CaptainAmerica
Banned
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2011
- Messages
- 6,468
I arrived at the Az GOP state convention at GCU around 8:30 am and got my alternate delegate badge ,then checked in with the Ron Paul campaign table. At 9am I sat in a side seating in the arena which was marked off for "alternate delegates" who would be filling the delegate slots had anyone not shown up for their legislative districts as delegates. The az gop chairman Tom Morrissey did the whole "rise for the pledge/national anthem" stuff which I didn't care for. A typical gop prayer which had nothing to do with God was spoken and then everyone was seated. Chairman Morrissy then instructed that alternates remain seated in the section for alternates so that the floor could be filled where there were delegates missing. Most of the district chairmen did not go up to find their alternates but rather left us there in the dark. I began looking around for my LD chairman and went around everywhere asking where "credentials" was located. "Credentials " was suppose to be for verifying an alternate and turning them into a delegate. I ran into at least 5 other Ron Paul alternates from other Legislative Districts who could not find their chairmen nor the credentials area.The Ron Paul campaign table didn't even know where credentials was. After about 15 minutes I finally located credentials in the very back where there were no signs for "credentials" and a lot of confused people were stammering about. I then spoke with people whom I had no clue who they were to ask where the chairmen were and why they were not speaking to the alternates in the alternate seating. I told credentials people who my chairman was and they had to go hunt down the chairman and bring him to credentials to verify me as an alternate which could fill a delegate position. There were at least 20 spots open for alternates in my Legislative District and my chairmen didn't bother looking for any alternates. I told other alternates where credentials was located on my way back to sit with my LD. This mass confusion was a mess and I think it may have costed us quite a few alternates who I found later in the day sitting in the stands not participating in the voting,some of which had given up on finding out information of how to fill the delegate spots.
After everyone was seated in their LD rows we listened to people speak about each candidate,both Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. Our Ron Paul voters really tore up the floor with great speeches about Ron Paul and the u.s. Constitution. John Lorie gave the best speech about standing by the u.s. constitution and rule of law.Shortly after the speeches were given our Legislative Districts then combined into Congressional Districts 1-8. In my CD my chairman Lyle Tuttle was coordinating a very confusing hard count of how many delegates there were present to vote. After about a half hour or 40 minutes of failed attempts to count people present the Legislative District 4 chairman managed to count us all. We were then asked if we had any questions. Many questions were asked, and the CD chairman Lyle Tuttle answered them thoroughly .I realized that the chairmen planned on taking the ballots in a box and carrying them to a backroom of the arena to be counted in a machine out of sight. I asked the CD chairman who was going to observe the vote if the ballots were not going in by our own hands, and at that point Chairman Tuttle didn't know what to say and I asked if I could observe the vote counting and he said "Uh I don't know I guess I can check"...he kept resorting to "Why would you want to observe the vote? they are safe ..we have good people working on it" and I replied "Well I think its only fair if we can see our own ballots going in"...Something along those lines.I don't think the chairman wanted to make 141 people angry by saying no so he allowed 4 of us who volunteered(all ron paul voters) to go with the ballot box and watch it being counted.
Here is where it gets better. In the back room behind a curtain there were people with romney stickers counting the ballots that had already arrived from other Congressional Districts . My CD chairman Lyle Tuttle was up in my face trying to intimidate me by telling me "You're gonna screw things up" and " Don't ask these guys any questions " and he was trying to intimidate me and he kept standing in my face when I was trying to watch the votes going into the machine...I told him "Excuse me im trying to watch the vote count,move."He got out of my face and began to walk about the area as if he was angry. He was staring at all 4 of us ron paul voters and coming up to us questioning" why do you want to see the vote count?".10 minutes after being back there the Sergeant of Arms came in the room with 2 deputies and he was storming in with this bad attitude trying to make a stand off with another Ron Paul voter ..they exchanged words and the Sergeant of Arms kept saying in a harsh tone "You aren't suppose to be here" .."You can't be back here, you need to leave now. " He was trying to instigate something and it appeared as though he wanted to have the deputies arrest the man who had been standing there peacefully watching the votes. There were Ron Paul voters from other CD's watching it all and some of them even helped with the hand count since there were Romney voters doing the counting. The Sergeant of Arms was walking around the back room all pissed off and trying to cause trouble with us...he had a control issue going on. I didn't bother looking at him or talking,just watched the votes and acted like he wasn't there. I noticed if anyone was to talk to them they would raise an argument to make it sound like we were starting a fight. Its ironic that the 2 deputies that came into the room were in their early 20s and had never seen an event like this before. One deputy began talking to me saying that he didn't know how this process works and I explained to him that without an observation on the vote that ballots could be replaced or go missing and that its just more open and honest when you have people from each camp and CD observing it. My CD8 chairman tuttle came back to argue with me about ron paul..he didn't know who I was since I didnt wear a badge or sticker but he guessed that I was a Ron Paul voter and we exchanged a few words about why mccain lost the general election in 2008, he seemed to be angry that we were still back there watching the votes. I was told that the vote count for the next vote(alternate CD delegate vote) that we could only have 2 people from each CD come back to observe. For some reason the az GOP establishment was freaking out that we had people going back there to observe.
Later in the day I spoke to Romney voters who actually felt alienated that the az GOP was acting shady and they considered becoming Ron Paul voters after witnessing some serious corruption. Later in the day we assembled back into our Legislative District chairs on the main floor and began to vote for "delegates at large". There was a problem with the ballots...we were handed 2 ballot sheets per 1 vote(same process for alternates). We were instructed to "only mark 31 people out of the 2 ballot sheets for this vote". The problem with the 2 ballot sheets is that there was no way to identify whether or not someone would mark 1 ballot sheet with 31 and the 2nd ballot sheet with 31 votes....which means there could have easily been people voting double the amount of times they were suppose to vote. Several Ron Paul voters went to the front of the stage and began asking az GOP officials how they could decipher whether someone marked the 2 ballot sheets only 31 marks or whether it was marked over 31 in attempts of cheating. The man who was in charge of the ballot process didn't know how to answer us so he said "Well I don't design the ballots". We had not received results for "delegates at large" at the very end of the night...and the GOP chairman attempted to adjourn the meeting at least 3 to 4 times without reading the results of our vote for Karen Johnson as committeeman for the RNC. The GOP Chairman Morrissy was claiming that we had no quorum when we clearly had at least 300 delegates on the floor. Everytime the Chairman tried to call an adjournment and a "mail in ballot" run off vote for commiteeman the floor yelled NO and called for continuing the meeting. It was around 8pm and the Chairman disappeared for a while .Rumor was that the Chairman Morrissy left the building and that the vice chairman was no where to be found either.
At around 9pm the Chairman came out again to announce the result of Karen Johnson receiving the most votes for committeeman for the RNC but then he said she didn't win and that it would be a run off. He got booed then former az GOP chairman Randy Pullman stood up and quickly said " Mr.Chairman I motion for this meeting to be adjourned", another man next to him said "I 2nd" and before the floor voted on it Chairman Morrissy slammed his gavel down and said "This meeting is adjourned" as he darted off along with the former az gop chairman. This really ticked off the delegates and this is where it got wild. A man rushed up on stage to make a point of order and ask if the floor had any calls for a motion,and as he began speaking into the microphone a security guard rushed him and slammed the mic down into the podium bending it over while grabbing him around his chest and pulling him backwards. The man on stage continued to try speaking loud until finally the security guard didn't know what to do but to let him speak. The floor called for a motion to elect Karen Johnson as committee woman of the RNC. We elected her with 2/3rds majority of delegates saying "I" , We then made motion to elect a new chairman of the az gop , with a 2 /3rds of delegates saying "I" we opened up an election of az gop chairman. The vote was not between Matthew Papke and David Fitzgerald who are both very strong supporters of Ron Paul. The floor voted in 2/3rds for David Fitzgerald as new az gop chairman .As Fitzgerald was speaking on stage to the floor delegates a few cops had arrived and the lights began shutting off in the arena. The cops were walking on stage to surround our newly elected az gop chairman. We then all moved outside immediately and went to a nearby church parking lot to continue the meeting. The votes were still being monitored by a Ron Paul campaign worker in the back of the arena and we had no results by the end of the night. Our new az gop chairman David Fitzgerald gave us a speech about becoming precinct committeeman to take over the local gop and he said that he doesn't think the GOP will recognize our motions and votes that night. All I can say is...the establishment is in shock right now that we were watching them at every corner.
After everyone was seated in their LD rows we listened to people speak about each candidate,both Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. Our Ron Paul voters really tore up the floor with great speeches about Ron Paul and the u.s. Constitution. John Lorie gave the best speech about standing by the u.s. constitution and rule of law.Shortly after the speeches were given our Legislative Districts then combined into Congressional Districts 1-8. In my CD my chairman Lyle Tuttle was coordinating a very confusing hard count of how many delegates there were present to vote. After about a half hour or 40 minutes of failed attempts to count people present the Legislative District 4 chairman managed to count us all. We were then asked if we had any questions. Many questions were asked, and the CD chairman Lyle Tuttle answered them thoroughly .I realized that the chairmen planned on taking the ballots in a box and carrying them to a backroom of the arena to be counted in a machine out of sight. I asked the CD chairman who was going to observe the vote if the ballots were not going in by our own hands, and at that point Chairman Tuttle didn't know what to say and I asked if I could observe the vote counting and he said "Uh I don't know I guess I can check"...he kept resorting to "Why would you want to observe the vote? they are safe ..we have good people working on it" and I replied "Well I think its only fair if we can see our own ballots going in"...Something along those lines.I don't think the chairman wanted to make 141 people angry by saying no so he allowed 4 of us who volunteered(all ron paul voters) to go with the ballot box and watch it being counted.
Here is where it gets better. In the back room behind a curtain there were people with romney stickers counting the ballots that had already arrived from other Congressional Districts . My CD chairman Lyle Tuttle was up in my face trying to intimidate me by telling me "You're gonna screw things up" and " Don't ask these guys any questions " and he was trying to intimidate me and he kept standing in my face when I was trying to watch the votes going into the machine...I told him "Excuse me im trying to watch the vote count,move."He got out of my face and began to walk about the area as if he was angry. He was staring at all 4 of us ron paul voters and coming up to us questioning" why do you want to see the vote count?".10 minutes after being back there the Sergeant of Arms came in the room with 2 deputies and he was storming in with this bad attitude trying to make a stand off with another Ron Paul voter ..they exchanged words and the Sergeant of Arms kept saying in a harsh tone "You aren't suppose to be here" .."You can't be back here, you need to leave now. " He was trying to instigate something and it appeared as though he wanted to have the deputies arrest the man who had been standing there peacefully watching the votes. There were Ron Paul voters from other CD's watching it all and some of them even helped with the hand count since there were Romney voters doing the counting. The Sergeant of Arms was walking around the back room all pissed off and trying to cause trouble with us...he had a control issue going on. I didn't bother looking at him or talking,just watched the votes and acted like he wasn't there. I noticed if anyone was to talk to them they would raise an argument to make it sound like we were starting a fight. Its ironic that the 2 deputies that came into the room were in their early 20s and had never seen an event like this before. One deputy began talking to me saying that he didn't know how this process works and I explained to him that without an observation on the vote that ballots could be replaced or go missing and that its just more open and honest when you have people from each camp and CD observing it. My CD8 chairman tuttle came back to argue with me about ron paul..he didn't know who I was since I didnt wear a badge or sticker but he guessed that I was a Ron Paul voter and we exchanged a few words about why mccain lost the general election in 2008, he seemed to be angry that we were still back there watching the votes. I was told that the vote count for the next vote(alternate CD delegate vote) that we could only have 2 people from each CD come back to observe. For some reason the az GOP establishment was freaking out that we had people going back there to observe.
Later in the day I spoke to Romney voters who actually felt alienated that the az GOP was acting shady and they considered becoming Ron Paul voters after witnessing some serious corruption. Later in the day we assembled back into our Legislative District chairs on the main floor and began to vote for "delegates at large". There was a problem with the ballots...we were handed 2 ballot sheets per 1 vote(same process for alternates). We were instructed to "only mark 31 people out of the 2 ballot sheets for this vote". The problem with the 2 ballot sheets is that there was no way to identify whether or not someone would mark 1 ballot sheet with 31 and the 2nd ballot sheet with 31 votes....which means there could have easily been people voting double the amount of times they were suppose to vote. Several Ron Paul voters went to the front of the stage and began asking az GOP officials how they could decipher whether someone marked the 2 ballot sheets only 31 marks or whether it was marked over 31 in attempts of cheating. The man who was in charge of the ballot process didn't know how to answer us so he said "Well I don't design the ballots". We had not received results for "delegates at large" at the very end of the night...and the GOP chairman attempted to adjourn the meeting at least 3 to 4 times without reading the results of our vote for Karen Johnson as committeeman for the RNC. The GOP Chairman Morrissy was claiming that we had no quorum when we clearly had at least 300 delegates on the floor. Everytime the Chairman tried to call an adjournment and a "mail in ballot" run off vote for commiteeman the floor yelled NO and called for continuing the meeting. It was around 8pm and the Chairman disappeared for a while .Rumor was that the Chairman Morrissy left the building and that the vice chairman was no where to be found either.
At around 9pm the Chairman came out again to announce the result of Karen Johnson receiving the most votes for committeeman for the RNC but then he said she didn't win and that it would be a run off. He got booed then former az GOP chairman Randy Pullman stood up and quickly said " Mr.Chairman I motion for this meeting to be adjourned", another man next to him said "I 2nd" and before the floor voted on it Chairman Morrissy slammed his gavel down and said "This meeting is adjourned" as he darted off along with the former az gop chairman. This really ticked off the delegates and this is where it got wild. A man rushed up on stage to make a point of order and ask if the floor had any calls for a motion,and as he began speaking into the microphone a security guard rushed him and slammed the mic down into the podium bending it over while grabbing him around his chest and pulling him backwards. The man on stage continued to try speaking loud until finally the security guard didn't know what to do but to let him speak. The floor called for a motion to elect Karen Johnson as committee woman of the RNC. We elected her with 2/3rds majority of delegates saying "I" , We then made motion to elect a new chairman of the az gop , with a 2 /3rds of delegates saying "I" we opened up an election of az gop chairman. The vote was not between Matthew Papke and David Fitzgerald who are both very strong supporters of Ron Paul. The floor voted in 2/3rds for David Fitzgerald as new az gop chairman .As Fitzgerald was speaking on stage to the floor delegates a few cops had arrived and the lights began shutting off in the arena. The cops were walking on stage to surround our newly elected az gop chairman. We then all moved outside immediately and went to a nearby church parking lot to continue the meeting. The votes were still being monitored by a Ron Paul campaign worker in the back of the arena and we had no results by the end of the night. Our new az gop chairman David Fitzgerald gave us a speech about becoming precinct committeeman to take over the local gop and he said that he doesn't think the GOP will recognize our motions and votes that night. All I can say is...the establishment is in shock right now that we were watching them at every corner.
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