state of Iowa, and purchase a ticket to the fundraising dinner.[1] Voters have their hands stamped or their thumbs dipped in ink when entering the voting area so that they cannot vote twice. Actual voting is done with ballots submitted to electronic voting machines.

Significance

As a straw poll, the Ames Straw Poll's results are non-binding and have no official effect on the presidential primaries. However, the straw poll is frequently seen as a first test of organizational strength in Iowa by the news media and party insiders. As such, it can become very beneficial for the winning candidate on the national level because it builds momentum for their campaign, enhances their aura of inevitability, and shows off a superior field operation.[2]

Since its founding, the winner of the Ames Straw Poll has gone on to win the Republican presidential nomination two out of four times. Three out of four winners (including one of the winners of the 1995 tie), have gone on to win the Iowa Caucus.

On a more local level, the Ames Straw Poll gives a major boost to the local economy.[3] Thousands of people, including journalists, campaign staffers, and voters, arrive in town around the time of the poll. The Ames Straw Poll is one of the Iowa Republican Party's most lucrative fundraising events.[3]

Criticisms

The Ames Straw Poll was formerly criticized for having many voters who were not residents of Iowa. Candidates would bus in supporters from other states. However, beginning with the 1999 Ames Straw Poll, all voters were required to show proof of legal residency in Iowa.[3]

Before the 1999 Ames Straw Poll, voter fraud was widespread: many individuals managed to vote repeatedly by visiting the bathroom and washing off the stamp on the back of their hand which indicated they had voted. Beginning with the 1999 Ames Straw Poll, the ink used for hand-stamping was changed to one that resisted being washed off.[4] In 2007, instead of hand-stamping, thumbs were dipped in indelible ink.[5]

The Ames Straw Poll has also been criticized for heavily favoring better-funded candidates, because better-funded candidates are able to afford transportation costs to bus in more supporters and to reimburse those supporters the dinner ticket prices.[4]

After the 2007 Ames Straw Poll, some Ron Paul supporters are debating the unexpected results of the vote, which was administered through controversial Diebold voting machines.[6]

If nothing else at least it got Tommy Thompson out of the race - 1 down

 

[Benderzzz]

well i dont like any candidates right now anyway
i am tired of voting for people i dont truly like or believe in
a picking your poison type thing you know
i just wish some candidate that i can really believe in would run and actually get on the paper that i vote on in november
hasnt happened yet but i suppose i am still young
its kind of a conundrum that is really destroying our "choice" for representation. Oh well :whiner: :lol: :lol: