Iowa GOP holds huge straw poll (Diebold machine problems)

Source: ap



Iowa GOP holds huge straw poll

By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago

AMES, Iowa - As many as 40,000 Republicans joined Saturday for a high-profile straw poll featuring barbecue, music, speeches and a chance to winnow the GOP's field of presidential candidates.


The results were delayed by more than an hour, which the Republican Party of Iowa blamed on "machine difficulties." At least one machine, about 1,500 votes, had to be counted by hand, and took far longer than party officials had expected.

"That's what they've been doing this whole time, but they clearly misjudged how long this would take," GOP spokeswoman Mary Tiffany said.

The situation may have added fuel to the fire of some Ron Paul supporters who had sought to block voting at the event because of the machines. They filed a federal lawsuit on the constitutionality of the voting process this week, and argued that the vote-counting machines, made by Diebold Election Systems, had fundamental weaknesses.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_el_pr/iowa_straw_poll;_ylt=Apgra9JIR4GeWT2nzgrAQCes0NUE

Jessica Taylor, of Waterloo, was looking for a candidate. She sported a shirt saying "Christian, American, heterosexual, pro-gun, conservative. Any questions?"

"We're still open," she said. "We're looking at Huckabee."

The scale of the spectacle was so immense — event organizers planned for the arrival of 375 buses — that even Iowa Democratic Chairman Scott Brennan decided to take a look. State Democrats don't hold anything similar, arguing the event is more about raising money than selecting candidates.

"They don't really mean anything," said Brennan. "But they put on quite a show."

Romney, who has spent months campaigning in Iowa and organizing for the straw poll, is expected to win.

"We're going to send a message to the entire nation," said Romney.

IQ?

So the Republicans had to put the skids to the Republican Constitutionalist.

battling it out in the background but eventually Romney's won out. No one actually saw it, but the numbers were jumping all over the place for a while. :rofl:

Indeed!

I hope nobody suffered permanent carpal tunnel damage.

from out of state to vote for the candidate that paid their way to Iowa.

Then was that in 1999? I remember a big story about shipping people into Iowa from out of state and paying their travel expenses and a stipend.

Edit: Original title: So "at least" one Diebold machine futzed up? 1,500 is 3.75% of 40,000 assumed votes...
You do the math of that high a percentage of affected votes in a general election... Do you think that would finally draw the attention of the mainstream media that maybe, just maybe, there's a problem with black box voting?

...

Yeah, me neither ... unless, of course, it involves American Idol or Big Brother voting... Oh the scandal! :eyes:



Edit: Saw the actual straw poll numbers; ~14,300 total votes. So great, instead of 3.75% of the total numbers of votes affected by this one machine, 10.488% were affected. Just gets better and better... :banghead:

This is becoming fun. You could not get anyone whiter or prettier than Romney. And he's comes off delightfully charming on late nite tv.

And let's not forget that manly square jaw. Perfect for a recruiting poster.

Another man who's all carefully manufactured appearance. The Republicans should adore him.

Now tell me again about that weird underwear.

DID THEY FIND A NEEDLE IN THE HAYSTACK??

bush won

:sarcasm:

:shrug:

"At least one machine, about 1,500 votes, had to be counted by hand, and took far longer than party officials had expected."