Did the state GOP step in to prevent a Huckabee sweep yesterday?

[solarbird]

I noticed last night that percentage returns received stopped incrementing - and I'm pointed at news this morning by kathrynt that it turns out the state GOP stopped counting ballots at 87.2% and just went ahead and declared McCain the winner. The Huckabee campaign is having no part of it and wants an explanation. Here's the Washington State Republican Party press release declaring for McCain.

Y'know what'd be better than stopping the count while the party insiders' preferred candidate is ahead and declaring him the winner? Counting all the votes, and then announcing a winner. The lead was going back-and-forth much of the night; this can't be considered definitive. If McCain doesn't win Washington State, then Huckabee had a sweep of all three GOP state events this weekend, and I'm sure there is a lot of pressure to prevent that.

ETA: Huckabee really doesn't like what's going on, and says "we're looking at some legal issues" in the count.

Comments

[firni.livejournal.com]

They won't be able to do that with the other half of the delegates being chosen by primary... OR WILL THEY?

[firni.livejournal.com]

BTW, the guy who built our house back in 1969 (and was a city council member here until last month) was holding the GOP caucus at his house. He was all bummed that Romney dropped out and said in the local paper that "he'd still offer coffee and cake and plenty of parking."

Looks like Huckabee got the most votes up here. ugh

[solarbird]

Was the cake a lie? Please say the cake was a lie.

[firni.livejournal.com]

THE CAKE IS A LIE

[solarbird]

Apparently, so is the count - check it out, Huckabee is talking legal action.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Outsider's view (or insider's by marriage and inoculation, if that counts) -- would the GOP leadership be trying to stymie a run by Huckabee on the grounds that they fear he is not electable?

Or is it more likely that they worry he'd be uncontrollable? Am thinking back here to the unpredictability of Jimmy Carter...

[solarbird]

He'd pull between 34% and 38% in the general election against, probably, anyone. Worse against Obama. So that's nr. 1. Nr. 2 is the oh-shit-he-means-it factor, in that he really is One Of Them, which means he's batshit insane but doesn't realise he's batshit insane so doesn't temper it.

And yeah, I could be wrong, at which point at least I'd know I'm wrong and could act appropriately.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Yahh, fair enough about being wrong, tho' even if you knew you were wrong, you've only got one vote to cast, as against 36%x(?)40% of 150 million registered voters. Big-assed guess there as to how mny people actually do vote on Election Day, but 60 million must be in the right order of magnitude +/- 15% either way.

And myself, have no vote to cast in this fixed race, but several spouses with whom to chew things through prior to Election Day, so it all works out even in the end. Probably all Democrats, FWIW.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Yet anaother Rethugnican resorts to the Courts.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

I love schadenfreude as much as the next guy, but Luke Esser has officially said that they were just stopping for the night and were planning to resume the count this afternoon, that official numbers won't be out until tomorrow, and that he cannedcalled (nice Freudian typo) it for McCain on projections and intelligent guesswork. Though Huckabee's still going to send in lawyers, and I can't say I blame him, it appears to be more a case of unfortunate wording than actual conspiracy.

(and the count is as of this writing up to 93.3% of precincts)

[solarbird]

Perhaps. But that doesn't matter too much, it's on now - Huckabee's team is exploring all available legal options:

In a news release, Huckabee's campaign said there were "obvious irregularities" in the state's Republican caucuses and that it is sending lawyers to explore "all available legal options regarding the dubious final results.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as I said, can't blame him.

Our caucus was at the elementary school which is a couple of blocks from the middle school -- where the Republicans were holding theirs. They finished sooner than we did, so the custodian came down to hang out with our custodian and gab until we were done. He said they had something like 200-300 people there, and I'm pretty sure that was an island-wide caucus, while we had 4 locations with something like 700 people at each. Maybe they don't get as much action because some delegates are chosen by primary results, but I was still greatly amused (and also that the only signs I saw driving around the Island doing last-minute preparations were for Obama and Paul, with one visibly slapped together at the last minute Clinton sign).

The Republicans also clearly have a different system than the Democrats, because we knew most individual precinct results by around 3:30 and for each caucus location (in the 41st LD, thus totals for the district) by about 5pm Saturday.

[king-chiron.livejournal.com]

I've been reading about the Republican caucus and it sounds like the delegates are not only not committed to any candidate (regardless of the vote in their precinct), but in some caucuses their candidate choice was not linked in any way to who was chosen as a delegate. It was just "who wants to be a delegate and is free on the date of the country convention" without regard for who they supported (apparently a lot of precincts couldn't get enough delegates). In that sense there's been no decision and there won't be until their country convention. It could be that a bunch of RP delegates show up and give him a sweep.

[solarbird]

That would be a change from previous years. Which could be the case - the rules do get changed around a lot. So, well, who knows? But the Huckabee team seems to think it matters, by way of sending a legal team. One way or another, I suppose we'll see.

[king-chiron.livejournal.com]

Could be that a) the Huckabee team doesn't understand the way it really works or b) they do and just want a reason to make some noise since they have nothing to lose.