Delegates!!! McCain is not a lock for the nominee.....here is the math.... Please keep this post current

I don't know how many times I have to post this, but here we go again. "Writing-in" Ron Paul is the same thing as staying at home on election day. Unless the "write-in" candidate is a "registered candidate in that state, the votes DO NOT GET COUNTED - PERIOD! In order for the 'write-in' candidate to be registered with the state's Secretary of State, you have to follow that state's ballot access law. So that you have an idea, it costs the Libertarian party several million dollars, and about 2 1/2 years to get 50 state ballot access. we would have to do the same thing for Dr. Paul - regardless of whether you do it under his name, or under "Write-in".... I know it is unjust, but that's the law that the R's and D's have put in front of us.
Again, any name that is written in will simply be thrown out, unless "Write-In" has been registered with the Secretary of state for the state in question. I have to agree with the earlier poster. Should we fail in our mission to get Dr. Paul on the ballot, vote for the Libertarian (I doubt that there will be a Constitution Party candidate as they have stopped ballot access efforts). At least this way you can protest against the two dummy choices. If you vote for the "lesser of two evils", or if you write in anyone, no one will see your vote for liberty. So again, if you cannot vote for Dr. Paul, vote for someone that you can vote for who will represent LIBERTY.

Don't worry about who wins the remaining primaries. Don't worry about delegate counts reported by the MSM. Don't worry about "bound" and "unbound".

Even bound delegates are NOT bound by LAW. It is only the "rules" of each state GOP that makes a delegate "bound". As the saying goes, rules were meant to be broken...

Read this VERY interesting thread: http://www.ronpaulforums....

But the guy who originally wrote this would spell delegate "deligate".

And he was clearly lying.

It's sad that our movement of intelligent people has been reduced to listening to people who hate-Paul and spread lies, then those lies go out to 1000s of people on Meetup.

It has nothing to do with discouraging people from being a delegate, it has everything to do with trying to campaign bound delegates that can't vote for Dr. Paul on the first vote.

Good luck.

... to all the people saying "I'd vote for Huck to make sure McCain doesn't win". Although Huck may - MAY - be the lesser of two evils, voting for him is still voting for evil.
If for some crazy reason you are unable to vote for Paul, vote Libertarian Party (or maybe Constitutionalist Party). I'm a Libertarian as are most people who support Ron Paul.
If for some crazy reason we're forced to decide between two evils - choose freedom. If McCain wins - or Huck for that matter... looks like they'll just lose to Obama. I truly believe that Paul is the only GOP candidate that could win vs. either Democrat.
So, vote for freedom. If enough people leave the GOP in droves, then either two things will happen:
- the GOP will be forced to change from a big government neo-con, spend and kill philosophy to a more Peace, Prosperity and Personal Freedom philosophy (between you and me - I don't see this happening).
- the Libertarian Party may become a more viable party. It's already the largest '3rd' party out there and Ron Paul's freedom message will only increase awareness.

Summary - vote for the philosophy, NOT (necessarily) the candidate. In the case of Ron Paul, we have a great man who also has a meaningful and unchanging philosphical foundation to his candidacy. Vote FREDOM!!

i just love this thread,

"my bump my bump my bump, my lovely lady bumps"

bump

"Associated Press' projected delegate count, which includes both pledged and super delegates, has Republican front-runner, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) with 843 delegates"

Lets use this number, always best to assume the worst. So McCain still needs 348. That would still be 62% of the remaining. This is far from over by any stretch of the imagination.

BTW... I like that McCain is touting himself as the candidate. His supporters will be less likely to actually get out and vote, especially if there is bad weather and whatnot. Hopefully Huck stays in at least until Texas.

If you can't convince someone to vote for Paul. Convince them to vote against McCain. Everyone knows he is not conservative.

b

I don't know if some of you naysayers are just a bunch of freakin' trolls or if you are just truly misinformed. But trying to win delegate slots is not divisive or sneaky or underhanded or in any way against the rules. It is a grassroots effort to try and gain influence within the party, within the rules of the party. What don't you understand? Any registered voter in my state is eligible to become a delegate. Delegates are bound to vote for the winner of the primary, but can change their vote after the 2nd ballot. These are the rules. If you don't like the rules, call the GOP and complain. Don't complain to us for trying to work within the system!

For those of you who have been nocking this post - why? If the chance of
Ron Paul winning is 5% right now and the chance of McCain getting the nod 75%. There is still a chance. Maybe are odds are better or worse. So what. I still want my country back and am not going to give up when there is still a chance!

First, he doesn't have to receive 71%. Some states are winner take all (like Va was) or are winner take all by Congressional district, so he very well could get 71 percent of the bound delegates.

But lets say he doesn't, maybe he only gets 250, so he is 145 delegates shy. Notice that many states have 3 unbound delegates - these are the super delegates, high ranking party officials.

Are you trying to tell me that McCain won't be able to come up with 150 unbound delegates ? That has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

Seriously, quit wasting everyones time. You are an Idiot.

McCain and Huck will join forces.
The war and money invested there are to high on their agenda. McCain is very elstic on most of the issues, including abortion, so he will adjust to Huck. For Huck abortion is all that matters.

flawed end around tactic which is devisive to our cause, to our support base, and contrary to the democratic will of the gop voters? Let's do as Ron Paul often suggests and put the shoe on the other foot. Suppose that Dr. Paul was way ahead in the gop popular vote and McCain's people were trying to capture the gop nomination stealthily by gaining more delegates than us. What would we think? Why, we would be outraged, that's what. You know it and I know it. Let's be honest with ourselves. This whole campaign is about liberty, about freedom. It is not about any one party or trying to resorrect a thoroughly corrupt party. That takes time just as it took time to spiral down to its present level. For the near term we are trying to get RP elected as president. We have but two choices: 1. Continue to buck the gop system which does not want him as their nominee (will of the gop voters and gop leadership). 2. Go 3rd party after March 4th and identify with an established party that promotes your platform. Number two is the only real option. It re-unifies our strong base of supporters, many of whom have been disenfranchised with a flawed strategy not a flawed message. This will re-energise the donations coming into the campaign which are currently trickling in. It will give us seven months advantage to campaign (with a VP nominee) and gain enough popular support nationwide to get us in the presidential debates. Texans will be able to vote/write RP in under a 3rd party. We will have the backing of Libertarian and Constitution voters. When we get a ground swell of 3rd party support, Ron Paul will reconsider his position. Until then, continue campaigning for Ron Paul the man. Not the republican. Remember, it's the message that is important.

God will work with you but not for you - Walter Russell

bumpety bump bump!

Is there anything that says that they have to follow their own rules? Is there any clauses that gives them emergency powers to suspend the rules of the process for some reason? What if what your all saying is true and all the people who will march on Washington meet again at the republican convention? If they realize they totally underestimated Ron Paul at the last minute is there anything they can do.

Bump, which I normally don't do, but this is more important than anything else. We need to actively know and keep track of this.

Thank you this was very informative.

Thank You for removing the thing about voting for Huckabee. I agree 100% that as many Ron Paul supporters as possible should try to become delegates. Not only for the possibility that they might be able to participate in a brokered convention (which I still think is a very unlikely scenario) but even more importantly to:

1) Gain first hand experience in state and national party politics.
2) Have influence in shaping the Republican party platform.
3) Have an opportunity to express their preference for Ron Paul to the national media even as they are forced to vote for someone else.

But please, if you support Ron Paul, vote for Ron Paul.

Why are people arguing? It's irrelevant.

The trend is clear and the anti-McCain votes are coming out. Let Huckabee's people expend energy to take votes from McCain. We should be using our energy to do what will help get Paul in the WH.

GiveMeLiberty is correct about the numbers game. That's what it comes down to in the end. Delegate votes.

Strategic planning.

Becoming a Delegate.

Capturing the Convention.

Win.

The official campaign specifically asks us to vote for Ron Paul, and not to try and strategically vote Huckabee.

I, for one, don't trust Huckabee not to drop out.

IMissLiberty

I am sorry to be so vehement about this. I know that there is and has been a lot of confusion and honest controversy about campaign strategies on this and various websites. Some people have been making a lot of unsupported claims about the numbers of "Ron Paul" delegates (stealthy or otherwise). The numbers of committed delegates, how long they are committed, under which circumstances they are committed, when they can vote for their "real" preference, and even how and when the national delegates (the only ones that really count) are selected seems to vary depending on who you talk to and which state you are in. For example, I am a delegate to my county convention in Iowa. I will have to be selected as a delegate to the state convention and after I get there, be selected to go to the national convention before I would even have a chance to vote for Ron Paul.
1) We KNOW that we want as many people as possible to hear Ron Paul's message.
2) We KNOW that it would help our credibility, (and possibly our delegate count) to have higher percentages of the popular vote in as many primaries as possible.

Too many people claim to understand this process without having any credentials or authorization from the Ron Paul organization. Frustrated by the low numbers in popular vote counts, too many people are giving up on tried and true strategies like taking our message to the voters and then getting our supporters to the polls. I know that we have not gotten the best direction from HQ in the past, however...

I requested and received an announcement from Ron Paul himself explaining as clearly as he could that this kind of strategic voting was NOT what he wanted us to do.

What does he have to do get you to shut up and stop sabotaging his campaign? Why if you trust him to lead this country, won't you trust him to run his own campaign?

Are you kidding me? You must be outta of your mind. THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS STILL EVIL.

Unless the official campaign ask you to do so!

Vote for Ron Paul!

Did you donate today to keep Dr. Paul in congress!

no no a thousand times no! If you are for Ron Paul then you vote Ron Paul.. Period.

Can't people see he won't make it through 1 term? He is in worse shape than Cheney and we have to pay for a fleet of ambulances to cart him around.