The turnout was a historic low, if we believe the vote count. About 14,300 votes were counted — about 9,400 fewer than were cast in the 1999 poll won by George W. Bush. Supposedly 26,000 people purchased $5 tickets for the 2007 straw poll, but only 14,302 votes were tabulated. Why did 11,698 people buy tickets and not vote? It is possible that Romney and others bought up all the tickets and then couldn't find that many bodies to go vote. I have heard that "Iowans don't like to buy their own tickets".
And then there is the estimated 40,000 were in attendance at the straw poll. Why would 40,000 people go to an election and only 30% of them vote?
Plus the reports that either 1,500 or 4,500 votes had to be recounted. Supposedly the Diebold voting machines malfunctioned and caused delays in the count. It is well known that Diebold computers are easily hacked and completely unreliable. Computer nerds from MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton University played with these machines and demonstrated that just about anybody can sway an election by changing the programming of the machines.
The delay was one hour, and GOP officials were forced to count more than 1,500 (4,500?) ballots by hand. How many Republicans does it take to count 1,500+ punch cards in one hour? Or is the "malfunction" is an opportunity to reallocate the unwanted vote results to a trash can---behind closed doors? Where DID the other 11,698 paid for voting tickets go?
Another reason to mistrust the election result is that a Mitt Romney team member was placed in charge of overseeing the voting procedure. Mitt Romney was joking around prior to the count that they were going to stuff the ballot boxes. It isn't funny. I saw one remark that "Romney has pulled this crap before." Do you know the history on him?
From the Vote Fraud Archives: (http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/archives/cat_vote_fraud.html)
"Mary Tiffany, an Iowa Republican Party official, confirms that at least one voting machine malfunctioned and that tabulators recounted at least 1500 ballots.
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Yep, it's broken, all right! - M. R."
Granted, a straw poll is an informal gage of opinion, and serves mainly to direct media attention. So stealing the results of the poll is not illegal, because it is not a real election. Still, if Romney is ever pinned to any of these allegations, he will go down in history as the Mormon who tried to buy or steal a straw poll and couldn't.
With all that said about how the results could have been bogus, let's look at the results.
Some say Mitt Romney won (with 31-32% of the votes depending on source) because Giuliani, Thompson and McCain weren't officially participating (perhaps because they're broke). Those four are the "top tier" of GOP White House hopefuls according to the mainstream media. Romney apparently spent a LOT of money in the state prior to the poll, and also bussed in as many voters as he could. Regardless of whether he actually cheated, he has a pathetically weak lead. George W Bush won with 31% in 1999, though.
Mike Huckabee came in second (18% of the votes), Sam Brownback third (15%), and Tom Tancredo fourth (14%). Who's Tom Tancredo? I don't know. Somebody who got the locals riled up about the immigration issue.
Ron Paul was fifth with 9% of the votes. NPR kept saying that fifth was a "disappointing result" for Ron Paul. They said "Paul's fifth-place finish suggests that his ability to draw crowds and Internet support may not translate into votes." Frankly I think even 9% pretty damn good for a person who is operating with ZERO mainstream media coverage and the entire Establishment dead set against him. One interviewee on the radio said that the poll was a good way of evaluating the "organizational strength" of candidates who are not from Iowa. Why didn't NPR mention all the oddities of this election? Whose radio station is this anyway?
Tommy Thompson was sixth and dropped out of the race. Fred Thompson was seventh and not even running yet, Rudy Giuliani eighth. John McCain was way down the list somewhere.