650 provisional ballots to be verified today, not counted yet

[jenninlouisiana]

I pulled this tid bit out for people to easily read.

There are 650 provisional ballots: people who said they were republican and yet weren't on the rolls. They were told to put their names on their ballots and then they needed to be verified today through the SOS office and I suppose their local registrar of voters office as republicans by the deadline.

While I heard one little old lady (not for us) saying she'd only been a Republican for 2 weeks, you can bet most of those 650 belong to us.

Maybe later on tonight we'll know.

[Ninja Homer]

Thanks for this concise and clear info. Will Ron Paul supporters be able to observe the counting of these provisional ballots?

[jdmetz]

While I heard one little old lady (not for us) saying she'd only been a Republican for 2 weeks, you can bet most of those 650 belong to us.

That's unfortunate - wasn't Nov 30 the deadline to register Republican if you wanted to caucus last night?

[btwilli1]

Yes Nov 30th. You can throw out my ballot and make it 649.

There was a guy with a voter registration card showing he switched to republican on September 24th, 2007 and he had to fill in a provisional ballot. This should encompass a good portion of RP supporters.

[familydog]

Where are these ballots counted? In public? If so, we need to have Paul people watching...we must. If not, then there is no way we win.

[jenninlouisiana]

They are currently getting counted a the LaGOP offices in Baton Rouge. A top RP National Guy is there witnessing it.

[stevedasbach]

It appears that the provisional ballots may still put us over the top in some districts. I know it's frustrating but we just have to wait until they are counted.

It is quite possible that the LAGOP issued that press release with incomplete/unofficial results to reduce the impact of the story when the final results are released.

Since the deadline was November 30 but the lists were generated before then, the provisional ballots were always going to be an issue. There was nothing the campaign could do about that.

The other candidates banding together is smart politics. It forced us to shoot for getting an absolute majority. I see very little the campaign could have done to blunt this, other than perhaps putting the words pro-life and pro-family on Ron Paul's list as descriptors.

It appears that the campaign (HQ and grassroots) did most everything right here. Sometimes, even if you do everything right, it isn't enough to win. Welcome to real-world politics.

[Doriath]

The other candidates banding together is smart politics. It forced us to shoot for getting an absolute majority. I see very little the campaign could have done to blunt this, other than perhaps putting the words pro-life and pro-family on Ron Paul's list as descriptors.

It appears that the campaign (HQ and grassroots) did most everything right here. Sometimes, even if you do everything right, it isn't enough to win. Welcome to real-world politics.

Yup.

[austinchick]

pregnant chads, here we go

[jenninlouisiana]

Our ballots DID have "pro life"on it. In fact, our handouts in district 5 said:

Delegates Committed to "Pro-life, No taxes, Secure Borders, Constitutionally Limited Government, Personal Liberty"

LOL

They didnt' like the "personal liberty" part ;)