Is "Ron Paul" a religion?
The Los Angeles Times reported late Saturday that a large contingent of Ron Paul supporters "bent" party rules when they crashed and took over a special caucus set up specifically for religious voters who could not participate in the voting process during the day due to their religious beliefs.
According to the Times:
When Rabbi Shea Harlig took in the packed room at a special evening caucus for Republicans who observe a Saturday sabbath, he couldn't believe his eyes.
While it was standing room only, few donned religious garb.
"I didn't realize there were so many orthodox Jews and Seventh Day Adventists living in Las Vegas," he said wryly.
There aren't. Unless "Ron Paul" is a religion.
The Times added that Paul's revolution "stormed a special caucus at a private school in a tony suburb on the edge of Las Vegas, set up by Clark County GOP officials for those who couldn't caucus with the rest of the state Saturday morning for religious reasons."
Caucus-goers were directed to the campus by late calls made by the campaign. The Times reported that "dozens" signed affadavits claiming they missed the earlier caucuses due to "religious beliefs," but some, like Pedro Hedeiros, had simply missed the earlier caucuses.
Others, like record company executive Sam McCaslin, decided to crash the caucus "no matter what."
"We decided we were going to come in here and do it anyway, no matter what," he said. "There is no law that says your vote is based on your religion."
The New York Times noted that many Paul supporters were angry over the special caucus, and claimed it violated the law, as caucus-goers were asked to sign a declaration "under penalty of perjury that they could not attend their daytime caucus" because of their religious beliefs. Some officials with the Paul campaign said the declaration could lead to lawsuits, and some became quite agitated:
The most heated argument of the night came when Evan Donoghue, who said he was a volunteer for Mr. Paul, shouted loudly at officials at the polling place who wouldn’t let him in after he declined to sign the declaration, which he said was unconstitutional.
“You are guilty of a felony, sir!” he shouted at one official. He then walked inside to the auditorium where the caucus was to be held. Officials at the polling place called the police, but Mr. Donoghue was allowed to sit through the caucus, and wound up a few seats away from Mr. Adelson. No arrests were made, according to police officers who stayed in the school foyer during the caucus meeting.
A number of caucusgoers also suggested that they signed the declaration even though they did not have a religious reason for not voting during the regularly-scheduled daytime caucuses.
As a result of the takeover, Paul received 183 votes, more than twice the total received by Mitt Romney, who came in second.
The Times noted:
Paul's dominance was clear, with at least 17 voters speaking on his behalf. After one shouted "End the Fed," the crowd applauded -- and then screamed "Move on!"
Romney garnered four surrogates. Santorum, three.
One person who said he was at the caucus wrote at the Daily Paul:
This was a special late-night caucus for people who could not attend at 9 a.m. due to "religious purposes" (or the fact hundreds, if not, thousands were turned away this morning at 9:30 a.m. or their ballots were screwed up). There were a lot of Jewish people, added to the fact this was held in a school built by a Jewish man, Sheldon Adelson, billionaire.
Sheldon -- who owns Venetian and gave $5 million to Gingrich -- was sitting a few rows down. Presumably, all these Jews would be in the tank for Gingrich, right?
He adds:
Not only that, they screwed up the ballots for hundreds of people, this is all over the news, so a lot of people were wondering if their vote would even count.
Doesn't it send chills down your spine to know your country is a facist, Orwellian fraud? Or are your viens coursing with so much fluroide you just don't care?
While Paul's campaign claimed it was an unlawful injection of religion in politics, the Clark County GOP said it did not single out any one religion, and anyone who had a religious objection to voting during the day could participate.
The New York Times added that "no more than three people were turned away after they refused to sign" the declaration, according to county GOP officials.
More on Ron Paul at Examiner.com can be found here.
-----------------------------------------------------------
If you like this article, you can follow Joe on Twitter @jnewby1956, visit his Facebook page, or click the Subscribe button to receive email updates when a new article is published.
Be sure to check out Joe's other columns:
Comments