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Should Ron Paul demand a new vote count in Maine?

Evidence is mounting that the vote totals for the Maine caucuses, in which Mitt Romney edged out Ron Paul, were pretty messed up. In addition to towns that hadn't voted yet, others' totals were not recorded.

Should Ron Paul demand a new vote tally for the Maine caucuses? On Feb. 12, state GOP officials announced that Mitt Romney had won the Pine Tree State confabs by a narrow 194 votes. But since then there鈥檚 been increasing evidence that Romney鈥檚 margin of victory was somewhat notional.

惭补颈苍别鈥檚 Washington County canceled its caucuses due to weather, yet the state party went ahead and called the election without them, for instance. A few other towns had previously scheduled their caucuses for the post-Feb. 12 period, and their totals weren鈥檛 included either.

Now it appears that some towns which did caucus did not have their vote totals listed in the state鈥檚 final count. The vote for most Waldo County towns was entered as 鈥�0,鈥� pointed out the on Feb. 14. Waterville鈥檚 numbers were similarly omitted.

(惭补颈苍别鈥檚 Republican Gov. Paul LePage was Waterville鈥檚 mayor. Will he be happy about the apparent disenfranchisement of his home town?)

Plus, in Portland, votes involving the second part of the caucus process, the choice of delegates to the state GOP convention, somehow got messed up. Officials have declared that vote void.

鈥淢istakes were made. Something tells me it鈥檚 going to take some time to sort this out,鈥� wrote University of Maine political scientist

Two quick points need to be made.

First, this is much ado about a beauty contest. The Maine results are nonbinding in terms of delegate selection. It鈥檚 that second process 鈥� the state delegate selection 鈥� that leads to allocation of 惭补颈苍别鈥檚 votes for the GOP convention in Tampa in August.

That鈥檚 why Ron Paul himself has been noncommittal about the mess. He thinks in the end his supporters stayed behind at the caucuses, after the presidential preference vote, and then dominated the delegate selection process, Portland鈥檚 process notwithstanding.

Last Sunday Rep. Paul told Bob Schieffer on CBS Face the Nation that he was 鈥渄isappointed鈥� about the preference poll vote, but that 鈥渨e鈥檙e in a good position to win a good majority of [惭补颈苍别鈥檚 national delegates].鈥�

Second, it鈥檚 unlikely there鈥檚 going to be a full recount, because caucuses are a party-run thing. They鈥檙e not overseen by professional state election officials, as are primaries. They don鈥檛 have the time or the money to go through all the ballot slips again, no matter how many angry tweets Paulites send state GOP chair Charlie Webster.

That said, we think it鈥檚 still possible that Maine Republicans will be forced to announce an updated preference poll adding in towns that got skipped or have yet to vote. It鈥檚 also possible that Paul will win Maine after this announcement, as Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses after the fact.

Yes, The New York Times' polling analyst toted up the figures, and he . He鈥檚 pointed out that the total number of votes cast in Washington County caucuses in 2008 is less than Romney鈥檚 current margin of victory.

But as we鈥檝e noted it鈥檚 no longer just about Washington County. There are towns whose votes went uncounted, and other towns whose caucus dates are yet to come. Plus 鈥� and here鈥檚 the big finish 鈥� the Paul forces are now fully alerted, and if you鈥檝e ever been on their wrong side, you know what that means. Their are going to be focused on turning out more caucus attendees than the Washington County GOP has ever seen.