Ron Paul for Alaska campaign chief Evan Cutler said the candidate’s supporters and organizers who were out at the polls Tuesday night harbored other suspicions. “People were turned away at the polls that were registered to vote due to confusion among the poll volunteers. Voter registration databases were outdated,” Cutler said his organizers reported, going on to add that, “younger voters, voters of a certain demographic were turned away” and that the campaign had conducted exit polling across the state and that numbers reported by the state party leaders “didn’t jibe.” The allegations didn’t stop there. Cutler also accused party bosses of levying “poll taxes” of at least $50 for participation in post-vote district conventions. The Paul campaign even accuses Alaska GOP Chairman Randy Ruedrich of rigging his own district via teleconference to make sure Mitt Romney — the state establishment Republican choice — won a majority.
An email Cutler sent Ruedrich was forwarded to Alaska Dispatch.
“There were some other complaints about the process in your own district,” it said. ”According to the reports I received, when the District Convention convened there were 7 delegates in your cohort and 7 in the Ron Paul one. Instead of letting people vote then, I was told you instead called supporters from your side one by one until you had enough people on the Romney side on the phone to take all the delegate slots. …” . . .
“Ruedrich and others are bending their own rules for Romney. It’s not fair. There’s a history of game playing in Alaska’s Republican Party. People shouldn’t be disenfranchised. They shouldn’t have to pay to play. … Ruedrich should probably go,” Cutler said.
Alaska’s Republican presidential poll is conducted solely by party bosses like Ruedrich and isn’t overseen by the state’s Division of Elections. Cutler isn’t the first conservative to call for Ruedrich’s head.
But much mightier politicians (including Sarah Palin) have taken him on, only to be frustrated again and again.
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