Did Ron Paul stuff the ballot box at Values Voter Summit?

Looks like the Ron Paul fans came in force and skewed another poll:

Rep. Ron Paul scored a decisive victory Saturday in a mock presidential election at the Values Voter Summit, trouncing fellow Texan, Gov. Rick Perry, but an organizer of the straw poll suggested ballot-stuffing may have skewed the results.

In a press conference following the announcement of the straw poll results at the annual Washington gathering of social conservatives, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins all but dismissed the results as irrelevant, citing 600 people who registered Saturday morning and, he said, “left after Ron Paul spoke.”

A total of 1,983 ballots were cast. “You do the math,” Perkins said.

A year ago in the same contest, Paul came in second-to-last. Speaking briefly with reporters before the straw poll results were announced, the Republican lawmaker said, “If I win, it wouldn’t be as important to the media than if I lose.”

Paul has a history of scoring unlooked-for straw poll wins by packing the electorate with diehard supporters. But Perkins said it’s too early to take much away from Paul’s win. “Let me just take you back four years to this event, when we had a straw poll. Mitt Romney won that straw poll,” he said. “I think people are still in the process of deciding where they want to go.”

Paul got 37 percent of the vote. The rest of the ballots showed how widely social conservatives support is splintered among the rest of the field.

Two other conservative favorites, businessman Herman Cain and former Sen. Rick Santorum, took second and third place, respectively, with 23 percent for Cain and 16 percent for Santorum.

Perry and Michele Bachmann won 8 percent apiece. Mitt Romney got 4 percent of the vote and Newt Gingrich, 3 percent.

Perhaps next year VVS will do what CPAC does: take Ron Paul off the poll. That’s why we do it and we will continue to do it.

While we are on the subject, I get tons of emails asking me what I mean by skewing the poll. For some reason people think that it only means multiple votes from one person. Actually, I can control that. What I detest is seeing, after every debate and after every poll that I post with Ron Paul’s name on it, is all these websites posting my poll for every Ron Paul fan in the known universe who never even visits TRS to come and vote for Ron Paul. That’s what I mean by skewing the results and that’s why his name will NEVER appear on a TRS poll again.


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